Keep The Virus At Bay With Washing Machine Temperature

YOU may be wondering the necessity of using washing machine when you can simply use your hands to scrub your textiles and still get absolute stain- free result. Well, you are about to get a shocker on the realisation that your worn clothes gather infectious diseases that mere soap and hand scrubbing means of laundry will not totally disinfect, without the use of the temperature level that only washing machine provides, especially in these dire times of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Studies have shown that the cleaning performance of a washing process is determined by four variables: temperature, mechanical action, chemistry and time duration.

The truth is, it is quite cheaper and energy conserving to do your laundry with your hands, but you should know that the process would not only severely impair the hygiene of the laundry but would put your family and home on a vulnerable health spot during this ravaging COVID- 19 pandemic.

The removal of microbial contaminations like bacteria, virus, parasite, fungi etc. through the temperature from washing machine on used and worn textiles ultimately controls the spread of epidemics and pandemics both in the home, industrial, and clinical environment.

Doing your laundry with an average washing machine will give you a temperature of 60degrees Celsius (° C) higher, while the use of detergents will ensure microbial decontamination hereby eliminating microorganisms on textiles.

Why washing machine is your best safe hygiene during this pandemic

• The temperature of a washing machine process alongside the detergent eliminates the microbial on laundry items by completely inactivating any virus.

• It accelerates the activation of chemical additives such as detergents and facilitates the mechanical removal of soil.

• Washing machine temperatures of 60° C or above are known to inactivate microorganisms while ensuring a high level of hygiene in laundry.

Importance of eliminating microbial contaminations in textiles during laundry

• The combination of detergent or bleach and temperature of 60° C or more ensures an efficient antimicrobial action of the laundering process.

• Aside the removal of stains, soils, and dirt from textiles, the washing machine laundry procedure basically leads to a hygienically clean textile surface as well as rids microorganisms on the fabric.

• It also treats adverse microbial effects such as malodor formation through the combination of time, temperature, mechanics and chemistry in order to kill microbial cells.

How to do your laundry

• The effective way to do your laundry is to sort your dirty clothes according to fabrics and colour before washing – it’s best to sort them in different laundry baskets or hampers, and do your laundry in colour section respectively.

Do not wash your fabrics together to avoid messy colour mix, and ensure to be careful with delicate fabrics. Also, there is absolute need to refer to care label when washing clothes made from delicate fabrics, such as silk or wool, or functional clothing.

• Ensure to put minimal clothes in the machine - do not stuff too much clothes in the machine or else your laundry won’t be properly clean.

• Have the right detergent.

• Choose the correct temperature setting and washing machine programme.

• Do not keep wet washed laundry in the machine for too long to avoid unpleasant odour.

• Try to straighten each wet washed laundry before dry hanging if you’re not using machine dryer in order to make ironing easy.

Washing machine fabric care label rules

• Bed linen, underwear and towels should be washed at 60° C to kill all relevant germs.

• Everyday wears like shirt, trousers, tops and skirts should be done with 40° C setting.

• Silk materials should be washed at 30° C, with mild detergent to avoid ruining the fabric.

• Wool content fabrics should only be washed in the washing machine if the machine has a special wool wash cycle with a low temperature setting of 10° C or less and at a very low spin speed.