Laundry Load Size Calculator
Enter your washer's rated capacity and the type of load, and get a recommended maximum weight so your clothes actually get clean.
How full to load it
Fuller isn't cleaner
It's tempting to cram in one more load's worth of laundry to save a wash cycle, but the physics works against you. Washing machines clean through mechanical agitation combined with water and detergent — items need to tumble, separate, and rub against each other and the drum to release dirt. A drum packed to its rated limit barely lets that happen, and detergent struggles to rinse back out of a tightly packed load, which is often the real cause of laundry that smells faintly of soap after drying.
The fill guidance below is deliberately conservative for delicates and bulky items, and a little more generous for a lightly soiled normal load, where the priority shifts from cleaning power to simply not wasting water and energy on an unnecessarily small wash.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why shouldn't I just fill the drum to the rated capacity?
A washer's rated capacity is its maximum dry weight, tested with laundry packed in fairly tightly — it isn't the amount that gives the best wash. Clothes need room to tumble freely through the water and detergent for the mechanical action that actually lifts dirt; pack the drum to the brim and everything in the middle barely moves, so it comes out patchy or still smelling of detergent. Leaving the load a bit looser than 'full' is what most manufacturer guides quietly assume when they publish a wash-performance rating.
Why do delicates and bulky items get the same 50% guidance?
They fail for opposite reasons at a full load. Delicates need extra water circulating freely around them so they aren't crushed or abraded against other items, while bulky pieces like a duvet or a stack of towels simply take up disproportionate space once wet and can throw the machine off balance if packed too tightly. Halving the normal fill line solves both problems even though the underlying reason is different.
How accurate is the liters-to-kilograms conversion?
It's a widely used rule of thumb, not a precise conversion — dry laundry capacity in kilograms is roughly one tenth of the drum's volume in liters (so a 65-liter drum holds around 6.5kg). Manufacturers publish the kilogram rating directly on most machines, so use that figure when you have it; the liters conversion is there for the times you only know the drum's physical size.
Estimate only. Check your washer's manual for its exact rated capacity and any special guidance for your model.