Spin speed is the setting on a washing machine that most affects what happens next, and almost nobody thinks about it. It decides how long the dryer runs, how creased the load comes out, and how quickly the clothes wear out.
What the spin actually does
The final spin uses centrifugal force to push water out through the fabric. The faster the drum turns, the more water leaves.
The numbers matter more than people expect. A load spun at 600 revolutions per minute comes out holding roughly seventy percent of its own weight in water. The same load at 1400 comes out at around forty five percent.
That difference is enormous downstream. Every litre of water still in the fabric has to be evaporated by the dryer, using heat, over time. Extraction is mechanical and cheap. Evaporation is thermal and expensive, and heat is what damages clothes.
So a better spin does more than shorten drying. It cuts heat exposure for everything in the load.
What to spin fast
Towels, sheets, and cotton bedding. These hold enormous amounts of water and they take it well. Spin them as fast as the machine offers.
Jeans and heavy cotton.
Anything going into a dryer, where the trade is worth making.
What to spin slowly
Knitwear, which stretches under centrifugal force while wet.
Anything with elastane, since high spin plus the stretch is what makes waistbands slack.
Delicates, silk, and lace, which abrade against the drum at speed.
Anything prone to creasing badly, like linen and cotton shirts, since a high spin presses hard creases into fabric pinned against the drum wall. A shirt spun at 1400 needs ironing that the same shirt at 800 does not.
Waterproof items, which do not release water through the fabric anyway and can balloon dangerously.
The creasing trade-off
This is the real decision and it is worth understanding rather than guessing.
High spin means less drying time and more creasing. Low spin means more drying time and fewer creases.
For anything going in a dryer, spin high. The tumbling will shake most of the creases out, and you have saved heat.
For anything being hung to dry, spin lower. The creases set as the garment dries hanging and nothing removes them afterwards but an iron.
For shirts specifically, a lower spin and a hanger is the whole trick to not ironing them.
Balance
A machine that thumps and walks during the spin is unbalanced, and it is not a minor issue. It wears the bearings and the suspension, which is a repair rather than a nuisance.
The usual cause is one heavy item, typically a towel or a pair of jeans, wrapping itself into a ball on one side.
Fix it by loading similar weights together, not overloading, and pausing the machine to redistribute if it starts thumping rather than letting it run through.
A machine that has always been unbalanced may simply not be level. It is worth checking the feet.
The extra spin
Most machines let you run a spin on its own, and it is one of the more useful underused functions.
Run an extra spin on towels and bedding before they go to the dryer. It costs a few minutes and takes a meaningful amount of dryer time off.
Run one on anything that comes out of the machine heavier than it should, which usually means the load was unbalanced and the main spin cut short.
When the spin is not the problem
If a load consistently comes out too wet, check the obvious things before blaming the setting.
An overloaded drum cannot spin properly, because the load cannot redistribute.
A partially blocked drain or filter stops water leaving fast enough.
And a machine that repeatedly aborts its spin is usually detecting an imbalance rather than failing.
The Phoenix part
The dry desert air changes the economics of this in a way worth taking advantage of.
In low humidity, air drying is genuinely fast. That means the usual argument for a very high spin, which is saving dryer time, matters less here than almost anywhere. You can spin at a moderate speed, get fewer creases, hang the load, and still have it dry within a couple of hours.
That is a real quality gain. A moderate spin plus air drying produces clothes that need no ironing and have taken no heat at all, and in this climate it costs you almost nothing in time.
The summer heat is the reason to still use a high spin on towels and bedding, since those are the loads you want out of the way quickly, and a wet load left sitting in a Phoenix summer sours within hours rather than overnight.
Hard water is a small third factor. Mineral-laden water is slightly heavier and mineral deposits in fabric hold water, so loads here can come out marginally wetter than the same fabric elsewhere. Washing soda in the wash helps with that as well as with the cleaning.
Where extraction is a different class
Domestic machines top out well below what commercial equipment does, and extraction speed is the specification that most affects everything downstream.
The machines at our self-service laundry on North 16th Street spin at considerably higher extraction speeds than home units, so loads reach the dryer with far less water in them, which means less time under heat for everything in the load.
Our machines and the store are cleaned daily.
Our wash-dry-fold service covers the everyday laundry.
The short version
Spin speed decides how much water the dryer has to evaporate, and evaporation is where the heat damage happens, so a better spin means less wear. Spin towels, sheets, and jeans as fast as the machine allows. Spin knitwear, elastane, silk, and anything you plan to hang at a lower speed, since high spin sets hard creases and stretches wet knits. For shirts, a lower spin plus a hanger is how you avoid ironing. A machine that thumps is unbalanced and it damages the bearings, so load similar weights together. And an extra spin on towels before the dryer is a few free minutes well spent.
WaveMAX Phoenix on North 16th serves north central Phoenix and the surrounding area. If your loads are coming out too wet, call us at 602-314-5706.