I have been wondering the same thing Tom. My washer, altough, a top-spec energy efficient model is cold feed only. Retailer told me this was something to do with the EU energy labelling regime (slightly perverse outcome from what was meant to be an energy saving measure!!!). When I bought mine about 18 month ago, he did have one model that was hot and cold fill and I rather wish I had looked at that one more closely.

One idea I have had, is to fit a thermostatic mixer tap in the utility room, set it to 40 degrees (which is what I usually wash at) and link the feed for the washer to that. Presumably the washer is designed to use a heater element to bring the water up to temperature so shouldn't really kick for a 40 degree wash. If I was washing the nappies, I would turn the mixer temp to 60 degrees. Might be worth ringing the machine manufacturer to see if this will work (I am trying to sell up at the moment so not worth the investment in mixer tap right now).

Good point Patrick, hadn't thought of that...

I have heard that, with modern detergents (does Ecover qualify??) , you can get good wash results with cold water. I've just checked my instruction manual and I can alter the temperature of all my wash cycles to "cold" which just uses the water as it comes from the main. I might give this a try. I seem to remember my old washer had an "eco" button that you could press for the same result.

We used to have some American wash balls that allegedly worked as a substitute for detergent by ionising the water or something (passively, without dosing any chemicals into the water), thus making the water a better solvent. This worked fine for a long time, with the occasional detergent wash as soon as a slight stale smell began to creep in
Something like this could allow lower temp or even cold washes to work.

My washing machine uses both hot and cold feeds, its an older Bosch model. However one problem with the hot feed is the lag between the boiler firing up and actual hot water being produced. The machine takes a fixed volume of water for the wash and if it's not hot enough will cut in with its electric heater to bring it up to the required temp.
The problem is then one of having water ready heated to stop the washing machine using its own heater, suggesting some form of storage close by. If you have a hot water tank, this may not be a problem although these tend to store water at higher temps than washing machines need. Otherwise I wouldn't bother as the technical problems, as others have said, would make the project difficult and probably uneconomic.

Hmm, lazy engineering then,
you mean to tell me that it is impossible to get water at a temp of 30/40 degrees
to a washing machine or dishwasher for its cycle. If it can't be done.

These machines use electricity to heat the water, which is a secondary energy source and is produced
at about 40 % efficiency.
Now if we had gas machines maybe they could be more efficient.

I use Eco balls at 30 degrees BTW and don't have any problems.

Good luck Jack I reckon it would work.
A timer in conjunction with a thermostatic valve set to 30 degrees should do it.
You would have to find out how your machine heats the water, if its through flow restriction over a heating element.
You might have to set the temp lower so you don't blow it up, mind you there is not a lot to them so you might be able to bypass it all together.

Sounds like fun let us know how you get on, just don't tell the wife!

I have solar heated water so am interested in this, I have an old washing machine with hot and cold inputs and a dishwasher (A rated) with a single input.

I have a couple of thoughts

I don't think dishwashing uses cold water during it's cycle, therefore could I just swap the cold feed for the hot feed?

If I run the hot water tap in the kitchen (the DW and MC are connected within meters) until it ran hot and then started the cycle would this help?

I broke my first Dyson washing machine by adding 'warm' water through the cold feed using a standard mixing valve setup. I set the water temp to be no more than 30 degrees but the machine was expecting colder water and kept pumping up fault codes. I didn't have much adjustment below 30 degree's so I had to take the system out and put it back to cold. I would be interested to see if you can get it working (and therefore where I went wrong!).

This is something that has really annoyed me recently.

Both my parents and I bought our last washing machines back in the early 1980's (in my case it was my first when I was 18) - we both have / had Hoover Electron 1100's and in those days hot and cold fill was standard. Mum's finally packed up last year and she got a Miele which the manufacturer's sales rep. in the shop said *could* be connected to hot water *instead of* cold only, to take advantage of solar water (or indeed just water in your cylinder if you have a conventional DHW system) (of course this did mean that rinses would be in hot water, so the amount of hot used would make this silly if you are on a combi boiler or electric water heating). On arrival, however, we were annoyed to find a huge warning label on the back of the machine saying "Do not connect to hot water supply", so now mum has a cold fill only washer and, as a widow, endless hot water that she doesn't need in a family size hot water cylinder.

Perversely my Miele dishwasher *recommends* hot water fill to take advamtage of solar (which I have) and using hot fill has taken 40 minutes off the "normal" wash cycle. (I've had it a year now and it's fabulous and works without any difficulty at all on teh hot water feed.)

My Hoover Electron 1100 is now on it's very last legs too and I have spent weeks trying to find any Washers that take hot and cold fill., There is some success out there: Hotpoint make several mnodels with hot and cold fill, but not all of theirs are so look carefully. I may be wrong but as far as I can see none of the ones with hot fill spin any faster than 1000 so I've not gone for one of theirs - seems daft, when my 22 year old Hoover does 1100, to go for a slower spin. LG also make a range with Hot and cold fill, including at least two that have Carbon Trust awards.
I've bought an LG today - let's hope that on arrival there are no nasty surprises! I also hope it's going to last at the very least 10 years given the 22 that the Hoover has! I've never had any LG appliances before so I'm crossing my fingers that I've made a good choice.

Surely as we get ever more aware of the carbon issues and, for the plain selfish, the cost of Electricity, Solar panels, heat pumps, etc., are going to get more and more common and with them, I sincerley hope, manufacturer's production of Washing Machines and Dishwashers with hot fill ?

Incidentally, there is an interesting government white paper out there (not a new one but soetime since 1997), which I stumbled upon on the web, which urges manufacturers *not* to make appliances with hot fill and has some very dubious scientific "facts" in it...if I come across it again I will post the URL.

one of the things I noticed in the white paper was the statement that machies with cold fill only are cheaper to build, however with a little nowledge and experience of working as a service engineer I can't see this: in most cold fill only machines there are exactly the same number and arrangement of inlet valves as there are in hot and cold fill, but simply with a sort of "Y" adapter linking what would have been HOT and COLD together to one hose union. (In fact some of the Hoover ones I've seen in shops recently actually have this part outside the back of the machine with both valve inlets still clearly accessible, so possibly one could just buy one of these, take off the hose supplied and the "Y" part and connect to 2 seperate hoses....might invalidate warranties though if it's sold as "cold fill only".)
At best there would be one less inlet valve and since these cost about £3 to buy as a spare part the cost to manufacturers must be under a quid I'd think?

Interesting co incidence: I've ordered WM1437WFD, 1400rpm, and I looked at them in store in Curry's, but as they didn't have one in stock except in silver or black, which for some reason is a few quid more than white (???), I came home and ordered one from my NEXT catalogue - where it is the same price (exactly the same) as Curry's in Sheffield. Should be here by the weekend so we'll have to see...........

I didn't try Cole Bro's (our John Lewis) as I had been to them whilst looking for Mum's washer last year and they seem to have an alarmingly large, and increasing, range of "own label" appliances that are very obviously made for them by leading manufacturers, but with very subtle differences in spec from the manufacturer's own and not quite so subtle differences in price! Because of this it was hard to compare like-for-like so mum and I gave up for hers (we got it from Atkinson's for any Sheffielder's reading this - very helpful and kind lady, nothing too much trouble, which was something my mum was especially pleased about as she's getting on a bit and was worried about getting rid ofthe old one, etc.).

I did go straight there for mine but they don't do LG - apparently they have to order fairly large numbers in one go and they can't shift enough of them to make it worth while.

CAUTIONARY TALE..... I installed solar panels last year, and have been "hot filling" the washing machine. Unfortunately my wife tried to wash some "machine washable" jumpers by setting the washing machine to "30 degrees" - the water was too hot, and the jumpers came out half-size.

I've got an Indesit dishwasher that has a cold fill only but the book with it says that it can be connected to the hot water, which will reduce washing time.

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: Angus</cite>Despite what is mentioned earlier in this thread, I have a hot fill washing machine that does use hot water for the 2 programs that we use the most. This being the 40C & 60C cotton. I didn't check the 30C wool, and frankly I wouldn't expect it to draw hot water for that program.
Our hot water is heated by solar panels and burning wood. I always run the cold water out the pipe when turning machine on.
I will not be convinced that a hot feed is a waste of time, in fact to the contrary. it saves time, (as well as energy and money) because the water doesn't have to be heated up and the wash is c20 minutes quicker, than a wash using cold feed only.

The machine is a 9yo Bosch.</blockquote>

First of all I want to say that Bosch does mix hot and cold water even at 30C.

Secondly, I am student and I am currently working on my thesis where the subject is to investigate possible energy savings by suppling hot water to washing machines and dishwashers which gets heated from solar thermal. I have to confess that I have almost 70% energy savings for the washing machine and 40% energy savings for the dishwasher but the problem is that you have to adjust the hot water temperature at the required temperature of the program each time. Nevertheless, I dont see any savings in terms of time. the machine keeps run the program at the same time with cold fill only.

Thirdly my supervisor claimed that many years ago washing machines were hot fill only. after that manufacturers changed it to cold fill and in ourdays they tend to make machines with a hot fill as well. Can anybody give me some info about this???? I cannot find any info which explain why they changed from hot fill to cold fill.

We have a giant American top loader purchased when we moved into our current house 10+ years ago. It's brilliant and essentially works like a dolly tub with spin function. You can fill it however hot you want it. You can add a sock if it's been missed. You can abort a wash if you notice the water acquiring a pinkish tinge and you'd rather it didn't (or just retrieve the offending article). It will do a superking duvet cover, fitted sheet, 4 pillow cases and 4 bath sheets in one load, it will also do a mini load (eg dish cloths with bleach). If the wash only needs 'freshening up' then it will agitate the contents for a short wash, if you are washing gardening trousers (that have previously had the mud beaten off against a wall) you can get it to agitate with a more frenzied action for twice as long. No seals and no leaks to worry about either.

My only complaint about it is the filter is pants so you can't wash the cat's bed and then follow it with a wash including black socks.