Visiting my parents, my mom seems disappointed to find me washing my clothes in cold water, she says it’s just not right but couldn’t quite explain why.
I’ve washed all of my laundry using the “cold” setting on washing machines for as long as I can remember. I’ve never had color bleeding or anything similar as seems to affect so many people.
EDIT: I love how this devolved into tutorials on opening Capri suns, tips for murders, and the truth about Australian peppers
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The temperature of water is a way of describing how much the tiny water molecules are “jiggling”. In cold water they are standing more still and in hot water they are shaking around.
Most chemical processes go faster with higher temperature because the random jiggling of the molecules can help them align themselves correctly and can propel the molecule past a molecular barrier. You might imagine sand poured into a sifter that is being held still or sand poured into a sifter that is being shaken.
With detergent, you are forming tiny bubbles that hold oils on the inside and water on the outside. The jiggling of the molecules can help the oils from the clothes find their way into the center of the detergent bubbles.
On the other hand, hot water may damage certain types of fabric and may remove the color molecules from the clothes. The water that is coming out of your plumbing is probably already warm enough to do a good job cleaning clothes with good detergent and agitation (stirring that the washing machine does) alone.
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