Before somebody goes around shopping for any product, getting conversant with
some ‘technical terms’ will stand him or her in good stead. Industry-specific,
equipment-specific jargons are floating around all the time and it pays to understand
clearly what each term stand for and mean. Before evaluation of different
models of WM is done, some annotation of “washing-machine-jargons” is perhaps
in order. The true import of various words mean to differentiate product
features, like “Fully-automatic, semi-automatic etc” (is there a
non-automatic?) needs some clarification.
To start with, lets recapitulate ourselves the different wash
stages and respective wash parameters (given in itallics) from knowledge of traditional washing; mind you,
this all of us KNOW and DO sub-consciously. Defining them for present context
only merits the efforts. Lets take them in the logical order.
- Quantity of clothes to be washed (say measured in kgs of dry weight) appears the main aspect when
one sets off to wash. There seems to be gross agreement on this score, with
most domestic models designed to handle 4-8 kgs of clothes per session.
2.Next comes Soaking (time
of soak) with water and soap together; soap could be flakes, powder
or even liquid. All models are alike in this aspect too. There is an option to use water as it comes
on the tap or heat it up a little say upto 40°-100°C.
The choice of when to use hot water however is selectable if one wishes to.
Most ‘intelligent’ or ‘fully-automatic’ machines simply use a
rule-of-thumb-that is… hot water only for cottons & highly soiled wash
load. However, many WM do not bundle this option in the entry or even mid-range
models. Cost of heating coils, electricals, controls etc jack up the price by a
cool Rs.3000 or higher. This hot water is used only for initial soaking and
subsequent stages use only ambient water.
3.Next is Agitation with water and soap (as to methods
we hear of tumbling or rotation or turbo-wash,
straight & contra-rotation, and
combinations thereof. Simpler models do just one action, may be rotate (top
loading models) or tumble (front loading models). Some shape-profiling and
contouring of the drum and/or the rotary drive give rise to additional motion
effects to the soaked clothes along with soap-water, which improves the washing
(mixing) effect.
Additionally some models permit combinations of basic steps
like plain agitation, agitation-drain-agitation
again, soap once-agitate-drain-soap again-agitate,
soak-tumble-spin-tumble-rinse etc. These are meant to address
varying extents dirt-load and toughness of
clothes. While cotton clothes are considered tough & rugged, clothes made of nylon,
polyester, woolen & silk are considered more delicate,
and in that order. Parameters could be number & time-duration
of soak/agitation and number of stages of combination steps.
4.Rinsing:
After draining the soap-water that has hopefully dislodged all the dirt from
clothes by now, rinsing is done. Most machines pump out the soap water; that is
they do not depend on gravitational pull for draining the spent water. Fresh
water is taken in and once again the same agitation-rotation or tumbling or
whatever is repeated, of course without soap in rinsing. Often this is done a
more rapidly than washing. Soap-froth laden water is thrown out at the end of
rinse cycle. To ensure complete removal of soap the rinsing is repeated. Most
machines have minimum two rinse cycles.
Some even have five. This is again a stage where water is consumed in large
quantities. Paradoxically hard or saline waters need fewer rinsing cycles than
soft water to get rid of the soap-froth. Some machines have a combination here
too. Rapid spin (causes squeezing
effect) along side rinsing & reverse-spin to promote un-coiling of clothes
are some value-additions that we get to have. Here again, the sales-person
would mostly not know and hence could not tell you all these details. (that’s
precisely I set about writing this post) Please ask your friend, host or
demo-person to let you observe (yes.., you might need to spend some one hour or
two to fully appreciate all these action).
- Spin-drying:This is the last stage, when all the
water content is squeezed out by the centrifugal action of the fast-rotating
drum. Speed & time are essential in
this aspect. Typically 300 rpm to 1000 rpm is the range of domestic
machines. Higher speed could mean ‘effective squeezing’ AND perhaps also ‘higher
maintenance’ costs. Because the force the drum body experiences and the
frictional-load on bearings etc increase phenomenally with faster rotational
speeds. Slow rotation does not mean dripping clothes either. One user tells it is better to have the
clothes a little wet at the end, before they are put up for ‘drying’ in the
clothes’ line or on hangers for air-drying; a smart swish & tug helps to
get rid of wrinkles, I was told. Too dry at the machine leaves the clothes with
permanent wrinkles making ironing (pressing) mandatory. Well air-drying is
recommended and necessary with all Indian models. Some full-fledged driers have
also come into the market. That’s separate matter.
Most machines allow no interruptions during the above
processes; doors are locked and could be opened only after wash cycle is over.
This is more strictly enforceable in front loading machines. Most machines also
give audible sound alarm to let you know the completion. A lot of lint from
clothes, solid suds or coins from pocket etc is usually collected at the
strainer before the pump inlet. This is cleanable; the user is urged to check
this occasionally.
Finally all washing machines will need some gentle wiping dry
& cleaning; let the doors-ajar for a brief while to ensure stench-free
operations subsequently.
