I guess my only words of wisdom would be:

Don't expect a dramatic change in the appearance of your clothes or the whiteness of you whites after they've been through your new washer a single time. You will see a change, but it will occur over a period of time.

Once you're clothing has gone through several washings, you will notice that things looks cleaner and brighter. I think you'll particularly notice this in your white underwear. After four or five times through a a really thorough wash, your Jockeys and T-shirts will begin to look much better. Going forward, you'll also probably notice that they last longer.

A single trip through a FL wash isn't going to suddenly make old clothes look new, nor will it reverse wear that has already occured.

Be realistic in your expectations.

Don't add vinegar with the detergent, in fact vinegar is often used in the rinse cycle in lieu of fabric softener to help remove the detergent.

As for water temp, fabric care labels are often very conservative. Look at it this way, your body temp is 98.6F, does that mean you should not wear/perspire in clothing that says 'cold wash only'? You will have to experiment with cycles to discover what you are comfortable with and what your clothing can handle. It is fairly well-established that washing machines clean better with hotter water, and that washing some loads (like underwear) in anything but hot just spreads the germs around to the rest of the clothing in the load. - DR

Thanks for the responses so far!

jamesk -- Thanks for the reality check. What you say makes total sense. I'll pass that along to my wife so I can manage her expectations as well.

dross -- Thanks for your input as well. I've kind of been wondering the same thing. If my laundry can't handle temps close to 100 degrees, how practical is it anyway? I know there are a few exceptions, but most stuff should be at least this tough.

Okay, so I have another question to add: I've read some posts where folks didn't even use detergent with their new FL machines sometimes. Is this because clothes washed in TL for a long time typically have a lot of detergent left in them?

Oh, and we can remove question (3) about permanent press. I found the Bosch owner's manual online, and it helped me understand.

Thanks again for this wonderful forum!

Schmidt

Well, I may have the answer to question (5) now, too! I wanted to see how the clothes would come out without the dryer sheets. So far, I've only finished a load of towels. I didn't notice any static, which is impressive considering that we're currently going through a cold spell. I've got some shirts running through the dryer now, so that will be an even better test.

Thanks again for the help! (And I'd still appreciate answers to the remaining questions, if anyone can chime in!)

Schmidt

When we got our Bosch 500 washer the difference in cleanliness was immediate.

We wash our colors on the Warm setting instead of Cold. We wash our whites on either Cotton/Temp Boost or XXSanitary, and our bed linens and towels on XXSanitary.

We use Liquid HE detergent (mostly All Free and Clear or Tide HE) and we use liquid Clorox bleach on the whites.

The machine does a fantastic job and NEW clothes still look new after dozens of washes.

Before, I always thought that washing Dockers or Levis got that "broke in" look automaticaly. But with the front loader they stay looking new for a long time. I guess it's just gentler on the fabrics.

We do get more wrinkling if the load is too big. Sometimes we combat that with the reduced spin speed.

We use liquid softener except on towels. It works great. I don't like the dryer sheets because they seem to clog the lint filter with residue and the coating confuses the sensor bars. I clean them with vinegar.

Can't get my wife to abandon the dryer sheets.

The leveling process is the same with pedestals or without.