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I think the main speed increase of American machines compared to European ones is due to much higher water consumption. A modern European washing machine uses

I think the main speed increase of American machines compared to European ones is due to much higher water consumption. A modern European washing machine uses 30-50 litres per wash, vs 75-100 for a modern American one. That's also halved the time required to heat the necessary water, so another reason a hot water connection might not be so useful

lotsofpulp 3y ago
Could this be due to American washers being bigger? I don’t see why American washers would be designed to use more water if less water technology exists.
- Symbiote 3y ago
  If water consumption isn't something the customer or government cares about, then the customer will choose on other metrics. Americans aren't generally going to buy a European washing machine that takes an hour longer to clean their clothes. Europeans are going to look at the energy efficiency sticker that by law must be displayed with the machine, either out of altruism, to reduce the running cost, or because the machine with A must be better than the one with G. See the coloured symbols on [1] and the more detailed information if you click one, showing capacity, water use per cycle and typical annual electricity use. Walmart's site [2] doesn't show this information anywhere. [1] https://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/washing-machines-tumble-dryers/washing-machines/_/N-afh?chunk=2 https://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/washing-machine... [2] https://www.walmart.com/browse/home/all-washing-machines/4044_90548_3295848_8058687_2036448 https://www.walmart.com/browse/home/all-washing-machines/404...
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Walmart does not sell washers, those are all resellers using the Walmart website as a platform, and almost no on would buy an appliance there. All the energy usage and other details would be on the website of a retailer that actually sells appliances, like Home Depot/Lowes/Best Buy/Costco/etc. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Electrolux-4-5-cu-ft-Stackable-Front-Load-Washer-in-Titanium-with-SmartBoost-Optic-Whites-and-Pure-Rinse-ELFW7637AT/318268534 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Electrolux-4-5-cu-ft-Stackable-F... > Europeans are going to look at the energy efficiency sticker that by law must be displayed with the machine, The US has this too with. See in “Details” in above link: >Energy Consumption (kWh/year) 85 >Energy Efficiency Tier Rating Tier II
philwelch 3y ago
> A modern European washing machine uses 30-50 litres per wash, vs 75-100 for a modern American one. Maybe we just have bigger washing machines? You need to control for washer capacity to make a fair comparison here. If you need to do twice as many loads of laundry because you can only fit half as much laundry in each load, you’ve gained nothing. And it’s not like having a bigger washing machine requires every load of laundry to use the full water capacity of the machine even if you only do small loads. On older machines you can set a dial for load size while newer ones have sensors for that.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

Could this be due to American washers being bigger? I don’t see why American washers would be designed to use more water if less water technology exists.

Symbiote 3y ago
If water consumption isn't something the customer or government cares about, then the customer will choose on other metrics. Americans aren't generally going to buy a European washing machine that takes an hour longer to clean their clothes. Europeans are going to look at the energy efficiency sticker that by law must be displayed with the machine, either out of altruism, to reduce the running cost, or because the machine with A must be better than the one with G. See the coloured symbols on [1] and the more detailed information if you click one, showing capacity, water use per cycle and typical annual electricity use. Walmart's site [2] doesn't show this information anywhere. [1] https://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/washing-machines-tumble-dryers/washing-machines/_/N-afh?chunk=2 https://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/washing-machine... [2] https://www.walmart.com/browse/home/all-washing-machines/4044_90548_3295848_8058687_2036448 https://www.walmart.com/browse/home/all-washing-machines/404...
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Walmart does not sell washers, those are all resellers using the Walmart website as a platform, and almost no on would buy an appliance there. All the energy usage and other details would be on the website of a retailer that actually sells appliances, like Home Depot/Lowes/Best Buy/Costco/etc. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Electrolux-4-5-cu-ft-Stackable-Front-Load-Washer-in-Titanium-with-SmartBoost-Optic-Whites-and-Pure-Rinse-ELFW7637AT/318268534 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Electrolux-4-5-cu-ft-Stackable-F... > Europeans are going to look at the energy efficiency sticker that by law must be displayed with the machine, The US has this too with. See in “Details” in above link: >Energy Consumption (kWh/year) 85 >Energy Efficiency Tier Rating Tier II

philwelch 3y ago

> A modern European washing machine uses 30-50 litres per wash, vs 75-100 for a modern American one. Maybe we just have bigger washing machines? You need to control for washer capacity to make a fair comparison here. If you need to do twice as many loads of laundry because you can only fit half as much laundry in each load, you’ve gained nothing. And it’s not like having a bigger washing machine requires every load of laundry to use the full water capacity of the machine even if you only do small loads. On older machines you can set a dial for load size while newer ones have sensors for that.