Advice to newbie on water temperature

[walkwithme]

Hi, hope this Q is OK. Our top loader washing machine hot cycle will fill at whatever our whole house hot water system is set to. Waiting for baby #1 to arrive sometime in next 10 days. We measured the temp today and it's coming out of the tap at 47 degrees C. I've heard you need to run hot wash nappy cycles at closer to 60 degrees but I'm a bit worried about scalds from other taps because it is already too hot to eg shower without adding cold. Do we just turn it up and try to be careful? TIA!

 

[bharati21]

@walkwithme You should have to add cold in the shower. Your hot water heater holds a certain amount of water, if you are not mixing it with cold it is going to run out very fast. Especially when baby arrives and you’re using more hot water!

Doing F to C conversions, but 49°C is “normal” for a hot water heater. Many homes set it on 60°C to make it last longer.

 

[walkwithme]

@bharati21 Ah OK. We live in the tropics so I am used to mixing it but also we don't use it much for lots of the year which maybe why we don't have it up that high. We are also going to have a solar pump installed so it heats up using our excess solar generation. I was just wondering what temp is safe for accidentally sticking out hands under it if it's running hot and we forgot /sleep deprived etc

 

[bharati21]

@walkwithme To get a 2nd degree burn you’d have to hold your hand under 60°C water for 5 minutes. Source

 

[esposadellobo]

@bharati21 The X axis is seconds, not minutes.

 

[katrina2017]

@walkwithme I usually do 40 degrees with pre-wash and extra rinse and occasionally 60 degrees. I've never had any issues.

 

[seang]

@walkwithme It’s fine to wash everything in cold if you’re using a synthetic detergent. I have been for years. Plant based detergents require a hot main wash. Prewash temp is your choice.

 

[cantur]

@walkwithme Our hot water heater is set at 125 F, which is typical as far as I know. Looks like that is 51-52 C.

 

[lionheartiv]

@walkwithme I’ve been using a cold rinse with vinegar, warm wash and cold rinse and it seems to be fine

 

[ericaa]

@lionheartiv I use vinegar for most of my laundry, but somewhere I read not to use it on cloth nappies, something about decreasing the absorbency... have you had that issue? I would really like to use vinegar as I feel it helps clean and sanitize the fabric. Plus I imagine it would help eliminate any bacteria or whatever that could possibly accumulate on the diaper.

 

[lionheartiv]

@ericaa The only thing I heard is that if your water is too acidic adding vinegar can wear out the elastics prematurely. I always forget so it’s probably one wash out of 4 or 5 that gets vinegar? No issues at all (my sons ebf though so we’ll see how that goes in a few months haha)

 

[r2d260]

@walkwithme I run mine in hot water for the main wash and warm for the initial quick wash. It needs to be hot enough to clean the diapers effectively especially if you're using free and clear or green detergent. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the enzymes that clean the fabrics need to be in warm or hot water to be effective. My hot tap is about 120°-140° F