Today, with the choice of detergents, fabric conditioners, machine programmes and types of clothes and materials, the weekly wash is a minefield of potential disasters.

Is laundry a science?

Contrary to popular belief (dearest wife, are you reading this?) you cannot just throw everything into the washing machine and hope for the best. Laundry IS a science and we at Appliance Planet have put together this guide to help you avoid problems.

Every article made of fabric that you have - be it cushion cover, cuddly toy, bed linen, fashion top or corduroy trousers - will have a garment care label sewn inside that details the ideal washing environment for it. Temperature, wash programme and drying instructions will be found along with warnings on whether the article can be washed with other, similar, items or alone. If you were to follow all these labels without question, then you would probably end up with only one item for each type of wash!
 
Ideally, based on the labels, you should sort your laundry into piles of items with similar washing instructions and similar colours. Each pile can then be washed using the most appropriate programme. If a designer has combined dark and light materials on a garment, they will be confident that the dark colour is colour-fast and will not affect the light one.

Wash separately?

You should then end up with whites, pastels and patterned colour-fast prints as one load, colour-fast deep colours another and woollens for hand washing. A separate pile will be items labelled 'Wash separately'. This means just that: mix at your peril.

If there are not enough clothes in one pile for a full load, then you can mix but choose the programme to suit the most delicate item in the basket. Do not risk mixing deep and light colours as no matter how colour-fast they are, the light colours will dull, especially synthetic materials. Also heavy materials, such as denim or towelling, are best washed separate to lightweights as there is considerable wear and tear on the delicate items from the heavyweights.

Mixing large and small items in a wash enhances the machine's cleaning action, but overloading  will affect the finished results. Clothes will crease more and not wash efficiently, making ironing a more intensive chore. Load items singly, unfolding them before putting into the machine and before washing knitted or textured fabrics, sweatshirts, jeans (and corduroy), turn them inside out. This helps prevent bobbling and keeps the pile of other fabrics in better condition. Articles need to have room to tumble inside the drum to wash properly, so don't stuff them in tight.

As always, check pockets are empty and remove any accessories - such as belts or ornaments - that can tangle or tear other items in the wash or even get caught in your machine's workings.

Choosing a washing machine is just as complicated. The leading brands in independent tests are regularly Miele, AEG and Bosch. Browse our website or contact us with regard to your requirements and we will happily offer you the best models to suit your specifications and budget.

Powder or liquid?

Choice of wash chemicals (for that's what they are) is as important as separating the washing and choosing the right wash programme. Detergent or Biological, powder or liquid. Each has its own use, advantages and disadvantages.

Your basic washing powder will give you those "brighter than bright whites" - as the ad men have been telling us all these years - but at what cost to your coloureds? The majority of standard washing powders and liquids contain bleach and/or other optical whiteners to improve the look of whites. Hence the dictum to wash whites separately. Yet many 'white' clothes will also have coloured or darker areas and these detergents will fade them.

Thankfully, the soap powder manufacturers have introduced 'colour' versions of their top detergents to avoid the bleaching effect of the standard cleaners... and this then allows us to mix whites and colour-fast fabrics in the same wash albeit at the temperature recommended for the coloured articles. Do, however, remember to launder white and fast colour fabrics at the recommended higher temperature separately every third wash to restore their brightness. This also removes any unwanted contaminants that a 30 or 40 degree wash will not normally deal with.

And now powder or liquid? The jury is still out on this at the moment. All we can say is that there is a school of thought that say liquid cleaners dissolve quicker and are therefore better in short wash programmes than powders or tablets. It follows that liquids will also rinse more thoroughly from the clothes too and this may help allergy sufferers... and this brings us onto to the biological versus soap debate.

Recent tests by a leading consumer magazine (you know which one) have shown that many washing machines do not rinse as thoroughly as they would like. This can lead to people with sensitive skin suffering itchiness from a reaction with detergent residue in the clothes. Consequently, sufferers are often advised to put their clothes through an extra rinse or use a liquid soap or switch from a biological to a traditional soap powder. Or all three of these!

As a sensitive person I now use a soap powder - made by the little people who live at the bottom of the garden - as my previous biological brand (that I was happy with) changed formulation and started to cause irritation. Now a standard soap powder will happily deal with run of the mill dirt, but when it comes to those difficult stains - blood, grass and the, ahem, more personal ones - then an enzyme containing biological detergent can break those down to make it easier for the soap component to wash them away. Swings and roundabouts. What you gain with one you lose on the other and vice versa.

Biological detergents will always outperform the non-bios and the leading brands do show slight advantages over the supermarket's own. However, steer clear of 'value' or 'basic' ranges and environmentally friendly products if you want the cleanest wash.

Are you now wiser... or perhaps brighter?

Spring 2008 Update

Whirlpool are now applying steam in the laundry with the launch of the AWODAS range of washing machines. These incorporate a steam function to deep clean and sanitise laundry.