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We take our washing machine reviews very seriously and we're proud of the test procedures we've developed, but there's so much that happens behind the scenes.
So we thought we'd give you a glimpse of how we test washers, so you can peer into the wild world of appliance testing.
A lot of companies rely on the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers or AHAM to assess their own model before they hit the retail form.
The general gist is that AHAM accounts for the multitude of potential variations that can happen when you're testing a machine.
So that we can actually standardized from machine to machine Machine and compare them fairly.
That includes everything from the washer's water temperature and pressure to the size of the load and even how the laundry is loaded.
We also use [INAUDIBLE] approved detergent, stain strips, and other materials, all of which have much less variation that the stuff you can find in stores.
So the two main things we test are, one, how well a washer actually remove stains and two how tough or gentle it is on the cloths.
For stain removal AHEM suggest stain strips complete with five different stains.
Sebum or the oil on your skin, carbon, cocoa, blood and wine.
We use a reflectance colorimeter to test how well each machine removes The colorimeter measures the percent reflected.
So we can actually compare the results pre and post cleaning cycle.
So to determine general wear and tear on clothes, Aham suggests mechanical action strips.
For these odd looking five hole punches sheets, we use a ruler to measure all of the attached Strings that are 2 millimeters or longer after a cleaning cycle.
Thanks for watching, be sure to check out CNET.com for all of our washing machine reviews.
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