Towel Care?
 

My wife moans that our towels dry like cardboard and feel like sand paper when you use them. Not sure if its due to our hard water or its how they're cleaned

Anyone have any tips to keep towels soft and like new?

Some people say dont use softener as you lose the absorbancy, some say dont iron them, some say only dry them outside, other say the opposite to all three.

Re: Towel Care?
 

Once they're washed, how do you dry them? I find leaving them dry through heat (on a radiator etc) makes them quite stiff and rough. Never seems to happen when they dry out on the line.....

Re: Towel Care?
 

OOOOhhhhhh, I like a rough towel......leaves you feeling all tingly :)

Anyway, I think using good softner and hanging them outside makes them soft !!

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hmmm im not asking!!! ;)


yes Russ, Drying outside seems to make them better. But still hard

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When washing only use a very small amount of detergent (they are not realy dirty - you just want to refresh them) and do not let them dry for too long.
Softener just makes them water resistant :erm: (not too good for drying off with then)

Try this with one towel first, see if that is better.

Re: Towel Care?
 

what do you mean by dont let them dry too long? Are you refering to a drier?

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the only way to keep them soft and fluffy ;) is to tumble dry them

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Hmm, I'd have thought that once they were dry, they were dry.
Annd thus any further time "drying" is just a case of them being left out..:D

Why is this a fella's thread? wheres the wimmin with thier expert advice?

Re: Towel Care?
 

Well Silent Wings has turned up so that's a good sign :)

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Well, even on a lovely day, like today the towels would still go in the drier :)

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When I say 'not too long' I mean bring them in as soon as they are dry to the touch. I find that if I leave them out after this they start to bake and become hard and crusty.

edit: @ silent wings - oohh you electric waster you :D

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It also depends on the quality of the towels............cheap ones will never fluff up and feel soft..............egyptian cotton are the nicest

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Isn't it great having women around to be able to get such advice without being told "well if you did a bit more washing, you'd know for yourself" etc....

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You want to live in my household Russ..........they are all trained to cook and wash AND iron.................:pp

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Well me too but when my mother calls, I never do enough apparently... :rolleyes: :D

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Ahhh I'm one of a few females that has the male species suss ;)

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Can we not get that word put in the profanity filter? It offends me greatly :D

Re: Towel Care?
 

:rofl:
did you know swoop if you don't iron you clothes after the first time you wash and dry them and hang them up, (unless it is weird fabric) you don't necessairly have to iron them at all ;)

as for the towels....i agree with the statement about quality of the towel...... cheap ones seem to loose their fluff fairly quickly......
also do you leave them slung on the floor after they have been used?

softener seems to work, but i'm allergic to it............ tumble drying seems to keep them fluffier for longer, maybe it is to do with the static?:confused:

Re: Towel Care?
 

wot do you think jumpers were invented for?
you only have to do the collars on your shirts :D :pp

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:tu: My vote goes to aliferste, ours are soft and thats the way we wash them (Sainsbury's own brand washing powder and softener).

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if u dry it properly you wouldnt have to iron even them...... plus........you cant wear jumpers all the time, ie a day like today

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WHy not, it's good to sweat. :pp

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What on earth else are we supposed to do with them?

Surely it says on the label, use & throw onto floor before cleaning.

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AGREED!!

I HATE IRONING!!!

Which is why I never do it. :D

Re: Towel Care?
 

nopes if you hang them up and not let them get all crumpled all the time they seem to keep the fluff for longer, and dry better

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These are Christie towels, so not cheap. Left slung on the floor????? nope, trained the wife to stop doing that!! ;)

Re: Towel Care?
 

Spare a thought for my dear old mum though. At one point, me and my younger brother were at school, and my dad was in the police, while my brother was at work in the city. That meant ironing 23 shirts alone (my younger brother and I had to go to saturday school). Then we had, 3 pairs of trousers each, i'm guessing. Not including what she wanted to iron for herself. No wonder sunday became ironing day :)

It wern't as bad as it sounds for her though. She's a mother hen, she loves it. When I came home from Uni one weekend with my clothes washed up there, she was well disappointed.

Edit: Are they white towels, and do they go on boil wash? the 60/95 degree wash is for sheets normally, although I think some people use it for white towels. A wash that harsh would probably make the towels stuff and rough.

Re: Towel Care?
 

Wow thats pretty amazing. Next step will be to master talking to another female whilst walking and look where your going rather than at the other females face!!! :D

Re: Towel Care?
 

:LOL:

well im out of ideas:erm:

Re: Towel Care?
 

Hah! I point to the iron and the ironing board.If anyone wants ironing done in this house it's a case of do it yerself.Funny how NO ONE wants ironing done UNTIL I'm doing MY OWN clothes. :rolleyes:

So these days I never buy clothes that need ironing :D .

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I'm allergic to some, thats why I stick to the Sainsbury's ones, but I know comfort do a hypoallergenic one if you fancy trying it ;)

Re: Towel Care?
 

A dryer sheet helps too. I'll agree, the only way to get fluffy towels is in a dryer.

You really don't need to launder anything above 40 these days. 60 is good for sheets and towels, especially sheets as it kills all the bugs. The washing temperature has no impact on how stiff they dry.

Indeed the only things that get regularly ironed in this house are my work shirts, they get laundered on Saturday and taken to the launderette on Sunday for ironing. I collect them the next sunday. £1.20 a shirt to iron them. V. Good value IMHO.

Re: Towel Care?
 

For reasons which are unclear to me, this sort of heater is apparently not recommended for drying towels.

http://www.stargroup.com/images/hnt094.jpg

Re: Towel Care?
 

My poor sis has SIX sons - 4 at school and 2 at work - plus her husband - I dread to think how many shirts she does in a week! :Yikes:
Plus the 2 older boys change into another shirt for 'evening wear'!
Towels? Well I used to find that if I dried them indoors they would soften up with 10 minutes in the dryer with one of those softener sheet things in there. I'm allergic to most fabric conditioners and washing powders/liquids too, i find that Surcare is good when my skin flares up, apart from that any non bio liquid will do and a hypo allergenic fabric conditioner - most places do them nowadays.
(Can't believe I'm posting on a domesticated type thread!)

Re: Towel Care?
 

I can't believe this thread exists - and has so many posts, some people must be very bored :erm: ;)

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I find it relaxing, tho like most blokes I'm not a speed ironist.
I also find giving massages more relaxing than recieving them.
Did I mention I'm single? :D

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or towelcare is more important than you think :pp

Do not wash towels sold as microfibre with fabric conditioner.

The best towel, imo, is a fresh cotton 'terry' washed 60-70°C, pure soap or non bio, then dried outside - it feels rough at first, but soaks up like nothing else:)

Re: Towel Care?
 

The hotter you wash the towel the stiffer it seems to end up, though like many have said - it does depend on the towel. I also think how well rinsed the towel is and how wet they are (i.e spin them well) has something to do with it. I wash bedding and towels at 60. Occasionally I do towels at 90 if they're a bit mouldy smelling. I can't iron - it's a waste of electricity anyway. Think of the environment.

Re: Towel Care?
 

Isn't that because at hotter temps more chalk comes out of the water to deposit on the towel?

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I dry my towels in the hot press, never had a crusty one yet :)

(btw, 3 pages on 'towel care' .. you should be ashamed!)

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At least its not cling film

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Thankfully I accidently missed the "Foil Or Clingfilm" debate.

Re: Towel Care?
 

Thats a Wrap

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If you take a really hot shower, the water will just evaporate off your body. This way you don't need a towel at all, and you won't need to consider all these difficult options. Some kind off dressing will probably be required though :erm: , but that's another thread...

Re: Towel Care?
 

I can't believe it!

Three pages and 45 pages of messages on Towels and *nobody* has yet mentioned the Hitch Hiker's Guide...!

Whereas 1) I have, 2) I know where *my* towel is and 3) it *is* the official HHGTTG Towel! :PP:

Re: Towel Care?
 

Yes, but being a bloke my body can't handle water the temperature of lava like women can!

And it's official, Graham is a geek :D

Re: Towel Care?
 

its what discussion forums are for!!! Learn from other peoples experiences

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did you say page three on towels?? no wonder theyre crusty :D opps i think i got confused

Re: Towel Care?
 

Assuming there's chalk in the water :) Up here I think it's limestone, not too sure though. I was thinking that the heat affects the fibres in the same way heat affects hair. Dunno though. Thinking about my towels I know the big orange Ikea one never goes stiff but the fluffy blue one and the Taz one do stiffen up. Maybe the solution is to buy Ikea towels :pp