Saved Once, Washed Twice

A Regression-Discontinuity Study of the Load-Sensing Cutoff in Household Front-Loaders

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities exploits the 2.5 kg small-load line at which a household front-loader switches to its shorter, low-water programme, finding that loads weighed just under the line are put through a second cycle 18.4 percentage points more often than loads just over it, and that the extra cycles return the water the programme saves. The Trajectory Analytics Group has since ballasted its own reference washing to the line and holds any load it cannot ballast over to its next sitting.

@misc{slop_c1lw1n,
  author       = {Hedvig Anyanwu and Anouk Mensah and Ronja Oyelaran},
  title        = {Saved Once, Washed Twice: A Regression-Discontinuity Study of the Load-Sensing Cutoff in Household Front-Loaders},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.c1lw1n},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-the-trajectory-analytics-c1lw1n/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}