My boiler is broken will my washing machine still work?

Question

My boiler won't light, I have someone coming to have a look later in the week. Meanwhile, can I do a load in the washing machine? Does it heat the water itself?

Sorry, probably a stupid question, but I'm a single girl, I need to know these things. I have knickers to wash!

Answer 1

The answer to your question is YES it's OK,it will work fine & heat it's own water up & it will wash the knickers that some people think is a priority !! ( but you can bring them to my house free of charge if you give me a thumbs up!!!!! )

Answer 2

It'll wash your knickers in cold water, which won't hurt anything. We wash ALL our clothes in cold water and have for years. Much more environmentally friendly and saves a good deal on the energy bill as well.

Answer 3

Use a cold wash,and it will come out OK.

Answer 4

Your washer will work, use cold water.

Answer 5

Yes your washing machine will still work, all it needs is water. But the thing is that the water will be cold, and the detergent you use may not be capable for cold water. Go to wal-mart or target and get a small jug of tide cold water and use that. No your washing machine does not heat the water, the water comes directly from the hot water heater. Make sure that the nob is also turned to cold not warm or hot. Good Luck with the boiler.

Answer 6

well it will be a cold water wash since a washer does not heat water. But any wash is better than no wash at all.

Answer 7

some washing machines do some do not.  If your washing machine has a cold fill pipe and a hot fill pipe it will use your hot water.  If like my cheapest machine on the market cheers argos lol it only has a cold fill pipe fitting.

I can do a boil wash so washing machine must therefore heat it :P  A good boil wash once a month is good for the pipes low temperature washes do not always dissolve the powder or gunk or kill the germs etc.

Try washing in your machine and see how hot it gets if it does not feel the right temperature you can always boil a kettle and add cold water to a washing bowl and hand wash carefully.

Answer 8

most washing machines these days are cold fill only and they heat the water even if its hot fill it will heat the water to the correct temperature so yr washing machine should still work fine. when i had a problem with my cold water supply to the kitchen i connected my w machine to the hot water pipe and turned the boiler off so it took in cold water.

Answer 9

just make sure you set the water temperature on the machine to COLD ONLY.    i only use cold water for everything i wash, saves money on not having to heat the water for washing and rinsing the cloths.

good luck to ya

Answer 10

Julia L is right,unless you have an old machine it will heat the water itself.If you think about it,a really hot wash can be as high as 90 degrees and there`s no way you`ll get that from your hot water supply,so the machine takes in your ready heated water then heats it some more to the required temperature.A lot of new machines work on a cold supply only.

Answer 11

You should have a hot water heater and a boiler. two seperate things, one for Domestic hot water and one for heat

So are you calling your water heater a boiler?

The washing machine uses HW from the hot water heater

Answer 12

If all else fails, take your undies down to the local river and beat them on a stone - see that on UTube guys ;-)

Answer 13

Yes it will.  There is a heating element inside the machine which actually heats the water up to the temp chosen by the programme.  Most modern washers only have a cold fill anyway, it's very few now which fill with hot and cold.

Just make sure you dont have the 'economy' button on, as this will only pull in hot water(which you don't have), and not heat up the water, (which is not what you want).

It's quite a reasonable question, don't feel stupid.

Answer 14

Depends where you are! In the USA the washers dont have an internal heater and are reliant on the hot fill. In the Uk most machines (unless an American toploader) has an internal heater even if it is a hot & cold fill machine, though most machines available now are cold fill only and heat all the water.

Therefore in the Uk you can just put the wash on as normal and the machine will heat up the wash water (if you have a hot & cold fill it may take a bit longer than normal though)

Even if you have an American toploader you still can do a cold wash and you probably be surprised how clean things still can come out with a cold wash. You dont need to do anything different as the water coming from the hot hose will just be cold as the boiler is off.

Just go ahead and do a washing it is bad enough  not having any hot water let alone no clean knickers!!

Answer 15

you should know something like that u know! u should have tried it and see what happens like was your knickers hot or cold when u took them out of the washing machine and knew your answer in stead of asking us.

Answer 16

Your washing machine will work fine. I've never known of any washing machine who actually draw hot water to wash. Even if the hot water pipe is connected !I think that hot water pipe is a con because machines draw cold water then heat it to the temp setting, using more electricity that way.