How much laundry can be loaded in the washing machine and how to determine the allowable load
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1. How many items can modern washing machines hold?
The load capacity of modern automatic washing machines varies from 4 to 12 kg, if we are talking about household models. Semi-industrial and industrial solutions intended for use in laundries or other commercial purposes can hold 15 - 20 kg of laundry.
As a rule, a load of up to 4 kg is typical for compact "automatic machines". They have a height of less than 80 cm (fit under the sink) and can be of interest to single people or families of two. And household washing machines for 12 kg are an excellent choice for large households. They can provide two drums at once, which allows you to simultaneously clean colored and white items or cotton and wool from dirt. But the price tag and overall dimensions of such devices are also not small.
2. Is the load capacity in kg for washing machines the amount of dry or wet laundry?
The permissible weight for placing in the drum of the washing machine is the mass of dry laundry. This is what users usually add. During the operation of the unit, things will be saturated with water, will become heavier, and some types of fabric will also increase in volume significantly. Therefore, for different textiles, the permissible load is different, which we will talk about later.
Since wet laundry weighs significantly more than dry laundry (sometimes several times more), even a small overload of 300-400 grams during the washing cycle turns into one and a half to two kilograms. And this is already a really serious additional load on the working parts of the unit.
3. Can I put wet laundry in the washing machine?
Yes, it is not necessary to load only dry items into the drum. For example, automatic washing can be started immediately after manual soaking or for a second cycle (for example, when dealing with stubborn stains). Despite the fact that wet items weigh more than dry ones and will not change their weight much, it is still not worth exceeding the basic loading recommendations.
Wet laundry should not be left in the drum for a long time before or after the end of the cycle, to avoid the appearance of an unpleasant odor and the formation of mold on the hatch sealing cuff.
4. Does the maximum load apply to all types of fabric?
The value indicated on the body and/or on the official website of the device manufacturer is the maximum weight only for cotton items. As a rule, you will have to add less other textiles. Cotton items are among the most common and do not become as heavy when absorbing water as, for example, silk, linen, terry cloth. By the way, even for colored cotton, the maximum weight is usually less, because at the rinsing stage at the end of the cycle, such items need to be washed more thoroughly so that there are no stains or traces of detergents.
Therefore, before washing, it is recommended to sort the items and then add them taking into account the permissible load for certain types of textiles. Often, the basic requirements are specified in the instructions for different programs. So, if the model has a program for washing down items, then the maximum load in it will be specified in the user manual.
General loading recommendations for different types of fabric:
- wool and silk - no more than 1/3 of the maximum load or even less (about 25%). These are the most delicate materials, they require gentle care;
- synthetics and mixed compositions - from half to 2/3 of the maximum;
- terry products, bedspreads, blankets, and other items that actively absorb fabric - up to 1/3 of the cotton load;
- denim - from 40 to 50% of maximum;
- outerwear - about 1/3 of the maximum load.
5. Why shouldn't you overload your washing machine?
If you add more laundry to the drum than the manufacturer recommends, this will have a negative impact on both the items (the quality of dirt removal and their condition) and the service life of the appliance. Overloading leads to the following unfortunate consequences:
- Incorrect distribution of things in the drum. This is fraught with strong vibrations during spinning. Modern models are protected from critical malfunctions by the imbalance control function. But the corresponding sensor does not eliminate the root cause of the violation of the distribution of laundry, but can simply reduce the speed or turn off the spin altogether. In this case, the user will need to manually move the contents of the drum or deal with very wet things.
- Engine overload. When the laundry load is too heavy, the engine has to run at higher speeds, it can get hotter, and its overall service life will be reduced.
- Negative impact on the drum. Yes, it is unlikely to fail on its own, although occasionally there are requests to service centers with cracks and leaks in the tank. A large load on the drum one way or another accelerates the wear of the bearings, can lead to damage to the shock absorbers or a broken belt (the latter failure does not threaten only models with a direct drive).
- Poor quality washing. Very "packed" laundry will be washed unevenly, individual items of clothing or parts of them will remain dirty.
- Accelerated wear of items. Overloads increase friction between individual fabrics, as well as textiles and the walls of the drum. As a result, fading accelerates, wear increases, and clothes lose their original marketable appearance faster.
- Increased energy and water consumption. Placing more laundry in the drum than is permitted by the instructions also leads to increased energy and water consumption.
6. What happens if you place too little laundry?
The other extreme, i.e. a very small load (less than 1 – 1.5 kg) is also not recommended, unless it is a special work cycle. During the spin cycle, a small amount of clothing will not be able to be evenly distributed in the drum, which will increase the likelihood of excessive vibrations and loads on the bearing block of the device. In addition, this approach is often not justified from an economic point of view: water and electricity consumption will be the same as with a standard load.
7. Are there any washing machines that weigh the laundry themselves?
Most modern washing machines have sensors that determine the amount of laundry in the drum. But it should be understood that they primarily serve to optimize the washing process - determining the duration of the cycle, reducing water and electricity consumption, selecting the best drum rotation mode at different stages of operation, or implementing "smart" dosing of detergents.
A clear display of the weight or a simple indicator warning of drum overload is rare. Thus, even in the Candy SmartPro CSO 1275 TBE/1-S model, which has a Kg Detector sensor, it is inactive before starting, and starts working already at the beginning of the cycle (plus it is only available in two programs Cotton and Synthetics).
8. How can I determine the weight of the laundry loaded into the washing machine as accurately as possible?
The easiest way to accurately determine the weight of dirty laundry is to use home floor scales. This can be done as follows:
- take a basket, basin or other suitable container;
- We weigh the container (its weight must be subtracted from the final result);
- add pre-sorted dirty items (say, cotton);
- It is better not to gain the maximum load of 6, 7 or 8 kg, but to leave a small reserve (about 500 grams).
Several similar weighing procedures for different types of fabrics will allow you to remember the total volume of laundry (in the same basin) or the filling level of the washing machine drum. After that, you can load "by eye".
9. What other methods exist for determining the load of a washing machine?
If you do not want or do not have the opportunity to weigh the laundry before cleaning it from dirt, you can use other (less accurate) methods of estimating the load, namely:
- Visually - by volume. The drum should not be "filled" with things to the brim, it is recommended to leave at least 30% of its space free, and for items that expand greatly from water (wool) - even more - from 50 to 70%. This will allow the laundry to move freely during rotation, fall down, etc.
- Acoustic - empirically. If there are too many or too few things, then during the spin cycle strong vibrations and an increase in the noise level are possible. If such complaints do not arise, then, in all likelihood, there is no overload or underload.
- Assessing the quality of washing - also empirically. If after the cycle the items are very wrinkled or remain dirty, then one of the reasons for this phenomenon is overload. However, other factors should be excluded, such as lack of detergents, low quality of powder or gel, too high spin speed.
- By weight of individual items. If you know how much your clothes and bed linen sets weigh, you can roughly calculate the load and avoid overloading.
10. How much does a T-shirt weigh and how much does a sheet weigh?
You can determine the weight of individual items by weighing them: even kitchen scales will do for small items. In addition, there are special load calculators for washing, in which it is enough to indicate the number of specific items of clothing or bed linen.
Tables indicating the approximate weight of dry textiles will also be useful. They provide average values or a certain weight range. As a rule, the lower limit corresponds to women's clothing and/or items made of light fabrics, and the upper limit corresponds to men's, heavier items. In addition, serious deviations are inherent in different sizes of products: two identical sweaters, M and XL, can differ in weight by almost 2 times.
| Textile product | Approximate weight, grams |
|---|---|
| T-shirt | 150 – 250 |
| Shirt | 200 – 300 |
| Jeans | 500 – 800 |
| Sweater, sweatshirt | 400 – 800 |
| Shorts | 200 – 300 |
| Jacket (thin) | 500 – 800 |
| Jacket (warm) | 1000 – 1500 |
| Coat | 1000 – 1500 |
| Business suit | 1500 – 2000 |
| Sports suit | 600 – 1000 |
| Dress | 300 – 500 |
| Skirt | 200 – 300 |
| Bed linen set (single) | 1500 – 2000 |
| Bed linen set (double) | 2500 – 3000 |
| Pillowcase | 150 – 250 |
| Blanket | 1000 – 2000 |
| Towel | 200 – 600 |
Children's clothing and bedding are usually noticeably lighter. Approximate values are given in the table:
| Textile product | Approximate weight, grams |
|---|---|
| Bodysuit (0-3 months) | 50 – 100 |
| Newborn jumpsuit | 200 – 300 |
| Hat (0-3 months) | 20 – 50 |
| Booties (set) | 50 – 100 |
| Jacket | 300 – 500 |
| Set of bed linen for a baby cot | up to 1500 |
| Trousers | 100 – 200 |
| T-shirt | 100 – 150 |
| Dress | 150 – 250 |
| Overalls | 300 – 700 |
It is unlikely that anyone will constantly use special calculators and weight tables. But if you use them several times, then later it will be easy to more or less accurately determine the optimal load "by eye" - based on the filling of the drum.
11. Why do washer dryers have different load capacities for washing and drying?
Among washing machines today, there are more and more models with a drying function. An important feature of such units is the difference in the maximum load for removing dirt and drying. Conventionally, in a drum in which you can wash 8 kg of laundry, you can get rid of about 4 kg of residual moisture. This is due to the different principles of the processes performed. As a rule, in order to effectively dry textiles, you need to give it more free space for normal air circulation.
In any case, you shouldn’t violate the loading recommendations for drying, because the laundry will simply be wetter and more wrinkled, and what’s worse, the risks of equipment failure will increase.
12. How to determine the weight of the washed laundry when loading it into the dryer?
First of all, you need to understand that all the information above is valid for both dryers and washing machines with a dryer. If you want the device to perform its functions for a long time and efficiently, follow the manufacturer's requirements for the amount of laundry in the drum.
How to determine the weight of the load for drying? It's simple: it all depends on your equipment. If you have a separate dryer, it is best if its volume matches the volume of the washing machine. Then everything that you washed in one cycle can be easily transferred to the dryer, without worrying about additional weighing or sorting of laundry.
If you have a washer-dryer, there are two possible situations. Let's look at the example of the LG AI DD F2DV5S8S0 model with a washing load of 8.5 kg and a drying load of 5 kg:
- maximum convenience will be provided by a combined cycle of removing dirt and drying, but then the number of items in the drum should initially be up to 5 kg;
- in other cases, you can first wash with the maximum load, and then leave a little more than half (conditionally 5 kg) of the items in the drum, and remove the smaller part (3.5 kg). The remainder will go to the next cycle or, for example, to the floor dryer.
If the amount of laundry to be dried after removing dirt needs to be reduced, then the exact calculation of the permissible weight is complicated by the fact that the maximum load of drying units is also indicated for dry items, and not wet ones, as we get them after washing.
13. Are there any other rules for loading laundry into the washing machine?
Yes, weight is not the only important thing to consider. Additional recommendations for loading laundry into the washing machine include the following:
- grouping by tissue types(this point directly affects the mass, as mentioned above);
- sorting by color. Bright items should not be washed with light and white items to avoid staining the latter;
- preparing items for washing, including removing foreign objects from pockets, fastening zippers (but unfastening buttons);
- the correct way to wash down products without the appropriate mode is to add several special balls ( tennis balls will also work) to the drum, which will prevent the down from bunching up during the washing process;
- use of other special accessories, including bra bags, shoe covers, etc.
- taking into account the volume of items. If individual items, such as large bedspreads or bedspreads, are suitable for washing by weight, but are literally “packed” in the drum, then it is better to give them to the laundry;
- search filter of the optimal program for specific tasks. The set of specialized cycles of modern devices is becoming richer, including separate modes for denim fabrics and more.
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