If I always use cold water for laundry, do I still have to separate whites from coloreds?

I keep very darks, like blacks or jeans separate from whites, but I do wash whites and light pale colors together with no problem

Warm water will remove more "stuff" than cold water. It's simple chemistry.

Why did I write "stuff"? Because "stuff" can be both dirt (colorings that you don't want) and dye (colorings that you do want, at least in the original clothing). Warm water will remove more dye from the colored clothing, some of which will deposit on the white clothing. Warm water will also remove more dirt.

Modern detergents work well enough to be used in cold water, but they still work better in warm water.

Modern dyes are quite good. If you've washed the colored clothing a few times, they're probably fairly safe to wash with whites. But not perfectly safe. The brightness/darkness of the color will be one factor, the temperature of the water will be another factor. A bright red shirt and a white shirt will be a problem in cold water and a worse problem in warm water.

No matter how pefect the dye is, you'll still get some link coming off the clothing, and red lint from the red shirt will deposit on the white shirt. If you wash a bunch of brown clothing with a few white shirts, the white shirts will end up with bits of brown lint on them.

Frank is right. Not only will warm or hot water remove more junk, it will also help rinse the soap residue from your laundry. I always wash towels separately in warm water with some bleach, to kill germs and mold, and also to keep lint off my clothes!

Also, the person who said that even in cold water, some dark or bright-colored fabrics will bleed. Better safe than sorry.

this is a lot more advantageous skill powerful to do higher lots or complete a multitude of laundry. you employ a similar quantity of electricity for a small load as a large, so its smart to no longer do such small lots. My washer is a the front loader (elementary) or perhaps as i respect the sparkling i'm getting, there's no thanks to change the water element for a higher load or smaller load, so it makes use of a similar quantity of water for large or small. may as well make it an complete load. on the grounds that I now have 3 foster children, this isn't hard to do pretty a lot each day, yet even as its purely me and the dogs, properly, it ought to take some days. i visit in certain circumstances pull curtains, or pillow covers, sheets etc a touch early to bathe an complete load, if i'm needing something washed now, in the different case I wait, it is going to likely be alongside shortly. If I have delicates, the wash cycle for that looks to run somewhat in a unique way, yet i'm no longer doing something that tender that typically presently (used to in my youthful days, even as dainties were used each day). Now i'm a convenience Queen, flannel in wintry climate, and gentle cotton in summer season. no longer the slinky polyester toddler dolls of yester year. Sheesh!

Keep in mind that no matter what temperature you use and what kind of detergent you use, colored clothes can still bleed. I'd separate whites from the darks, otherwise your whites will get dingey looking after a while.

YES! Be safe - separate them. I have had the dark run off on my whites. Especially if the darks are new. They tend to have dyes that are hard to get out of the white colored ....anything clothes,sheets...... The water temp. made no difference.

Whites would tend to get dingy especially when in the same load with jeans, will take a blue color, my boys had to learn the hard way...plus if you want to preserve that deep color, separating it and washing it by itself will keep it looking like new...for example black & blue jersey..too keep color fresh and neat..wash in cold all by itself so it doesnt get dingy

You can do them together, just keep in mind that you'll have to deal with lint from both, ie, you'll see white lint on your dark clothes and dark lint on your white clothes. If not too much of a bother, I'd wash them separately...