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Washing clothes involves three factors: mechanical, chemical and thermal. That's a fancy way of saying that we usually get our clothes clean by scrubbing them with soap or detergent in warm or hot water. A clothes washer does that automatically, so we don't have to go down to the river and beat our sheets and towels on flat rocks. The most common type of clothes washer in the United States loads from the top and uses an agitator to supply the scrubbing. In most cases, this is neither the best way to do the cleaning nor the most environmentally sound way either.
Fortunately, new resource efficient clothes washers are now available and qualifying customers can receive WashWise rebates if they purchase one of these machines. These new machines use much less water and energy while delivering superior cleaning performance.
If you're not ready to buy a new washer, you can still save lots of resources by:
- washing in cooler water whenever possible
- trying to wash full loads or setting the water level appropriate to the size of your load
- using detergents that contain no phosphates
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For more information from Seattle City Light on appliances, please e-mail rescons.scl@seattle.gov or call 206.684.3800.
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