Friday, May 4, 2007

Maybe it doesn't all come out in the wash

I enjoy ... well, no, I appreciate Consumer Reports magazine, and my wife and I often refer to the publication when making purchases for the home. By and large, the magazine does an impressive job of comparing and rating products, with very few missteps along the way.

But I've always been bothered by the endless cheerleading of the magazine and its publisher, Consumers Union, for unrestricted government intervention into every area of human life. It seems there is no product, service or activity that the editors of Consumer Reports don't think could be improved by the micro-management of tax-funded regulators. There's rarely any acknowledgment of the possibility that government can make things worse.

So it's with some surprise that I note the June issue of CR includes a grudging recognition of the law of unintended consequences. In a roundup of clothes washers and dryers, the magazine notes:

Not so long ago you could count on most washers to get your clothes very clean. Not anymore ...

What happened? As of January, the U.S. Department of Energy has required washers to use 21 percent less energy, a goal we wholeheartedly support. But our tests have found that traditional top-loaders, those with the familiar center-post agitators, are having a tough time wringing out those savings without sacrificing cleaning ability, the main reason you buy a washer.

The January change in energy efficiency requirements is actually the second phase in the implementation of standards passed in 2001. The first phase came in 2004 and doesn't seem to have had much effect on the results achieved by washing machines.

Apparently, though, with clothes washer energy efficiency, as with so many other things, you eventually run up against diminishing returns and something has to give. According to both CR and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, what's often giving is the use of hot water. Says a newsletter article published by the federal laboratory, "Most of the energy used in a typical clothes washer is used to heat the water. Therefore, efficiencies are primarily being met by reducing hot water consumption."

That does wonders for complying with government regulations, but not so much for getting grunge out of your duds.

Until the real-world technology catches up with pulled-out-of-their-butts government mandates, you might want to keep your old rattletrap washing machine going as long as possible. Chances are, it's doing a better job at cleaning your clothes than all but the high-end machines you'd have to buy to replace the thing.

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