An ultimate washing machine loading guide

The humble washing machine is often one of our most used appliance in a household. Without it, we soon learn to appreciate its speed, efficiency and contribution to the functioning of our busy family lives.

We’ve worked hard to create a range of Bosch washing machines, that provides you with everything you need to get your laundry done with perfect results:

• Home Connect Intelligence
• Speed Perfect
• Anti Stain
• I-DOS
• Mini Load
• Iron Assist

... plus many more features!

But to get the best results, it’s important to load your washing machine properly. Not only will this help fully clean your laundry, proper loading will also help maintain the freshness and longevity of your clothes.

This blog was created to become your go-to washing machine loading guide to make sure yours is always loaded correctly, maintains its integrity, and works its best for you.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when loading your washing machine:

Before any loading, always do your prep.

Remember to empty your pockets (you’ll know how important this is if you’ve ever left tissue, or worse, an electronic device in a pocket!), and pre-treat stains if you don’t have the Anti Stain option on your washing machine.

Stains need to be treated as quickly as possible, and remember to give any anti-stain solution a chance to work its magic before loading.

For more convenience in your life, a Bosch washing machine with Anti Stain technology will solve your stain issues. This feature targets 4 of the most common stains: oil, grass, red wine and blood. And the Anti Stain Plus option (available on selected models) removes even up to 16 kinds of stubborn stains.

You might also want to add small items to your prepping agenda - by placing delicates and small items into washing nets you will protect them against snagging and breakages. These nets will also keep your delicates together, so you can find them easier when you need to dry your freshly washed laundry.

If you’ve been doing laundry for some time it’s likely you’ve been the victim of a colour run accident or two. It happens to the best of us! While it’s tempting with a smaller load to just throw lights, colours and darks in together on a cooler setting, the reactive dyes present in colours and darks don’t always remain stable when they come into contact with detergent, which means they can bleed into white clothing. Plus, over time, whites that are washed with colours or darks can become dull and grey, losing their fresh, ‘out of the box’ brightness.

It’s best to separate your colours into three piles: whites, darks and colours. Keep greys away from whites too, and pop those into the colour pile. It’s also a good idea to turn coloured items inside out to help protect their vibrancy.

Choose your detergents wisely too. Liquid detergents work best at lower temperatures and darker items, whereas powders are better suited to higher temperatures and whites. With the Bosch i-DOS feature detergent dosing is automatic so the guesswork is taken out of the equation.

Before you place your separated pile, darks, whites or colours, into the machine you should also think about the fabric of your items as well as its level of soiling.

For example, heavily soiled items such as muddy trainers and sports kits should be washed separately to the rest of your washing. This will keep your clothes clean and free of bacteria, as well as prevent your clothes from getting stained with the remaining mud.

What fabric your clothes are made of is also very important, because setting each load to the same programme may cause damage to your clothes or impact the results of your programme.

For example, wool and silks will require a more delicate programme than ‘Cottons’ or ‘Eco’. Your denim jeans or duvet will also need a different programme if you want your fabrics to stay at their best.

Thankfully, most Bosch washing machines have a variety of programmes including Wool, Jeans and Duvet programmes, so you can treat your fabrics as they deserve.

As a general rule, you should be able to fit a hand’s width above the line of clothes.

This ensures you’re not overloading the drum. If you overload the drum, it leaves less water available to dissolve the detergent, impacting the results of the programme. It also means less water for rinses as well, meaning potentially longer cycles as it’ll have to do multiple rinses.

Also, be mindful of which items you are loading together. For example, children’s clothes compared to larger winter jumpers. You may be able to wash smaller items in one load, but if you need to mix, aim to place the bulkier items at the bottom of the drum to balance it out.

Different programmes on Bosch machines have different load capacity. For example, mixed loads should be around 4.5kg to get the best results. Refer to your manual for more information on load capacity based on a washing programme.

To stay at their best, different clothes need to be washed in different ways. Simply tell Easy Start, within the Home Connect app, what items you’re washing and it’ll tell you the perfect programme. It’ll even tell you if there’s an item that should come out and be washed a different way. It’s wise to sort your clothes by fabric type, colour, level of soiling to get the best results and the best wash settings.

Home Connect enabled washing machines can be controlled with the app as well. Use it to start the wash when you’re ready. It’s simple and easy to use.

So hopefully that covers the prepping and loading fundamentals. Save this blog for the next time you’re confused about the best way to load up the machine, and make sure your clothes maintain their sparkle and freshness.