My PNW Washing Guide#
Let me start with my standard answers:
- Use a good detergent plus an enzyme booster — no single US detergent covers everything yet.
- Always use the maximum soil level setting on your machine to buy more wash time.
- Do most of your washing at around 40C/104F.
- Always use extra rinses. In the Pacific Northwest these are not “extra”.
- Pre-treat visible stains with an enzyme spray.
- Get the load size right - overloading destroys cleaning performance, and so does underloading.
The rest of this doc explains the why behind each of these, plus how to fine-tune.
Professional laundry science describes washing with four variables you can trade off against each other: chemistry, temperature, time, and mechanical action. This four-factor model has been the foundation of laundry engineering since the 1950s. Ideally you want to make chemistry and time do as much work as possible, and then get temperature up just enough to get the job across the finish line.
Wash Chemistry#
Wash chemistry has two main components: enzymes and surfactants. Enzymes chop the soils and oils into tiny pieces. Surfactants lift those pieces from the textiles and keep them suspended in the wash water so they can be rinsed out.
There are seven primary enzymes and each one attacks a different type of soil. Protease breaks down protein stains (blood, sweat, food), lipase goes after oils and grease, amylase handles starches, mannanase tackles stubborn food thickeners, pectate lyase tackles fruit and wine pigments, cellulase removes pilling and keeps cotton looking bright, and dnase attacks biofilm scaffolding which helps everything work better. There are two primary classes of surfactants - anionic and nonionic. Very broadly speaking the anionic ones help with particle soils and the nonionic ones help with oils. (This is an over-simplification but it’s close enough for this discussion.)
To maximize your result you want wash chemistry with a full complement of enzymes and a solid amount of both anionic and nonionic surfactants. Sadly, as of this writing there are no US detergents with a full suite of enzymes, so you really have to use a detergent plus a booster in the US to get the best result.
A reasonable place to start for availability and price/performance is Tide Free and Gentle liquid combined with FEBU enzyme booster. Both are fragrance free. If you have objections to the Tide there are many other reasonable detergent choices. Here are my personal sensory-focused detergent notes.
How Much Detergent?#
This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. The right amount depends on how much water your machine dispenses and how dirty the load is. Too little detergent and your clothes just can’t get clean. Too much and it probably won’t get rinsed out properly. Both outcomes are problematic over time.
Dosing suggestions from the detergents themselves are all over the map. They’re often a little high for Seattle because they’re set for average US water hardness and we have very soft water. But some detergents — especially modern eco-friendly or boutique brands — recommend doses that are too low, probably so the price per load looks more appealing. And there’s no “standard concentration” for liquid detergents: a medium load HE dose of the Puracy liquid is around 2 teaspoons while a medium load HE dose of the Whole Foods 365 liquid is about 5 tablespoons. There’s no rhyme or reason to any of it.
So: start with what the product suggests for a medium load, then calibrate by inspection. You should see low to medium suds at the midpoint of the wash stage. On a front loader, just glance through the door glass mid-cycle. On a top loader, it’s fine to pop the lid and look. If it looks like a bubble bath, cut your dose by about a quarter next load. If you see no suds at all, bump it up a bit. It may seem annoying to check, but do it a few times and you’ll quickly zero in on the right dose for your usual loads — then you’re done.
Stain Pre-Treating#
Enzyme-based stain pre-treating sprays are a very powerful tool. If you’re open to using one, this is the one to get: Puracy Baby Stain Remover. Spray anything visible as it goes into the hamper, ideally. If you’re pre-treating while sorting laundry instead, run the loads with treated items last so the spray gets some dwell time before hitting the machine.
Rinsing#
We don’t talk enough about rinsing and water softness here in the Pacific Northwest. We have very soft water, and counterintuitively, that makes rinsing harder, not easier. In hard water, dissolved minerals partially neutralize surfactants; in our soft water the surfactants stay fully active, foam more, and cling to fabric longer — so the same dose of detergent takes noticeably more rinsing to clear. The dirty little secret is that most Seattle musty laundry problems are caused by under-rinsed detergent.
Rinsing is CRITICAL to clean laundry. Your machine probably has some form of extra rinse or deep rinse feature. In the Pacific Northwest you need to consider extra rinsing a requirement. It’s the price we pay for that sweet, sweet mountain runoff water.
Also, if your washing machine has a dispenser for rinse additives and you don’t mind adding another bit of chemistry, a little citric acid in your rinse is a HUGE WIN. Roughly one to two teaspoons of citric acid dissolved in water, added to the fabric softener dispenser, is the typical starting point. There’s a great reddit post about this with many more details. You will absolutely see softer clothes and fluffier towels over time.
Temperature#
Ideally you want to wash your clothes around 40C (104F). Delicates and wool can drop down to 30C.
Why 40C? It’s just slightly above body temperature. One of the main things we’re trying to remove from laundry is body oil (sebum), and sebum is much easier to remove when it’s softened/melted — which happens just above body temperature. That’s the sweet spot: gentle on fabrics and the environment, but effective.
You’ve probably heard that cold washing is the responsible default, and it’s true that cold saves energy per load. But the hidden costs add up: poorly cleaned laundry gets rewashed, over-dosed with detergent, or replaced sooner. Washing below 30C is really living life in “hard mode” for no good reason.
If you have a recent US washing machine, it’s very likely that the “hot” setting is around 40C and “warm” is around 30C — but the only way to know is to pause the cycle after the wash water is dispensed and check with a thermometer. You only have to do this once.
Bright whites and needy cotton benefit greatly from 60C washing. 60C is the laundry industry’s standard for a “hot” water wash. Most currently available US machines can’t even reach 60C anymore. If your US machine does have an “extra hot” or sanitary setting it’s worth considering for towels, sheets, and whites. If you’re lucky enough to have a European machine, check your machine manual before choosing extra hot or sanitary - some of those machines can get surprisingly hot!
Time#
Most US washing machines are stingy with time, because most US consumers see short cycle times as proof the machine is good (when it’s actually the opposite). These quick cycles spend only 10 to 20 minutes actually washing the clothes — the rest is rinsing and spinning. An identical machine sold in Europe will almost always have cycle times in the 2 to 3 HOUR range.
Time is the most eco-friendly tool you have to improve your cleaning. At 40C you ideally want a solid 45 minutes of wash contact time where the clothes are exposed to the wash chemistry. In the US, what this means in practice: always use the maximum soil level setting available on your machine, and if your machine has any integrated soak features they may be worth using too — especially if you’re washing warm rather than hot.
Mechanical Action / Load Size#
The fourth variable is the one your machine mostly handles for you — the tumbling and flexing that works chemistry through the fabric. To let the machine do it’s job you have to load the correct amount. The correct amount is different for different machine types. For a front loader, two little and too much are both a problem. Shoot for about 1/2 to 2/3 full. For a top loader with an agitator make sure the clothes are submerged below the water fill level and have enough room to move inwards towards the agitator and down during agitation. I haven’t ever used an impeller based top loader so I don’t know what guidance to give for those machines.