Four easy tips to help cut your laundry costs by £100 a year explained

WASHING your clothes can be a costly ordeal when you consider how much energy your machine uses and the price of some detergents.

There are ways to cut those costs though, and you could save as much as £100 a year.

has come up with a to reduce the £160 a year it claims each household racks up.

Turning down the cycle heat, or just giving your tumble dryer a good clear out could aid in reducing the bill.

Following the steps should knock the annual cost down to around £60 on average, and they are simple enough changes to make everyday.

Lisa Barber, Which? home products and services editor, said: “One of the easiest things people can do is to reduce washing machine temperatures, as switching to 30°C could save £13 in annual costs, while 20°C could cut £24.

“Maintaining your tumble dryer could trim your bill, as filters blocking up with dust and lint from clothes can add nearly £20 to annual laundry costs.

“Making the switch to a Which? Best Buy detergent could also save people close to £50 a year, with some cheap Best Buys costing as little as 7p per wash."

The advice is eagerly welcomed as energy bills are set to increase by a record £139 in October for 11million Brits, since a rise in the price cap was confirmed by Ofgem last week.

Households will be looking to bring down these costs any way they can ahead of the price hike.

Here are four tips to help lower your laundry costs:

Wash on a low temperature

If you wash your clothes at 30°C or 20°C then you'll be able to save on some costs.

Which? tested a range of washing machines last year and found that reducing a wash by 10°C from from 40°C to 30°C saved 38% energy.

Reducing the temperature a further 10°C to 20°C saved 62% overall too.

The consumer expert worked out that the average washing machine costs about £38 a year to run four washes a week.

If you reduced the temperature to 30°C then it would only cost £25, saving £13, and lowering it to 20°C will make it roughly £14 to run, saving £24.

Clean out the filter in your dryer

If you use a tumble dryer after you've washed your clothes, that is going to eat into your energy bill too.

But there is a way to lower the cost of running.

When the filters get blocked up with dust and lint from your clothes it makes the machine inefficient so it will take more power to dry your clothes.

Take out any larger pieces of fluff and hair from the filter to eliminate this and give it a rinse to make sure it's clear, but make sure it's dry before you pop it back in again.

Appliance giant Hoover, that stocks its own range of tumble dryers, recommends you do this before you start each drying cycle to help keep your dryer running smoothly and reduce the costs.

Which said that using the dryer inefficiently meant nearly £20 was added to an average £39 a year cost of running the machine.

Avoid small loads

Reducing the amount you actually fire up the washing machine will definitely cut costs too.

Though some cleaning fanatics have been left "disgusted" over advice to wash things like bras only once a month, and dresses "only when dirty".

You don't need to give up on cleaning your clothes entirely though, just limit the amount of total washes you do in a week by saving up for a full drum.

Once you've got a full load you can set off the machine and it will cost less than using it more frequently.