Warm water opens up the fibers and detergent can be released more easily. With today's detergents, warm rinses aren't really necessary, unless you have really sensitive skin. In the past, warm or even hot rinses were needed to get soap (real soap) out of the laundry.

Warm clothes will also release more water during the spin cycle (again, opened up fibers...) and save a little time and energy in the dryer - but wrinkles can really set in. Warm items are easier to handle than laundry rinsed in ice-cold water - remember Kathy Bates hanging up them sheets outside in the middle of the winter. Was that Misery?

Wool benefits from a warm wash followed by a warm rinse, but no washer does that anymore.

The warm rinse temp may be ATC-controlled to 70ðF or 75ðF or some such ... not a mix of 50/50 hot and cold.

The designated Woolens cycle my F&P Intuitive Eco toploader (dates to 2004) runs the same temp for rinse as was used for wash -- cold, warm/cold, or warm. I have the machine currently installed on a utility faucet with the temp controlled by the hot & cold taps. I ran a blanket on Woolens recently, selected warm/cold wash temp (manually set a tepid mix temp on the faucet), then turned the hot tap off for a cold rinse. The machine threw a hot-water fault when it couldn't get the non-cold temp it wanted for the rinse fill.

Thanks guys! Appreciate it!