DOE has published a Federal Register correction notice pertaining to test procedures for residential and commercial clothes washers. On June 1, 2022 DOE published a final rule amending DOE’s clothes washer test procedures. This document corrects formatting and typographical errors and omissions in the regulatory text of that final rule. Neither the errors and omissions nor the corrections in this document affect the substance of the rulemaking or any conclusions reached in support of the final rule.

• This notice is effective December 23, 2022.

DOE has published a Federal Register notice amending the test procedures for residential and commercial clothes washers to further specify test conditions, instrument specifications, and test settings; address large clothes container capacities; add product-specific enforcement provisions; delete obsolete provisions; and consolidate all test cloth-related provisions and codify additional test cloth material verification procedures used by industry. This final rule also establishes a new test procedure for residential and commercial clothes washers with additional modifications for certain test conditions, measurement of average cycle time, required test cycles, tested load sizes, semi-automatic clothes washer provisions, new performance metrics, and updated usage factors. The new test procedure will be used for the evaluation and issuance of updated efficiency standards, as well as to determine compliance with the updated standards, should such standards be established.

• The effective date of this rule is July 1, 2022.
• The amendments will be mandatory for product testing starting November 28, 2022.
• Manufacturers will be required to use the amended test procedure until the compliance date of any final rule establishing amended energy conservation standards based on the newly established test procedure. At such time, manufacturers will be required to begin using the newly established test procedure.
• The incorporation by reference of certain materials listed in this rule is approved by the Director of the Federal Register on July 1, 2022.

For the latest information on the planned timing of future DOE regulatory milestones, see the current Office of Management and Budget Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. All planned dates are preliminary and subject to change.

Commercial clothes washers manufactured and distributed in commerce, as defined by 42 U.S.C. 6291(16), must meet the energy conservation standards specified in the Code of Federal Regulations at 10 CFR 431.156.

To determine that commercial clothes washers that are currently manufactured or distributed into commerce are in compliance with DOE standards, manufacturers must follow the test procedure methods specified at 10 CFR 431.154.

Test Cloth Correction Factors

The Test Cloth Correction Factors page contains the information used to determine the test cloth correction factors for each test cloth lot.