“Cold water washing is good for your clothes, good for your wallet and good for Mother Earth," Brian Sansoni at the American Cleaning Institute said.

Washing clothes in hot or warm water may also work better in cold-weather states, where tap water reaches 40°Fahrenheit or lower in the winter, General Electric says.

Many people think using hot or warm water to wash clothes is better than washing them in cold water because they believe the heat makes their clothes cleaner. But some detergent companies ...