What Would Happen If You Just Dumped A Whole Bottle Of Detergent Into The Washing Machine?

​This is What Would Happen If, a close examination of mundane hypothetical situations. Each week, we look at something that you could do but probably never would, and take it to its logical endpoint. This week: What would happen if used an entire bottle of detergent?

Don't lie. You've thought about it. There you are, just doing your laundry, trying to maintain the appearance of a clean and normal person. You've put a load in, maybe even sorted between dark and light colors, and now you're ready to feed the machine with that magical cleaning liquid.

There are plenty of guides out there on how much detergent you should actually use, but what if you really just goofed it up. What if you took the cap off of your bottle of detergent and just upended that sucker into the detergent tray until the bottle ran dry? And then, you wild person you, you hit start on the machine. Just what exactly would go down?

Well, depending on the machine, things will probably be fine at first. The machine will start to soak the clothes, and not much will happen. But then the agitation cycle will hit, and that's when things start to get out of control. The excess amount of detergent will be released into the damp pile of clothes, and the drum will start to move back and forth, inducing the suds to form. And they'll continue to form until the drum of the washing machine can no longer hold them. Depending on the design, the suds will either start to exit out the very tray you put the detergent into, out the seams around the door to the machine, or both. It'll basically look like your washing machine is bleeding soap suds — probably even more violently if there are any remaining once the machine hits the spin cycle.

 Your clothes will, most likely, smell intensely of detergent and probably sport a thin detergent film, your washing machine's rinse cycle proving to be inadequate at rinsing out the stupid amount of detergent your clothes absorbed.

As incredible as it sounds, you wouldn't be the first to try this. In fact, this kinda thing is so prevalent that Underwriters Laboratories, the engineering firm that ensures that your appliances don't kill or maim you, tests for this very specific thing. Granted, they don't throw a whole dang bottle into the machine, but the UL's over-sudsing test involves setting the machine to its maximum capacity for water flow and water temperature and gradually adding detergent until the suds begin to flow out through the openings of the washing tub or back through the detergent dispenser, UL's Director of Consumer Safety John Drengenberg explains.

Based on UL's testing procedure, it's clear that no matter the machine, it's not a question of if but when an obnoxious amount of suds will ooze out of your machine. And if you add an entire bottle of detergent, oh boy, you'll see some suds.

But is that it? Will your thirst for the unknown only result in some annoying cleanup? Well, for the first time through, yes, says Dregenberg. You see, the over-sudsing test isn't a test of "will it over-suds?" but rather a test of "will over-sudsing break the machine?" If the machine stops working after getting being oversuds'd, then it won't pass certification with the UL. If the suds break down some of the insulation in the internal wiring or gets into the motor and creates an electrical hazard, then it won't pass certification. And as far back as Dregenberg can remember, he's been at UL for nearly half a century now, this oversudsing test has been a staple of a UL-certified washing machine.

"We want to make sure no electrical insulation is breached in any way," says Dregenberg. "We want to make sure no electrical current-carrying parts are getting wet. That could be a safety hazard."

This test, however, does not cover what might happen if you continually induce over-sudsing. Maybe it'll be the fourth or fifth bottle dropped into the belly of your machine that will finally expose its electrical fury or force it to give up the ghost.

Of course, this isn't the only way you could potentially mess with your washing machine. You could manage to run it without water — maybe by forgetting to turn on a nearby water valve, or trying to wash a load while your water is shut off — which would not be good. Thankfully, the UL tests for that as well — ensuring that neither the clothes or the machine itself doesn't catch flame says Dregenberg.

Another potential hazard comes during the spin cycle. Maybe you have a top-loading washing machine and you want to pull something out before the machine finishes its thing. Like you really need to get a pair of underwear into the dryer in order to get to work on time. "Well, that rotating drum has enough angular moment to rip your arm off," says Dregenberg. But, as you can probably already guess, the UL requires its certified washing machines to employ a braking system, so if you do foolishly decide to lift the lid before the machine is done, that drum will stop spinning in seconds, saving you an arm.

So yeah, if you're bored and want to make a mess, go ahead and pump your machine full of detergent. It'll probably be messy, and it'll probably be fine.

Further Reading

The Sweethome's Guide To The Best Laundry Detergent

Better Homes And Gardens' Guide To Hand-Washing Clothes

Bob Vila's Guide To Removing Soap Scum

Next Week

What if you just stopped cutting your nails?