Is a 7 Kg Washing Machine Enough?

7 kg is an incredibly popular size washing machine to get. But is this the right size appliance for your home?

Find out if a 7 kg washer is going to be enough for your family’s washing needs below.

 

How to Decide If a 7 Kg Washing Machine Is Right for You

A quick way to decide if a 7 kg washing machine is enough for you is to weigh your average washing piles. If it’s less than 7 kg, then a 7 kg washing machine might be a good size for you.

A 7 kg washing machine is usually big enough for a family of four people. It can typically hold fourteen pairs of women’s jeans (weighing 0.5 kg each), or ten cotton towels (weighing 0.7 kg each) as a point of reference. (For more weight estimates see our weight calculator).

In addition to suiting a family of four, a 7 kg appliance is suitable for people who like to divide their washing piles up into various loads, towels, bedding, white clothes and coloured clothes, for example.

By narrowing down laundry piles, you have smaller, more specific loads to add to the drum. In turn, you can run more suitable cycles for the laundry you’re cleaning, which should work out better for the items you’re washing.

Following on from this, if you have a smaller 7 kg washing machine, it’s going to take you less time to fill the drum up with dirty washing, so you can run more cost-effect cycles on a more regular basis rather than needing to wait weeks to fill a bigger drum.

If you had a large 12 kg appliance, you’d have to leave your dirty laundry mount up for longer, or run it half-full, which wouldn’t be so cost effective.

If you have to wait ages to do a full load, you may run out of clothes while everything is stuck in the washing basket. Plus, the clothes will get smelly as they wait to be laundered. 

Further to this, if you buy a 7 kg washing machine, you’ll only have about 7 kg worth of laundry to dry at the end of a cycle. And while 7 kg of washing is still a lot, it’s much less than if you had 12 kg of wet laundry to dry!

So, it’s worth considering how you’ll dry your washing, as well as cleaning it.

If you don’t have somewhere to dry your laundry, it would be better for you to do smaller and more regular loads, like the ones you can run in a 7 kg washer, because you could dry the clothes quicker.

Leaving loads of wet, cold piles of laundry around a home can increase the moisture levels inside the property. This, in turn, can cause serious problems like mould.

On the other hand, a 7 kg washing machine may not be enough for you if you like to wash big items like heavy curtains, big blankets and extra thick duvets frequently. In this case, a bigger drum with a large capacity would be better.

Also, a 7 kg washing machine isn’t likely to be big enough for larger families (those with more than four people).

If you use this size machine with a large family, you’ll end up running more washes throughout the week, which’ll be costly.

So, it’d be better to get a bigger appliance from the off, so you can try to reduce your running costs and use of resources.

Key points:

• 7 kg is usually big enough for a family of four.
• It’s a good size if you want to run smaller and more specific loads.
• You can run cycles frequently, and you don’t have to wait for the washing to pile up, so you get a fuller drum.
• 7 kg of laundry is easier to dry in comparison to 12 kg, for example.
• 7 kg might not be enough if you wash heavy and bulky items on a regular basis.
• It’s not a great size if you have a large family, as you’ll have to do too many loads of laundry.

 

How Much Can You Fit in a 7 kg Washer?

You can fit 7 kg of dry laundry into a 7 kg washing machine.

However, it’s good practice to leave a little room for your clothes to move around in the washing machine when they are being cleaned.

So, although you can add 7 kg to your washer, it would be better if you didn’t add this exact amount to the drum.

Instead, you should fill it up three-quarters of the way. About 5.5 kg of laundry would be enough for a 7 kg washer.

Packing too much laundry into your washer and overloading it can put immense strain on the inner workings of the appliance.

Also, if washing is crammed into a machine, it can’t spin around freely, so it might not be cleaned properly by the end of a cycle.

 

Is a 7 Kg Washing Machine Enough for a Family of Four?

Yes, a 7 kg washing machine can comfortably manage the washing needs of the average four-person family.

However, if you do a lot of washing per day or you wash several bulky items, you might be better off getting a bigger appliance. This would allow you to do more laundry at once (combining cycles), and to save resources, time and money.

 

Is a 7 Kg Washing Machine Enough for a Family of Five?

A 7 kg washing machine might be a tad small if there are five people in your household.

A bigger washing machine would be better, say an 8-9 kg one. You could put more laundry in a machine with this capacity. This, in turn, may reduce how many cycles you’d have to run per week, so you could save time, money and resources.

However, it is not impossible for a family of five to use a 7 kg washing machine to clean their laundry.

In this case, a bigger family would need to run a few more cycles per week. This, of course, may work out more expensive in the long term. But, again, it’s not completely out of the question. 

 

Is a Bigger Washing Machine Better?

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, because what size washer you buy comes down to personal preference and situation.

For example, if you have a big family and you do lots of bulky washing, you’ll find a large appliance very useful.

If you’re a single person who does very little washing per week, you’re not likely to benefit from such a vast machine. Plus, it might work out costly for you to run half full cycles. 

Check out some pros and cons of getting a bigger capacity washing machine below:

Pros of bigger washing machines

• You don’t need to run as many washing cycles. This can be more cost effective if you’re going to do lots of washing per week.
• Great if you have a big family and you’ve got lots of washing to do.
• Good for cleaning bigger, bulkier items.

Cons of bigger washing machines

• Each cycle will typically be a bit more expensive.
• Usually have longer wash cycles, which can be inconvenient.
• You need more room to house a bigger appliance.
• You will need to wait longer to have enough dirty laundry to run a full load. You might run out of clothes in the meantime!
• Might be tempting to underload the machine if you don’t have enough laundry to fill the drum up.
• Usually more costly to buy to begin with.