Does anybody have any actual science about rinsing and hard water deposits, maybe some links to explanations?
I've been looking and looking and I can't find anything with an actual explanation or even basic reasoning behind the idea that rinsing is bad.
As far as my understanding goes (which admittedly is limited to high school science!), water is made 'hard' when CO2 dissolves in rain, which makes it acidic so when it runs through rocks like limestone it dissolves them and then the water has 'mineral deposits'/limescale in it. When you boil a kettle or do a warm/hot wash in the machine, it releases some of the CO2 from the water, which makes the water less acidic so it then releases some of the mineral deposits as limescale/yucky stuff which can get left in your kettle or clothes. However, if you don't change the temperature of the water when it's in your machine, like when you do a cold rinse, you don't change the CO2 in the water so you don't release the minerals - it's not floating around as lumps so it leaves in the water as it came in. The warm or hot wash *may* cause mineral deposits but cold rinsing won't.
Anybody know why this wouldn't be true? Something glaringly wrong there? My own experience does not support the idea that rinsing = bad and I've checked with a hundred or so nappy advisors and they haven't found that either, but maybe we have magic washing machines and there is something else at play?!
I've been looking and looking and I can't find anything with an actual explanation or even basic reasoning behind the idea that rinsing is bad.
As far as my understanding goes (which admittedly is limited to high school science!), water is made 'hard' when CO2 dissolves in rain, which makes it acidic so when it runs through rocks like limestone it dissolves them and then the water has 'mineral deposits'/limescale in it. When you boil a kettle or do a warm/hot wash in the machine, it releases some of the CO2 from the water, which makes the water less acidic so it then releases some of the mineral deposits as limescale/yucky stuff which can get left in your kettle or clothes. However, if you don't change the temperature of the water when it's in your machine, like when you do a cold rinse, you don't change the CO2 in the water so you don't release the minerals - it's not floating around as lumps so it leaves in the water as it came in. The warm or hot wash *may* cause mineral deposits but cold rinsing won't.
Anybody know why this wouldn't be true? Something glaringly wrong there? My own experience does not support the idea that rinsing = bad and I've checked with a hundred or so nappy advisors and they haven't found that either, but maybe we have magic washing machines and there is something else at play?!
If you did, you'd notice it in your kettle, shower head etc. I used to live in nice soft water and it just wasn't on the radar apart from lessons at school. Then I moved to harder water and was fine for a couple of months then I was drinking my coffee one day and found bits in it as I hadn't known to descale the kettle... yuck!
