Towel maintenance

[McWheels]

Towel management, a wonderful thread.

Vinegar --- or Calgon. Been using it solidly for years, eats elastic eventually but prevents any accretion of limescale and one's washing machine does indeed live longer. I have to annually soak the "shower head" above the powder tray in kil-roc, but everything downstream stays in good fettle.

Towels just seem to gradually wear down, no spikiness or 'owt.

[Brucey]

the issue with soap scum making your towels crispy is, I believe, particular to hard water areas.   Not only does rinsing 'n' times not remove all the scum, but subsequent drying (by evaporation) will always leave the same kind of stuff behind as you will find inside your kettle.  Using added chemicals in the wash can help avoid this stuff building up but it won't avoid a fresh dose every time the towel is dried.

My dear old Ma worked out years ago that more spin drying = softer towels etc  in our hard water area and for many years she used an extra-long spin in her faithful twin-tub machine.  In modern machines more water will often come off with a prolonged (or repeated) spin.  You can demonstrate this to yourself quite easily. Leave the washing in the machine after spinning for an hour or so and see how much difference there is between the stuff  in the top of the drum vs the bottom. In most cases the stuff in the bottom will be  pretty soggy and would have dried more with a longer/better spin.

One of my chums has fitted a water softener and has been using it for a couple of years now. When I next speak to him I will quiz him about towels etc.

cheers

[citoyen]

We're in a very hard water area but I have to confess that I don't get that involved in laundry so I don't know how we avoid towel crispiness. But we do. I shall have to consult the chief domestic engineer. The aforementioned soda crystals and vinegar sound like the kind of weapons she would have in her armoury.

I should try to learn her mystical ways in case she is ever incapacitated and I have to take on more responsibility for this kind of thing. I know how to operate the washing machine, and am happy to do so, but there's clearly more of an art to towel maintenance than I am aware of.

[eckagain]

We currently have a couple of towels in our airing cupboard that are the best part of 40 years old. They might not be as fluffy as they once were, but they still do a job.

My dad was a coal miner and when, eventually, the colliery where he worked got round to installing showers (sheer looxury, eh?), the miners were given an annual supply of towels. In our house, they were called "the pit towels". They lasted for ever, and I don't think my parents had to buy towels again.

[slope]

My dad was a coal miner and when, eventually, the colliery where he worked got round to installing showers (sheer looxury, eh?), the miners were given an annual supply of towels. In our house, they were called "the pit towels". They lasted for ever, and I don't think my parents had to buy towels again.

My Grancha was a South Wales coal miner. Even when the Coal Board eventually got around to installing showers at the colliery, he still walked home, hob nailed boots sounding like horses' hooves, "black as the ace of spades" to sit in the tin bath in front of the 'range' as my Nan boiled kettles for him. He used to ask me to wash his back and taught me how to light his pipe before I was 7 years old.

Don't recall the towels though

[Jurek]

My dad was a coal miner and when, eventually, the colliery where he worked got round to installing showers (sheer looxury, eh?), the miners were given an annual supply of towels. In our house, they were called "the pit towels". They lasted for ever, and I don't think my parents had to buy towels again.

My Grancha was a South Wales coal miner. Even when the Coal Board eventually got around to installing showers at the colliery, he still walked home, hob nailed boots sounding like horses' hooves, "black as the ace of spades" to sit in the tin bath in front of the 'range' as my Nan boiled kettles for him. He used to ask me to wash his back and taught me how to light his pipe before I was 7 years old.

Don't recall the towels though

That post^ is steeped in history.

[Paul]

Try two things, but not at the same time.
Put a cup of vinegar in a pre wash (on a cool wash, not super hot!)
Or
Chuck in some soda crystals (half a cup maybe) into a pre wash.

I have both of these things (assuming you're talking about clear pickling vinegar?). I use the vinegar on the shower doors.

Please teach me the way of the wash.

I don't pre-wash things, just bung everything in the drum (clothes and liquid-inna-cap) and (generally) wash on a short, 30 (or, if the teenager's pits have been involved long and 40) degree cycle.

Should I add the vinegar alongside the laundry liquid (in it's own cap), and at the same time? And the eggs too?

Ditto the soda crystals when I try the same experiment with them?

[Mrs Pingu]

I don't generally use the pre wash either except for towel maintenance sessions.
The Dripak website suggests that you put your soda crystals wherever you don't put the liquid. So if the liquid goes in the drawer put the crystals in the drum so it doesn't go all clumpy.
They also suggest using vinegar as fabric softener.
So why don't you try liquid in your cap in the drum, vinegar (white) in conditioner compartment and crystals in drawer.

[Mrs Pingu]

I also recommend the soda crystals for teenagers pits clothing if it's a problem.

[Paul]

So why don't you try liquid in your cap in the drum, vinegar (white) in conditioner compartment and crystals in drawer.

Wow - I feel like I should wear a lab coat!

[citoyen]

The 'white' vinegar that costs about 50p a bottle is something we get through a lot of in our house - both for cleaning and culinary purposes.

[arabella]

fwiw, and obvious when you think about it,
a line dried towel that has been fluttering in the breeze comes up less crispy than one that has been hung up in doors, stationary
(same idea as giving it a good shake)