What Are The Different Compartments In A Washing Machine For?

Front-loading washing machines often have a little pull-out drawer for pouring in detergent. Even top-loaders will sometimes have a small tray in one corner. The curious thing is that these containers are often divided into multiple slots – and it doesn't help that they're shaped weird. Plenty of people just pour detergent into whichever one looks the biggest and hope for the best. Most of the time, doing so even gets the job done. However, a job done is not the same as a job done well. Each slot in the drawer is designed for a specific product. The washer pulls that product into the drum only when it's due at a specific point in a cycle. Pour something like detergent into the wrong slot, and it ends up reaching your laundry at the wrong time.

Front-load machines in the U.S. typically have three slots, though several models come with four. Four slots means your machine handles prewash detergent, detergent, fabric softener, and bleach separately. Among these, you'd be right to think that the biggest compartment — usually unlabeled but sometimes marked with a Roman numeral II – is for everyday liquid or powder detergent.

Often, this particular slot also holds a removable cup for liquid detergent. Detergent in powder form stays in place until the slot is filled with water, but liquid can simply drain straight into the drum. Hence, the need for the cup. The main slot is joined by another, smaller compartment for prewash, often marked with a single I. The other two slots are for liquid chlorine bleach and fabric softener.

Besides the detergent slot, the other slots are typically optional, like the prewash option that has to be specifically selected for it to kick in. Prewashing is basically designed for clothes with a heavy soil level – it adds an extra wash ahead of the main one.

However, prewash slots are not all that common in the U.S. If your machine has three slots, the most common combination is a main wash slot, a softener slot, and a liquid chlorine bleach slot. The softener slot sometimes has a little flower icon, and it's always the last stage among the wash cycles. Machines, including models from LG and Whirlpool, automatically flush this slot into the drum during the final rinse. Just keep in mind that the softener should be poured in right before starting a wash. Leave it in for too long, and it may end up clogging the hole it drains through, which is just one of the problems fabric softener can cause for a washing machine.

The final slot is reserved strictly for chlorine bleach, and it's also the least used one out of the three/four. Some machines, like LG's top-loaders, even put the slot in the washer's front left corner instead of the drawer. That bleach is also used to clean your washing machine (which needs to be done more often than you think), like Samsung which asks that you put the liquid in the same slot for its Self Clean cycle. There's a second type of bleach, though, color-safe, which goes into the main wash slot in many machines.