Front load washer ?

Starshiney

We just bought a front load washer/dryer set, but it's a very tight fit in the laundry closet... we're planning to widen the door opening soon, which will solve the problem, but I really need to do laundry today.  The front wall of the closet prevents pulling the detergent drawer out all the way... so can I just add detergent to the drum for a couple of loads?  Or is that a bad idea?  I just need to do this a few times today... TIA

lovethebeach16

I don't know how bad for the washer it is, but I did it once by accident. It was the 2nd or 3rd time I used it and I wasn't even thinking, I just threw the detergent in there.

ValerieF79

It's fine to put detergent in the drum, in countries where front loading is the norm, they have all kinds of systems you can use to dispense it from within the drum. It really doesn't make any difference whether you use the drawer or the drum, especially when you use liquid detergent.

EvelynHawaii

My DH did this a few times by mistake and the only difference I noticed was our clothes still had some soap on them but if you set the washer for a double rinse you might be okay.

rsarles

it isn't ideal to do this. The way a front loading washer works is water is mixed in with the detergent at the beginning of almost every type of cycle. This activates and proportionately dilutes the detergent. The new High Efficiency detergent (HE....you'll see this label on most detergents now) is actually almost 3x as concentrated in formula as old laundry detergent designed for traditional top loading machines. HE detergent is made this way because of the pre-wash dilution step in front loading washing. It also allows us to use much less detergent per load. As previously mentioned, if you just put the detergent into the drum, you will most likely use too much. Also, the water (which you will notice is a lot less than what is used in a top load) won't be able to properly mix with the detergent. In the end, your clothes may not be properly cleaned.