Why do laundry cycles take longer in Europe than North America?

1.70K views

A normal wash in Europe / UK seems to take > 2.5 hours whereas in North America its ~ 40 minutes. What factors are contributing to this difference?

In:

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

EU regulates how energy efficient different home appliances are allowed to be. So the appliances sold in Europe have to be optimized for low power consumption rather then speed. So they wash on lower temperatures, spends more time just soaking the clothes, reuse the same water for longer and so on. All of this does save power but also means it takes longer to wash your clothes. However some machines does have a quick mode intended for special cases where you are in a hurry. It may not be as fast as the US models due to design factors but it can take considerably shorter time. Similarly the models with an Eco mode may take a very long time to complete.

You are viewing 1 out of 3 answers, click here to view all answers.