How Much Time Does a Washing Machine Save Compared to Manual Washing?

Typical Time to Handwash

• To wash clothes by hand, fill a tub or sink with water using the care tags on the items to determine the appropriate temperature. Add 1/4 cup of laundry detergent and 1/4 cup of bleach to brighten a load of white clothes. If you use bleach, wear a pair of rubber gloves for protection. Place one item into the water, soak it and knead it for up to two minutes to move the suds through the fabric. Repeat this with each item in the load until you finish. Drain the tub or sink, and use the faucet to dry each item thoroughly.

  With preparation time, washing and rinsing, you'll need a minimum of about 10 minutes to wash a single laundry item. Add four minutes to the total washing time for each additional item. After rinsing the clothes, roll each item and press down on it to remove as much excess water as possible.

Machine Wash Cycle Time

• A typical washing machine cycle takes as little as 40 minutes. Since you can fit more than a dozen articles of clothing in a washing machine, count on about three minutes total to wash, rinse and remove excess water from each item of clothing. You save more than seven minutes for each item you wash in the machine versus washing it by hand.

Benefits

• To hand wash, you only need water, detergent and a tub or sink. Machine washing requires these same basic things except that each load costs you about 6 cents. Time is the key tradeoff. Frequent machine washing also wears clothes down over time by thrashing them around in the water.

Drying

• Machine drying a load of laundry takes about 45 minutes and costs almost 60 cents. Line drying uses no electricity and brightens clothes naturally, eliminating the need for bleach. Weather conditions determine the amount of time required for clothes to dry on a clothesline.