Why does cold water rinse hand washed clothes better than hot water?

Question

I found an explanation regarding dishes, that hot water is better because cold water will solidify the soaps. But does that mean that solidified soaps just stay inside your fabric when you use cold water? Or am I getting it all wrong?

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Answer 1

Cold water won’t solidify the soaps on dishes, it will solidify the fats (specifically the saturated fats). When washing clothes we usually aren’t too worried about removing large deposits of saturated fats like we are when washing dishes, so general washing directions aren’t geared towards such precautions. This is part of why grease stains can be difficult to remove from clothing.