Machine washing at 40° is a terrible idea: here’s why you should stop this habit

Is it different to wash clothes at 40°C rather than 30°C?

For your wallet, yes! Keep in mind that most of the energy expended during a machine wash is used to heat the water. Consequently, reducing the temperature from 40 to 30°C means reducing energy consumption. But the most surprising thing is that the result for your clothes, especially everyday ones, remains the same. In fact, apart from some types of laundry, the 30°C program will be suitable for almost everything and will give you satisfaction. To better perceive the difference in terms of energy consumption depending on the program you choose, you should know that washing laundry at 60°C consumes approximately 1.3 kWh. If, however, a washing temperature of 40°C is used, energy consumption is reduced to approximately 0.7 kWh. And if you wash your laundry at 30°C, your energy consumption is even lower, down to just 0.4 kWh. enough to reduce your electricity bill. And this is not the only advantage. Lowering the temperature is also an ecological gesture.

Why is washing clothes at 30° green?

According to an awareness campaign carried out in March 2021 by the detergent brand Ariel, entitled “every degree counts”, and whose objective was to promote the effectiveness of cold washing, if every French family systematically opts for the 30° programme, this save as much energy as the consumption of the city of Nantes, or even the equivalent of the carbon footprint of two million cars, if the operation were carried out on a European scale. It means that making a low-temperature machine is beneficial for the environment, because it allows you to reduce CO2 emissions, which contributes to the protection of our planet by reducing the negative impacts of global warming on our ecosystem.

Sheets, colors, detergent… 3 answers to 3 frequently asked questions about the optimal washing temperature for laundry

Creating a washing machine may seem like a banal activity that could be summed up in a few quick gestures such as opening the washing machine door, stacking everything you want to wash in the drum, adding the detergent, closing and launching the programme. But as we all know, it’s not that simple. This task raises many questions for many people. Let’s look at the most common ones.

Can colors be mixed at 30 degrees Celsius?

Yes, you can, but under certain conditions. By choosing the 30°C programme, you can do without the work of sorting the laundry. Of course, taking care to separate your clothes from tea towels, towels and other linen made of robust fabrics, which are generally dirtier and more stained, and which therefore need to be washed at high temperatures, in particular to eliminate bacteria. Furthermore, with low temperature washing, the fibers of the garments are less likely to be damaged, the colors do not fade and do not become dull. They are therefore better preserved. However, you can never be careful enough. For example, washing a white item between colored items, especially if they are new and you are washing them for the first time, is clearly not a good idea.

Which clothes should be washed at 40 degrees Celsius?

As mentioned above, you can wash your everyday clothes made of cotton, wool, linen, etc. at 30°C instead of 40, obtaining the same result in terms of cleaning. However, the 40°C program is sometimes recommended for fabrics in direct contact with the body such as underwear and bath towels.

Continued on next page