hi folks, again safely in the weeds 
a question from the housewife in me 
with modern washing powders containing enzymes which are active even in cold water, would that suffice for ordinary wash cycles? would save a lot on heating!
Yes, but it is highly dependent on the actual detergent used (some don’t have enzymes), and might not be effective on whites. The pods are generally better (or they can be better), since you can keep the components separate, which means they don’t have to be compatible/stable.
For interest, Stepan, the company that can legally import Coca leaves to the USA, extract the cocaine and pass the leaves on to Coca Cola (selling the cocaine for medical anesthetic use), has a library of formulas for laundry detergents using their products.
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Interesting.
Since I became aware of washing machines to today, never have clothes been washed in anything else than cold water.
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The wife likes washing in 40° water. That is also the default setting of the particular program on the machine.
I’ve mentioned a few times, as husbands do, that the enzymes really need no more than 30°C or so to do their job, and possibly even less. Thankfully, I don’t get any complaints when there is load shedding and the temperature MUST be reduced to cold… because a 2kW heating element on a 3kVA inverter… it works, but generally you want to avoid tying up that much capacity.
But generally speaking, the small amount of water it heats… vs the time and effort needed to convince your better half… pffft. Let her heat the water, it doesn’t make too much of a difference.
I also only use cold water, never really considered connecting the hot.
My way is the correct way BTW because that’s how my mother taught me. 
Growing up our house only had a cold tap for the washing machine in the laundry, so that’s simply how it always was. I remember a few times where my mom would connect a extended pipe to a hot tap to wash certain things, but that was like once a year or something, I think it was for winter blankets.
Washing powder have enzymes?
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tx @plonkster - i have adjusted the water pressure switch to increase the water on my unit and have been doing 40degree washes, but i’d like to get all but bedding and towels down to 20. as the water has increased [still have to measure present quantity] heating it is gonna cost
Top loaders have a warm and cold inlet.
Front loaders only have a cold inlet and make their own warm water.
I guess some homes are designed for front loaders and others for top loaders 
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yebo, makes them do all sorts of weird and wonderful things as soon as they are activated, like breaking down fat and blood stains 
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… your mother know this ?
some top-loaders have elements to heat the water - i don’t know if some have two inlets [most] and whether or not you could only use the cold inlet… most - all - sales people are confounded by this simple question
You can. If you only connect the cold it will only use the cold. If you connect both then it will use them as per your wash settings.
I learned it from her … and she is 83 today, still only cold water. 
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warm heart 
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