It turns out that the instructions on the powder say to dissolve it in water first, but the instructions on the laundry-room machines say to put it in the bottom, then add clothes, then start the machine, so that's what I do. (By the time the machine is full of water, I'm usually back in the apartment doing something else.) I do occasionally get traces of undissolved powder, particularly if I use the delicate cycle, so I don't use that one any more, but mostly it works fine. With the liquid, I'd be afraid of it running out of the little holes before it was needed.
I think my 1990-vintage front-loader used to take about 45 minutes for a cycle, and it was fairly easy to set it to do just a rinse or a rinse-and-spin or a spin -- I used that a lot for my handwash things. That was before the days of digital washing machines, though; it had a knob you turned to get the different programs. A lot of the energy cost in the UK would be heating the water (no cold-water wash there) so less water would tend to translate to less energy. I suspect the real reason for the front-loaders' popularity was space; they were designed to fit under a kitchen counter.
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Reading, writing, plant photography, and the small details of my life, with digressions into science and computing.
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Date: 2007-02-12 02:09 am (UTC)I think my 1990-vintage front-loader used to take about 45 minutes for a cycle, and it was fairly easy to set it to do just a rinse or a rinse-and-spin or a spin -- I used that a lot for my handwash things. That was before the days of digital washing machines, though; it had a knob you turned to get the different programs. A lot of the energy cost in the UK would be heating the water (no cold-water wash there) so less water would tend to translate to less energy. I suspect the real reason for the front-loaders' popularity was space; they were designed to fit under a kitchen counter.