laundry discs--second verse

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We are in the beginnings of a serious drought in central MO and I'm looking at ways to reduce water use and maximize the utility such as putting laundry water on young fruit trees. I went back to read the post on laundry discs, found no answer to my question, and wondered if it was necessary to rinse the load after using the disc or if you just took the items from the washer and dried them. I have both a modern automatic and a terrific old Maytag wringer that I use when I have enough jobs in the basement to justify staying down there to monitor the washing periods. The owner's manual recommends amazingly short wash cycles and they clean effectively. To do a whole week's wash, including bath and bed linens, for just my husband and me in the wringer washer takes about 40 gallons of water, half to wash, half to rinse. If I could eliminate the rinse and still be able to use the water on the trees, it would help a bunch.

Thanks for your input. Marilyn

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), April 12, 2000

Answers

I have a very old Maytag washing machine that the time has gone out on. I just manually switch the cycles using my kitchen timer as a guide so that it doesn't wash for two hours! Anyone's advice on washing times would be welcome to me too. I always dry on the line when I can. I'd like to find out for energy savings. Discs sound great but I'm with Marilyn and would like to know about the rinse. Jennifer

-- Jennifer (jkmills@freewwweb.com), April 12, 2000.

The question of laundry discs came up on a science website and they say that the way these discs clean is by rubbing on your clothing, causing the dirt to flake off. This causes more wear on the clothing! They say that there is simply no scientific evidence that the discs can do what they claim. I am disappointed myself, I was looking forward to not using detergent any more. I found the answer on www.highschoolscience.com under questions, but it will only be there temporarily, if you are interested.

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), April 13, 2000.

I purchased one of these disks because I have very soft water, and use very little soap (2Tbsp per load). I thought I could just cut out the soap. The disk seemed to work for a few loads, but because we have boys and men here (smelly, you know) I needed to add the soap anyway. So I ended up throwing the thing out. It is my opinion that they don't perform up to expectation. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), April 13, 2000.

I read up on these things a while back. The feeling was that they were not worth the money. Someone also made the point that even your rinsed laundry has a certain amount of soap left in it, so that soap (or detergent) was what was really washing your clothes. Someone else pointed out that you generally do not wash the EXACT load each time, might be 5 pairs of jeans, but only 4 of them were in last week's load. Still another person chimed in that she occasionally washed a load without adding soap/detergent. The leftovers in the fabrics provided enough washing ability to clean the load, plus she saved a little bit of money every few loads. I know there have been times where I've stood peering into the washer trying to decide if I'd added the soap or not. There can be quite a few suds even without.

Jennifer, I'll try to remember to time my washer next time if you still need it-I washed that way for years and never knew how long to let each cycle run for. Now that I finally have a new washer, I'm amazed at how fast it goes, guess I was over-estimating before. But roughly, 6-10 mins wash, few minutes spin, 5ish mins to rinse, longer spin. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 15, 2000.


Marilyn, I think you need to rinse to get all the loosened dirt out, even if you weren't using any soap.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 15, 2000.


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