<p>It is interesting what services people are willing to pay for. My southern Louisiana relatives, although not wealthy have a housekeeper who does the washing and ironing. There is some loyalty there I think. I would like to contribute to the local economy by having someone I know in to clean my house, but not in the cards at this time. My friends are horrified I color and highlight my own hair, but yet I have my nails done once a month. After years of fixing broken lawn mowers and nagging my H we have someone mow the lawn. But H won’t pay for garbage removal. He brings it to the dump himself every week. So, not surprised that a good number of students are using the service.</p>
<p>I have no idea what kind of washer I have, it’s fairly new. I haven’t heard of all this HE stuff. I do want one of the front loaders. My own diagnosis of why the dryer takes so long 50 mins+ is bad spinning by the washer.</p>
<p>If you have a traditional style top-loading washer with an agitator in the middle and the water fills up to near the top of the drum, then that’s not an HE washer. That kind uses about 50 gallons of water per load…filling to wash, rinsing, etc. If you use warm/hot water to wash, then you’re heating a good bit of water.</p>
<p>HE washers don’t have an agitator…the drums are large…so you can fit a lot more clothes in per wash. The home full-sized versions can fit 16 pairs of adult sized jeans. </p>
<p>Next time you’re in a store, go by the laundry aisle. Now that you know to look for the blue and white HE oval shaped icon on the bottles, you’ll see that there are many versions. And, some HE versions can be used in regular washers as well. </p>
<p>I just looked at an ALL bottle in my home. It has the HE icon and around the icon it says, “safe for all washing machines”. </p>
<p>I also have a Tide bottle, an Arm and Hammer bottle, a Gain bottle, and a Costco brand bottle…those all have the HE icon as well. (Some of these came home with my sons when they school was over).</p>
<p>I blame my kids…lol. Each came home with a full bottle and a partially used bottle. </p>
<p>With just the 2 of us home this summer, our laundry hasn’t been much.</p>
<p>BUT…today older son came home from his research program …and with him came lots of laundry…so, he’ll be emptying some of those partial bottles over the next few days.</p>
<p>However…I may hide the Gain from him…I love that smell on our sheets. lol</p>
<p>D received bottle of Victoria’s Secret detergent from her boyfriend’s mom all year! Not sure if it’s HE but it smells wonderful! Have to fess up…we used a laundry service (drop off and pick up) because with all the sorority stuff first semester and the murder class schedule she had I felt it was one little thing she didn’t have to worry about. We used it less second semester because she had no class on Tues. and Thurs. With now going to live in a condo with 3 sorority sisters I am thinking she will do her own again. Anyway HE soap is on our Target lst…and m2k we LOVE the smell of Gain as well!</p>
<p>We had bulk bought some detergent with the intent that it could be used by our son this year. I will have to check if what we bought has the HE designation, which I hadn’t even heard of until this thread.</p>
<p>Just a laundry suggestion to parents who have daughters who are going through recruitment…if you come for Bid Day it would really help your girls if you planned to stay and do their laundry before you leave. On Bid Day evening or in some cases early the next morning, your girls will be taken on retreat for a day or so. They will have gone through a stressful week of recruitment where they will not have had time to do laundry and then when they return there will be pledge meeting, ceremonies and “introductions” to fraternities only to start classes the next day or so. I stayed and did DD’s laundry and to this day she tells everyone what a help it was to start school with clean clothes! On top of that your DD will get a jersey with her letters that she will need to wear on retreat. After spending the morning of Bid Day in it (they put them on them before they run to the houses) you can imagine how great it smelled (100 plus degree heat and perspiration…yeah you get the pic). So just a suggestion…your DD will thank you :).</p>
<p>Random,
You can actually use non HE in a front loader you just have to use about a quarter as much as you would for a normal washing machine. When I first bought my front loader 12 or so years ago there were very few HE soaps and they were much more expensive for half the amount so I used regular, but it takes less than a quarter of a cup, or it will foam over.</p>
<p>*We had bulk bought some detergent with the intent that it could be used by our son this year. I will have to check if what we bought has the HE designation, which I hadn’t even heard of until this thread. *</p>
<p>Ahh…</p>
<p>well, if it doesn’t have the HE logo…don’t buy any more detergent til you get to Tuscaloosa. No point in stuffing one more heavy thing in the car.</p>
<p>This weekend, we moved S1 from his summer research assignment back home. In a few weeks, we turn around and move him to the school where he’ll get his PhD. After stuffing the car for the trip home this weekend, we agreed not to pack any sundries/toiletries, etc for the next trip because my large SUV just can’t handle all that needs to go with him.<br>
:(</p>
<p>We’ll just do a Wal-mart, Sams Club, Target run when we get there.</p>
<p>BTW…those ALL Small & Mighty triple concentrated (3x) bottles have an HE version. Those are much easier to tote around when going to the dorm laundry rooom because they are small. And, when it’s on sale, it is really a good deal!!!</p>
<p>I suppose that could be someone’s reality, it’s just not ours</p>
<p>I can soooo relate, LOL. </p>
<p>At the same time, although we have taught DS how to use a washer/dryer, something tells me he won’t be doing this quite often enough. He’ll probably bring a pile of smelly laundry home at Christmas…kind of as a Christmas present for us. I figured I’d send him off with enough changes of shirts so that his underarms won’t get too ripe. But maybe that’s coddling him. He does care about grooming and cleanliness, so who knows? Maybe he’ll become more conscientious about doing laundry regularly. I’m not holding my breath, though.</p>
<p>my kids seemed to have about 3 weeks worth of T-shirts and polos and underwear to get them thru to when they have time to do laundry.</p>
<p>the worst time is Sunday late afternoon and night when lots of kids are trying to use the machines.</p>
<p>The least busy times are mornings…and some weekday afternoons.</p>
<p>Also…the higher floor laundry rooms seem to get less traffic. </p>
<p>If you go at a less busy time, you can do all your loads at once since several machines will be empty. Fill a few machines and go. Much easier than having to do an assembly line of laundry like at home.</p>
<p>Since there are only 180 students living in Blount, there is only one laundry room…it’s on the 3rd floor. I don’t know how many washers and dryers are in there. I’m guessing about 8-10 washers and 8-10 dryers…but I could be wrong.</p>
<p>My new HE washer (and a dryer that actually dries!) arrived last week; the salesman told me way more than I needed to know about them so I figured I’d share. As M2CK said, the washer uses about 40% of the water of a traditional washer. HE detergent is also much more concentrated than traditional detergent; the installer said using a tablespoon is usually sufficient. Since there is less water & more concentrated detergent, using too much can lead to a mustiness. I went with a top loading washer vs. a front loader. It can fit a king sized comforter in it. The clothing comes out of the washer much dryer than before, so it only takes the dryer about 30 minutes to dry an entire load.</p>
<p>Right…the spinning speed (RPMs) for these HE washers is really high…so the drying time is minimized.</p>
<p>Yes…you can fit very large comforters in them.</p>
<p>The top loading HE washers do use more water than the front loaders (because of being top loaders and the how they work), but they still use a lot less than traditional top loaders.</p>
<p>I agree with the mustiness claim if you use too much detergent…especially too much Tide. I’ve never measured the amount that I use, but I imagine it’s about 1 - 2 Tablespoons.</p>
<p>Of course, if you have very hard water, you’d used more detergent than if you had soft water.</p>
<p>Son likes Purex laundry sheets (combination detergent/fabric softener/dryer sheets), which eliminate liquids all together. They’re light, compact, and easy to store and transport. However, in his first load of laundry, he transferred the Purex in the dryer with his clothes and noticed oily-looking stains in some of his clothes after taking them out, so consequently, he just throws the Purex away after the wash. Since then, he’s had no problem with staining and clothes come out clean.</p>
That works out perfectly; I’m on the third floor. Hurrah for not dragging a heavy laundry bag too far.</p>