How much should I fill my washing machine?

It's very tempting to pack your washing machine drum with as many laundry items as possible, but overloading your washing machine will not just severly reduce its washing performance, but it can also cause serious damage to your appliance. Listed below are the main reasons why overloading your washing machine will cause long-term damage:

• Overloading the washing machine will cause the laundry to move around in one large mass, which means the clothing items will not move be able to move freely within the drum and the detergent will not be able to circulate effectively to remove dirt and stains.
• Overloading also increases the pressure within the drum, especially when it is spinning at a high velocity. This could potentially cause damage to the drum bearings and worse still cause the glass door to shatter.
• The clothes are forced up against the rubber door seal, and as the drum rotates it causes the clothes to rub up against it. This can lead to marks and even tears in your clothing.

When filling up your washing machine drum, it is important to strike the right balance between filling up the drum with enough clothes for economical washing, and leaving enough of a gap at the top of the drum for an effective washing performance.

For the best washing results, there has to be enough water for the detergent to dissolve in and enough space for your clothes to move around. If you overload the drum, there will be less water available for the detergent to dissolve in as the clothes will soak this up. We therefore recommend that you leave a hands width gap at the top of the washing machine drum when loading. This roughly equates to filling 3/4 of the drum.

Remember not to under load the washing machine drum either, as this is uneconomical and it may result in a loud banging noise on the spin cycle due to an unbalanced load.

Here are some more helpful tips and advice on how to achieve perfect results with your Bosch washing machine every time.