I think this is typical for US washing machines?
Do (eg) European washing machines instead typically have you set wash temp to an arbitrary number of °C?
What the hell? That’s barbaric.
> Do (eg) European washing machines instead typically have you set wash temp to an arbitrary number of °C?
Not arbitrary except possibly on high-end machines but even entry-level stuff have temp settings for the usual stuff: cold (whatever’s out the tap), 30, 40, 60, 90.
Personally, I leave my machine set to hot for everything. Hot water is what I use for washing in my dish washer, in my sink, in my shower.. hot water is for washing. That's how I see it.
If you have enough laundry I expect you try to put stuff with similar requirements together in the same way you segregate whites and colors.
Though usually unless your laundry is quite dirty you'd go with 30 standard and shove everything in there, at 30 color shouldn't even be too much of a factor.
In all honesty I'm not quite sure why both are present, I think it's because older generations believed 30 would not be enough (as it's "human range" water), so 30 or cold would only be for the clothes which can't go any higher and 40 was the baseline.
Apparently USAians are washing machine philistines who don't need more than three temperatures and don't know what they are?
Anyway, this shows another challenge in these icons, the international diversity of washing techniques and technology.
(Edit: I found one possible answer online -- Euro washing machines may actually have water heaters built in, while American washing macchines may just use the existing house "hot water supply". So Euro machines can heat to desired temp, while American ones just have to take what they get! Why THAT was done that way, I don't know, difference in hot water heating technology choices? Euro houses don't usually have a central "hot water tank" like US has? Why THAT is would be yet another question...).
The reality is we are overthinking it - "cold/warm/hot" is about all we need, and "warm" is really just "fill as fast as possible" often, since it opens both hoses.
If I wanted to bother I could run the "raw" hot water to the washer to get 140° IIRC.
It's usually for really sturdy whites you want to disinfect after they've been soiled for instance. Use of that program has definitely gone way down over time. The energy requirements alone make it not a routine wash thing.
It's also used to basically deep clean the washing machine itself.
https://unimac.com/products/washer-extractors/high-performan...
Ah so it’s the same deal as the dishwashers, I should have figured.
> Euro houses don't usually have a central "hot water tank" like US has? Why THAT is would be yet another question...).
Commonly not, although it does absolutely exist water is frequently heated up on-demand.
However a better reason might be the same as the kettle thing: the US being on 120V, so getting hot water out the furnace or hot water tank is waaay faster than heating it up on the spot.
I think you could be right about washing machines/dishwashers, but as far as electric kettles... even at US 120V, an electric kettle is WAY faster at heating water to boiling than even my fairly powerful (bigger than traditional burner) gas range. (Not to mention much more energy-efficient).
I have no idea why electric kettles aren't more popular in the US.
But I never thought about the 110V/230V thing with regard to kettles. I guess even though electric kettles in the US are faster than the stovetop, they still aren't as fast as everywhere else with 230V? Maybe "faster but not faster enough" is why people still heat water on a stovetop here? I don't know!
I do not think it's because of 110V though! Even a 110V electric kettle is far faster than stovetop.
His main conclusion: Americans have less use for kettles since they don't drink tea (as much).
He also observes that electric kettles turn out to be faster and more efficient than other means of heating water for other purposes that are not obvious at first sight, as you also mention.
Not all European electric kettles are faster than American ones BTW. Mine is 1200 W (I think) which is in the range of what American ones can deliver. There are more powerful models available too of course.
Driers, and similar high power appliances, don't use a single 120V phase. They use two phrases, 180 degrees apart in normal residential houses and 120 degrees apart in apartment buildings. Any American clothing dryer I've ever seen has 240V (slightly less in apartment buildings.)