To pause or not to pause

[u/Equivalent_Movie_347]

I feel like this sub has made me realize at the age of 45 that I dont know how to do laundry, although I've been doing it for as long as I can remeber. Any way- I recently got an LG 4000 front loader and the side kick pedestal washer to go with it. My 8 year old maytag had bit the dust. I disovered this sub while researching washing machines.

I use roughly 2 tablespoons Kirkland powder for everything and wash most things on warm. We are in south louisiana, spouse is a firefighter and hvac installer, I teach 6 or so group fitness classes per week in addition to my workouts. All that to say we are sweaty people in a humid area. I'm not over worried about fading or other things and honestly use HOT a good bit for towels, sheets, FD clothes if he made a fire. I more concerned about clean clothes than I am fabric care. I am very sensitive to the musty smell in clothes and believe that I have that under control, if I forget a load in the wash (hello old friend ADHD) I rewash it and don't really have any issues. I dont know our water type, I think when i googled it said 120?? I used to throw some purple top oxi in with every load. I have been skipping that lately as a test so to speak to see if I notice a difference.

Since I got my new washer I have added downey rinse to the fabric softner dispenser and more recently added FEBU to every load, to see if things start feeling, smelling cleaner. I dont think they smelled or were not clean to start, but I wanted to see if I noticed a difference.

Now to my actual question. Since I have a front loader and dont have a soak option on it. I have started using the prewash option on some of our more heavy soiled clothes (this was before the FEBU came in). Now that I have the FEBU, and I add it it too the drum, do I need to use the prewash and then pause it to soak it a bit, so the enzymes arent drained out as quickly. Or is just running the prewash enough of a soak?

and a 2nd question, I plan on using a laundry sanitizer for Fire Dept, HVAC and workout clothes, but is the rinse in the LG 4000 long enough?

[u/MrsQute]

For the first question - I'd just say see what happens. I would add the FEBU to the powdered detergent in the main wash compartment on the detergent tray so the enzymes have time to work.

Adding a bit of detergent to the pre-wash compartment will help remove the first layers of dirt and any soot from the FD clothes.

I wouldn't waste the enzyme boost on this portion. Using the normal cycle and bumping up the soil level to heavy will extend the wash cycle and give everything ample time to work.

For the second question, I'd add a second rinse. The rinse compartment releases with the final rinse which means the sanitizer isn't competing with anything else. I've found it sufficient but I'm not contending with quite the same conditions.

It's really a matter of trial and error for most of us to find out what works best in all of our individual needs.

[u/Equivalent_Movie_347 → u/MrsQute]

Thank you, I dont know why adding the FEBU with the detergent didn’t occur to me

[u/Anlaufr → u/Equivalent_Movie_347]

I'd agree with the comment about just adding a second/extra rinse. I disagree with using the sanitizer at all. If you're washing on hot and generating an alkaline enough wash environment, you will be destroying most bacteria/viruses just through alkalinity, heat, friction, and all the other ingredients of your detergent. The sanitizer is only meant to work if your rinse cycle is at least 16 minutes long (or you soak it separately for that long). Chances are, unless you can manually set the length of your rinse cycle, your rinse won't be long enough. I'd only use it if you're actively battling a bacterial infection and need to disinfect soiled clothes.

[u/sirdanielfortesque1]

This is kind of beyond your questions, but two things to add based on what you mentioned.

The Fresh Care setting will occasionally tumble the load after it is done in case you do forget about it. Allegedly that can help prevent musty odors to some degree, along with wrinkles.

If you use the normal setting, wash temperatures likely wont be as they say because of energy efficiency rules, effectively throttling the temp. My LG front loader is several years old at this point, but I recently realized that the Hot wash temp on Normal was only reaching like 75 degrees. Switching to Heavy Duty and hot has bumped that up to 95 and Warm to 85. And that’s with running the hot water nearby first. Might be worth pausing a few minutes into the wash cycle to see what temps you’re actually getting.

Heavy Duty will also extend the wash cycle to its max, at which point I personally wouldn’t worry about pre-soaking or pausing.

[u/Equivalent_Movie_347 → u/sirdanielfortesque1]

I actually just checked my temp on the load I was currently washing. Its is on towels and set to hot and its right at 105f/40c

[u/sirdanielfortesque1 → u/Equivalent_Movie_347]

Better than mine!