You can use the water plus option to add more water to a wash or rinse. There is a soak cycle on the wash that adds 30 minutes of soaking to the cylce. As it soaks, it will agitate from time to time during this soaking time. Actually it is not good to let clothes soak in chlorine bleach as it renders the effectiveness of the emzymes in your detergent. That is why when you use the bleach dispensor, it will add the bleach at the end of the wash cycle, usually the last 3 minutesof it.

Chlorine bleach deteriorates fabric, three to five minutes is sufficient exposure. Oxygen bleach, however, can go longer.

3-5 minutes at the end of the cycle is enough to turn my ex-white towels(dingy grayish from calypso problems) snow white again?

You may not turn them "snow white again".

Chlorine bleach is hard on fabrics and can actually turn them yellow with over use.

Get some oxygen bleach (the real sodium percarbonate) and use that with your whites. Best if you do this from the day they are new.

I have not used chlorine bleach in years (only sodium percarbonate) and people often ask how I keep my families socks so white. My kitchen towels also come out stain free and white.

Oxygen bleach works wonders on many jobs around the house too. It's great stuff.

Not to change the subject, but does (the real sodium percarbonate) disinfect like LCB?

I'm one of those people who LOVES using LCB, but I use it so sparingly. A gallon of bleach lasts me well over a year.

Soaking only requires that the item(s) be saturated dripping-wet in the wash solution ... immersed/floating in gallons of water isn't necessary. Many frontloaders and HE toploaders do have a soak function, which keeps the items saturated by: (frontloaders) running the drum for a moment every few minutes to flip the load over, or (HE toploaders) filling somewhat higher and running the impeller occasionally to mix the items or (depending on the design of the machine) running a recirculation pump to shower the solution over the load.

My Calypso has a soak option that rotates the basket at 60 RPM while showering the wash water over the load, with a minute or so of agitation twice during the soak period.

My Neptune TL soaks by saturating the load, then tumbling briefly every 5 mins or so through the soak period.

Failing your machine having a soak function to your liking, you can soak in your kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, your bathtub, or obtain a bucket/pail of appropriate size (dump the contents into your washer for a spin-out when done with the soaking). Home Depot sells an orange 5-gallon bucket.

the kenmore version of the wave force washer has a soak cycle up to 3 hours, is that long enough? I do not soak my whites, nor use LCB on them, and they come out snow white. I use Tide with bleach powder HE Hot water and extra rinses to remove dirt and detergent.

Ok guys...I'm getting the message that you don't agree with my need to periodically soak items that need it in as much water as I want in my washing machine..that's ok, to each his own!

I agree with gates that you could also try the Sanitary cycle with some Tide with Bleach powder and extra rinses.

As for soaking: the manual says that the tub is drained if the washer is paused for more than eight minutes. You might have to unplug the washer if you want longer soaking.

Alex

I have the Wave Force washer, and - yes - it does have a soak cycle that can be adjusted for a high water-level soak. When you select the cycle you desire, you press and hold the "Water Plus" button up to 4 times (perhaps even 5 - I don't remember off-hand) and that will give you the maximum water level for your load size. This will cause the fabrics to be completely immersed in water for a good soak. The Wave Force will do a 30-minute soak. A longer soak would require turning off the machine once the desired water level is achieved.

I hope this helps. Enjoy your new machine!

Tex

julescap, I may be the Soaking Queen here, lol. So I won't discourage you from soaking your laundry.

I soaked laundry for years in a traditional washer, just filled up the washer with laundry, clothes, and detergent and let it agitate a few minutes before stopping the washer. That was easy and effective. Using that much water, I could use some Clorox when soaking white cottons, and never had a problem.

With an HE washer (I have an HE TL too), though, it's very different because it uses so much less water. Clorox is definitely harsher in less water, at least in my experience with an HE washer.

With this washer, my white cottons come out just as white when I soak them in true HOT water (my washer has an internal heater), Tide powder with bleach (non-chlorine), and OxyClean.

I follow the same routine of loading the washer, dosing detergent and OsyClean, let it wash a few minutes, then press Pause. If the laundry is really grungy (like my dh's and ds's sports, outdoors hobby and work clothes), I sometimes let them soak all night with no problem at all.

Another poster who used to post quite regularly said she got great results from soaking, too -- she was quite the advocate. But I haven't seen her posting in some time.

HTH If you have more questions or comments, fire away. :)

@mara2008 ...Haven't checked for responses in a while. I was feeling a little ganged up on by the non soaking crowd..I'm so glad you responded, it was feeling a little lonely out here in soaking land! I am definitely looking forward to having an HE machine where I can actually have a tub of water if I want. I'd love to have a large utility sink for that purpose..but alas I don't have the space for that. Thanks all for the helpful responses.

I want to force mine to soak with bleach in order to get rid of the stinky smell. did you ever find out how to force It to soak? my old washer used to let it soak and doing a soak with bleach followed by a soak of vinegar fixed the nasty smell every time.