What Does ‘Drain and Spin’ and ‘Rinse and Spin’ Mean?

By
David Johnson
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The Difference Between ‘Drain and Spin’ and ‘Rinse and Spin’

There are two types of people, the ones that just throw their clothes in the washing machine along with some soap and hope for the best. Then there are others who will try and separate all their clothes into different colors and carefully analyze all the settings on the cycle selector. Although the second way is the right way to do laundry it’s completely easy to ignore the tags on your clothes and wash them with no care. It’s important to wash your clothes right but laundry shouldn’t take much brainpower.

On your washing machine or dryer, there are many different cycles and each of them allows you to wash your clothes in a different way. You can dry your clothes, spin, drain, rinse, and iron them. There are many settings that are specifically suited for different types of clothes, for example, cotton will need to go through more intensive cleaning so there’s a separate setting for that. There are also different temperatures that you can wash your clothes at – some materials can stand a hot temperature, whilst other washing materials need to be washed at a cool temperature. Some materials can’t even go into the washing machine because they can get damaged easily and lose their properties. Eg. Duck down jackets.

Since there are so many settings, it’s easy to get confused at certain functions and programs on your dryer or washing machine. A common one that confuses people is drain and spin and rinse and spin. Both of these cycles have a spin process that occurs during the cycle and the words drain and rinse can be hard to understand.

‘Drain and Spin’ vs ‘Rinse and Spin’

Drain and Spin

Drain and spin allow your clothes to be drained of any excess water and then a final spin cycle takes over which spins the clothes at a high speed – this will get all the water out of the clothes in an attempt to minimize the amount of time that it spends drying. The aim of drain and spin is to get as much water out of the clothes as possible. The cycle is useful for getting soaking clothes to the point where they’re ready to dry – at that point, you can either dry them in your washing machine, dryer, radiator, or washing line.

Rinse and Spin

Rinse and spin will drain any excess water out of the clothes then it’ll add more water to the drum along with any detergent in the tray. Then, a final spin cycle will take over which will spin the clothes at a very high speed – this will remove all the excess water in the clothes in an attempt to minimize the time it takes to dry. Rinse and Spin is useful when you want to get your clothes washed a little more and remove of any excess water – this allows you to get them dry using another cycle, in the dryer radiator, or washing line.

During a rinse and spin cycle, sometimes no form of detergent is used as it isn’t used as a form of deep cleaning. It rinses the clothing with clean water and then spins at a fast speed to remove any moisture from the load.

The difference between Drain and Spin and Rinse and Spin is that drain and spin will remove all the excess water from your clothes and spin them to make them easier to dry whereas rinse and spin will wash your clothes with a little more water and detergent then drain it of excess water to make it easier to dry.

When You Should Use Drain and Spin Cycle

You should use drain and spin when you’ve got clothes that are clean, but still a little bit wet. For example, you’ve just done a cycle and the clothes came out soaking wet, so you want to get rid of all the water, but you don’t want to wash it again. Drain and spin will get rid of the water to make it easier for you to dry them.

Or, you put on some fresh clothes, went out and it started pouring with rain. In this case, drain and spin will allow you to get rid of all the rain water and will make it easier for your clothes to get dry again.

Another example is that you’ve just finished swimming and your towel is now soaking wet and you just need to dry it. In this case, you can put it in the washing machine, select drain and spin, and all the water will be removed from the towel. A spin cycle will then occur to make sure that no water can be squeezed out the clothes – this will allow you to leave the towel on the railings, the radiator, or the dryer.

This means that you won’t have to wash your clothes again just to get them drained. If you didn’t drain your wet clothes, this can be home to bacteria and this will cause your clothes to smell. Furthermore, washing your clothes too often can make them go stale, wash them out which means they’ll lose their color, and shrink them. It’s important that you only drain clothes that you don’t need to wash again.

When You Should Use Rinse and Spin Cycle

You should use rinse and spin when you want to wash your clothes a bit more before they’re spun and drained of any water. For example, you added too much detergent in the previous cycle now the clothes have come out of the dryer with extra soap on them. Rinse and spin will allow you to wash the soap out of the clothes and spin them so they can be drained of excess water. If you just rinsed and spun and clothes, they’ll still have soap in them – this is why you need to wash them with more washes.

Another example would be that you washed your clothes and forgot to put detergent in the detergent tray. In this situation, you can rinse the clothes again to get the soap out of them with water. Then spin them to get rid of excess water making them easier to dry.

One more example would be that you put on some fresh clothes before leaving the house, then you went out and fell into some mud. On this occasion, you’ll need to put some detergent in the tray and select rinse and spin. This will make sure that the mud gets out of the clothes and the clothes are drained of any water to make them easy to dry. If you chose to only drain and spin the clothes, then they will only be drained of excess water and they won’t be clean or cleaned with detergent.

Drain and Spin Cycle Time?

Since the drain and spin cycle is only needed to drain your clothes of water to ensure that they dry quicker, the time duration for this cycle is usually 30 minutes on average. The minimum duration for a drain and spin cycle is approximately 15 minutes because of how efficient washing machines are at draining and spinning clothes but for a satisfying drain and to make sure your clothes have the best bet of drying quickly, a longer cycle of drain and spin (about 30 minutes) would be best.

Rinse And Spin Cycle Time?

Since the rinse and spin cycle involves your clothes being rinsed and sometimes detergent being used to ensure that they’re clean, the time duration for this cycle is usually 45 minutes on average. Other factors can affect the rinse and spin cycle time such as too much detergent being used which triggers the rinse cycle again so now the time has to be extended to ensure all of it has come out. Another factor that can affect this time is whether you’re using hot or cold water. Using hot water will decrease the time, whereas using code water will increase the time. With all of this being said, the time of the cycle is determined by the manufacturer that you’re with. Some appliances like whirlpool washing machines will fit into the typical rinse and spin cycle time of 45 minutes. Whereas some Beko models take double the time.

Does Drain and Spin Dry Clothes?

A Drain and spin cycle doesn’t dry your clothes, but it ensures that your clothes are drained so much that the drying process will be as quick as possible. Your washing machine spins at a fast speed to remove moisture from the load, but not to the point where there’s no moisture left. If your clothes didn’t go through the drain and spin cycle, they’ll take a lot longer to dry because there’ll be a lot of excess water in them. A drain and spin cycle gets rid of all of that water whilst your machine is spinning.

Whirlpool Drain and Spin Cycle Problems?

Some people have reported that their Whirpool washing machine adds water during a drain and spin cycle even though water should be removed during this process and not added. The only time water should be added during any time spin cycle is a rise and spin cycle. Apart from this, your Whirlpool washing machine shouldn’t be adding water and leaving your clothes wet when they’re meant to have as little moisture as possible.
If the load is off balance the machine will add water to try and redistribute the load evenly. To check if this is the case with your whirlpool washing machine, check to see if you’re getting unbalanced load errors – this will indicate that you have bad dampeners. They are the posts in each of the four corners that suspend the tub. If the dampeners are bad the machine will shake too much and never get into a high-speed spin, leaving the clothes wet.

Which Will Save More Energy?

You’re probably thinking, I should rinse and spin all my clothes because they’ll always come out smelling fresh and they’ll be clean again. You should only do this if the clothes don’t smell so good, or they’re dirty. If you rinse clothes that only need to be drained, you’re going to rack up your energy and water bill. A rinse and spin cycle requires more energy, more water, and take a longer time. If you have wet clothes that are still clean, you should go for the drain and spin option. This doesn’t use any water and It takes less time. If you’re looking to be cost-efficient, then you should use drain and spin when it’s required.

If your clothes are wet and you’re looking for another way to dry them that’ll save you money, you can use the radiator – to do this, you’ll need to squeeze your clothes of any excess water – this will make them dry quicker and it’ll stop your wall from dampening. When you’re turning on your radiator to warm up your home, you can slap the clothes the radiator and it should be dry after 2 hours (depending on the size of garment). Another thing you can do to drain and dry your clothes is to leave them out on a hot day. To do this, you’ll need to squeeze your clothes of any excess water and put them on the washing line on a hot day – if you do this on a cold day, the clothes could take days to dry because of condensation.

If you’re only using the rinse and spin option because you forgot to add detergent to the previous cycle, this isn’t necessary. Detergent only makes your clothes smell nice; it doesn’t wash them anymore or less. If you’re trying to be more cost efficient, you can spray some perfume, or detergent on the garment to make it smell nice. If you put the clothes through another cycle straight away – yes they’ll smell nice, but now you’ve just increased your water and electricity bill, wash out your clothes’ color, damaged the fabric slightly, and shrunken your clothes a little more.

If the clothes just go a little dirty and you’re trying to remove a stain, you can rub some vinegar on the spot along with some baking soda and leave the garment overnight. Overnight, the area should be rubbed and wiped with water and left to dry. If it didn’t come out, then it’s acceptable to put then in a rinse and spin cycle.