Commercial Clothes Washers
As defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), “commercial clothes washer” means a soft-mounted front-loading or soft-mounted top-loading clothes washer that: (1) Has a clothes container compartment that (i) For horizontal-axis clothes washers, is not more than 3.5 cubic feet; and (ii) For vertical-axis clothes washers, is not more than 4.0 cubic feet; and (2) Is designed for use in: (i) Applications in which the occupants of more than one household will be using the clothes washer, such as multi-family housing common areas and coin laundries; or (ii) Other commercial applications. 10 CFR 431.152 Manufacturers have been required to comply with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) energy conservation standards for commercial clothes washers since 2007.
Current Standard | Current Test Procedure |
Ongoing Rulemaking for Standards | Ongoing Rulemaking for Test Procedure |
Helpful Links
Recent and Ongoing Activities
Standards
There are no ongoing standards rulemakings for commercial clothes washers.
DOE published a final rule prescribing energy conservation standards for commercial clothes washers. 79 FR 74492 (December 15, 2014). Compliance with the amended standards established for commercial clothes washers in this final rule is required on January 1, 2018.
The commercial clothes washer energy conservation standard rulemaking docket EERE-2012-BT-STD-0020 contains all notices, public comments, public meeting transcripts, and supporting documents pertaining to this rulemaking.
Public Meeting Information:
There is no public meeting scheduled at this time.
Submitting Public Comments
Test Procedure
There are no ongoing test procedure rulemakings for commercial clothes washers.
DOE has issued a pre-publication, final rule;correcting amendments pertaining to test procedures for commercial clothes washers. (March 28, 2016)
DOE published a final rule regarding test procedure amendments for clothes washers. 80 FR 46730 (August 5, 2015).
The clothes washer test procedure rulemaking docket EERE-2013-BT-TP-0009 contains all notices, public comments, public meeting transcripts, and supporting documents pertaining to this rulemaking.
Public Meeting Information
There is no public meeting scheduled at this time.
Submitting Public Comments
Current Standard
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.
Helpful Links
For more information related to this rulemaking, please email:
commercial_clothes_washers@ee.doe.gov
