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Why does lemmy not have a laundry dedicated forum? How have lemmy been a thing for this long with no laundry dedicated forum?
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I live in an apartment where there are public washing machines available but the filter for the washing machines are DEFINITRLY not regularly cleaned (most of my laundry smells like vomit right now T-T) so should I just clean it all on my own? in the wash bin? What tyoe of wash bin should ? What else should I consider?
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If I do get a washbin do you have any suggestions as to what washbin I should get or sny special considerations I should consider? I plan on getting a steel one. Also I live in canada
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I have a lot of merino wool stuff to clean so does anyone have any advice on suirfactants that shouldnt be used on merino wool stuff other than enzymes and bleaching agents?
Thanks to anyone that helps.
Edit THIS is a similar model of machine than what we have here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mWzJ1gw3-j8&pp=ygUobWF5dGFnIGNvbW1lcmNpYWwgd2FzaGVyIGZpbHRlciBsb2NhdGlvbg%3D%3D and I dont know how much trouble Ill get intk for takong off the back part and cleaning out the filter.
Why does lemmy not have a laundry dedicated forum?
Because you haven’t made one yet. ;)
Mind you, for a topic like that, I’d expect it to take a good amount of effort to make it “active”.
Yeah the Reddit one is still the best place for laundry info. Sucks that it’s on Reddit though.
It’s because people don’t do “whites” anymore.
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Run a load of white clothing and use bleach and hot water
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Put clothes in dryer
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Wipe the inside of the washer, takes 10 seconds
You have now cleaned a washing machine…
You can skip #3 and save 10 seconds, the hot bleach water will kill whatever is making that smell. But depending on how bad it is, you may want to do that a couple days in a row. Don’t do a normal load after, let it sit for a while.
The stuff that smells bad is stuff growing where water sits, so you want that bleach water to sit there and not be flushed out. One cycle will probably do it tho if it sits long enough.
Ah. Thanks for reminding me . Im not even joking I myself dont do whites anynore simply to save money on bleach. ALL my white everything has been donated.
Honestly you might want to run the hot bleach cycle with no laundry, or some cleaning rags, rather than anything you care about. Because you might find the hot water is rusty from disuse, so they come out beige despite the bleach.
As for your wool items, there’s several kinds of “wool wash” beyond Woolite you can use in your sink. Remember wool sweaters need to dry flat, so only do one or two at a time or you’ll have wet sweaters all over the apartment. Squeeze out excess rinse water but don’t wring. Roll in a clean dry towel and squash hard, (use a clean surface so the towel will be usable after it dries) then lay it on a mesh rack or another clean dry towel to dry.
Thanks for the tips.
Do you know the science as to why wool swesters need to dry flat? Have you ever tried drying them by hang , and if so what happened?
If you hang them they will stretch and not fit right. Nothing complicated, just gravity on stretchy knits heavy with water. To protect the wool when washing, don’t work too hard. Just swish it around a bit, and don’t soak more than about 5 minutes.
I didnt even register that water had its own weight and can therefdore stretch things. Thanks
How much is bleach in Canada?! A generic gallon is around $6 at Walmart, which, while stupid expensive for bleach, that gallon will last 16-32 loads (1/2 cup vs. 1 cup).
Even without bleach, try washing whites on hot. And wash them by themselves! I divide everything into black, white and whatever. No fuzzies on the black, white stays white, and whatever. :)
Ill only buy the bleach to do one hot cycle with no clothing to clean out the filter IF I have to clean the filter myself.
No joke I only have 2 colors of clothing . Depressingly Black and Depressingly Gray. Every other color of clothing does not exist to me anymore and has been cleaned and donated away cause I dont to want to spend anything to re-dye any of my blue,red,yellow, green, purple, whatever other color clothing.
It is what it is
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Go to a laundromat and use their machines or a wash/dry/fold service.
Alternative:
If you’re truly desperate to get away from public machines you can get standalone mini-washing machines that take up little room, and just hang-dry clothing on a collapsible clothes dryer. The washing machine can be sold to recoup some of the costs when you move. At $5-$8 wash load and 25¢/5 min dryer a load around me 20 loads would pay for a mini-machine. You can do laundry at your convenience, at home, and for cheaper as the machine sorta pays for itself in saved $.
I don’t know much about it, but if I was in your shoes I’d question what those compact electric ones are like. Apparently you can get them as cheap as $160 and they don’t all need water lines, like you can take a pitcher and fill some from the top, then empty the water in a toilet or such. Maybe they are junk, but maybe not 🤷. Things like this: portable mini washer
Damn I think the page glitched on me cause it simply says ‘Details not available for this product’
All the links were a mile long and a url cleaner did shit for me lol
Thanks!
If you don’t mind let me know what kind of research you find, I may be hunting for similar in my next place if it works well haha. I never like full washer/dryers and they are a pain to travel with
I have a foot powered washing machine that is good for small loads but now that I have a house and my own machines I only use it for camping.
i was wondering about buying those foot powered ones.
It doesn’t fit a huge amount so you would still need to go to a Laundromat for sheets but it was very nice when I was in an apartment with 2 machines per floor. My 3 loads would cost me about 15 dollars or more while the foot powered one, a Drumi would take more smaller loads but I could do 1 or 2 loads a day while I watched TV instead of paying my landlord.
The drained soapy water would have dirt in it while the rinse water was relatively clear of dirt so it could be reused as my next loads soapy water.
Heat + oxidizer will clean the washing mashine. Let it run on max heat and put some oxidizing powder in there. Empty, obviously.
Afterwards, your machine is basically sterile and the odors should be gone.
I do wonder about giant solid objects thst are stuck in the filter and cannot be easily removed even with oxy cleaner.
Like in this video :https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vljDVdRieio&pp=ygUcd2FzaGluZyBtYWNoaW5lIGZpbHRlciBjbGVhbg%3D%3D here this dude finds coins, drill bits, etc… other big objects that wont be clesned out with an oxidizer or hot water rinse.
Ignore them. Anything that does not get dissolved will most likely not be an issue for your laundry.
Does not removing such things lead to eventual destruction of the machine? Also those things could form a ’ barrier’ if there are enough of them and this barrier will make the oxidizer clean FAR less effective no?
If the water is not able to pump off, you wouldn’t be able to open the door. So water flows, meaning the pump is able to work. Don’t worry about the big objects, the pump itself is protected. Odor comes mostly from bacteria, which is killed by heat. Dead bacteria still smells, which is why you use a oxidizer or tensides to get rid of those.
The oxidizer is quite impressive at decomposing anything organic, including hair. So just go ahead and try it.
bleach isalso a deoxidizer? If you know ehat is the cheapest, buy-in-bulk deoxidizer I can get my hands on legally please?
Bleach is not the name of a chemical, but a group of chemicals with a specific property. In this case, the oxidizer (usually hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate) is also acting as bleach. The same goes for chlorine.
Don’t use clorine in a washing mashine. It will disinfect the machine, but it does not react the same way as hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate. Additionally, chlorine might attack synthetic materials that are needed for the machine to work.
If you have a dish washer, put one of those tabs inside the washing mashine directly, then run it on max heat, full cycle. If you don’t have that, buy something with “Oxi” in the name. There should be a few cheap brands.
Don’t use clorine in a washing mashine. It will disinfect the machine, but it does not react the same way as hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate. Additionally, chlorine might attack synthetic materials that are needed for the machine to work.
…Then why is sodium hypochlorite recommended to clean white clothing in washing machines? …Wot?
But surely sodium hypochlorite in a washing machine can be used in place of sodium percarbonste for this same purpose right? Or are they very different for this task?
Take them to a laundromat? I know that sucks but probably a good way to make sure everything is treated appropriately
Definitely get a detergent made for wool. I use Heritage Park Silk & Wool laundry detergent (for any animal sourced fibers).
ya but do you know if the surfactsnts in that brand of detergentt is REALLY good for your wool?
Like the brand woolites has enzymes in some of their products despite the fact that we know that enzymes completely fuck up wool… how do you know that heritage park silk and wool doesnt have these same ingredients?
Also surfactants. Like we know that enzymes fuck up wool as I just said…do surfactants ALSO do that? And in what ways? Also what surfactants destroy which fabrics?
Well they claim no enzymes and list their ingredients. I’ve used it on merino for a few years without problems.
