Water temperature in your washing machine

[Jamie (K)]

Do you know what one of the most common complaints is that I hear from Germans who have just moved to the United States? Our washing machines don't tell the exact water temperature! Our machines have just three settings: hot, warm and cold.

It really bothers them! They tell me they can't know whether their clothes are really clean or not if they don't know the precise numeric temperature of the water. We figure we know how hot the water is by feeling it. We think we know our clothes are clean by looking at them and smelling them. This is not enough for those Germans, and some of them even spend a lot of money on very expensive imported German washers, just so that they'll know the exact water temperature! At least that's what they tell me.

[Yankee]

Hi Jamie

Oh, yes! I've heard the same thing from Germans on job assignments in the US. On my own washing machine here in Germany, you have to select a water temperature. The maximum temperature is 90° C, the lowest 30°. "Cold" is also an option. I have never used a temperature above 40° C.

Another difference: Doing a load of wash requires at least twice as much time in Germany. On an American washing machine, you can choose the length of the wash cycle. I've never seen this option on a German washing machine. And I sometimes have the feeling that the standard (i.e. inflexible) length of a wash cycle on a German washing machine is actually longer than the maximum length of time on an American washing machine. Of course, I could be mistaken. Maybe the rinse cycle is just longer.

At any rate, I am still good friends with the German woman who first mentioned her dissatifaction with American washing machines to me. At the time, she complained that "hot" wasn't hot enough. That was the main complaint. Similar to what you mentioned in your post.

In the meantime she and her family are back in Germany and I now live here, too. And what do you suppose I've found out? You got it! When my German friend does the wash in her German washing machine, she never selects selects a water temperature higher than 40° C.

Go figure.

Amy
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Amy
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[Alan]

Hi,

I don't know about the rest of you but I seem to be learning a lot about the American way of life. On the matter of washing machines I have to come clean! and confess that we are a Bosch household. Now I always thought that articles of clothing have a recommended maximum temperature on the label. In that case how can you tell which level to wash your clothes at/in?

These are the sorts of question that make the world spin round!

Alan
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[Yankee]

[Torsten]

Well, the temperature panel of my washing machine has five levels: 95°, 60°, 40°, 30° and funnily enough: cold. I don't know the German obsession with exact water temperature stems from but maybe it's because we are from the Land of Ideas? I mean, looking at all the different programs my washing machine can perform, makes me feel part of a great nation of inventors .

I mean, if use all the possible combinations, there must be more than 50 programs my machine can do and I'm quite sure that 3 would be absolutely sufficient!.

It's also of way of creating new jobs because you need lots of engineers to test all these programs and add new ones on a constant basis...
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