Does anyone have any tips on stopping my clothes being so stiff?

[electron800]

Hi,
I'm really getting sick of my clothes (especially towels) coming out stiff and sandpapery. I use persil powder or liquid and a full cap and a half of lenor concentrate softner. I have really soft water and almost solely line dry. Tumble drying helps them a bit, but they still come out rough. There is less of a problem in my Hoover with it's fantastic rinsing but theyre still not briliant. In the Whirlpool they come out awful even if i put them on an extra rinse. Is there anything I can do or am I just being paranoid about them?

Matt

 

[thomasortega]

There could be many causes. Most of them are related to the fabric composition or it´s quality. If this is your case, there´s nothing you can do, except buying new towels.

An experiment I did in the lab was boiling the towels for 5 minutes in an acid solution (white vinegar) and then wash and tumble dry the towels 2 or 3 times sequently to remove the awful smell. The result was great and I do it at home sometimes.

Other cause may be the excess of laundry detergents or the water hardness.

All manufacturers give wrong use instructions because they want us to spend more and consequently buy more.

 

[askomiele]

I work in a OPLaundy this month (summerjob) and even there they can't get towels as soft as new ones... high quality cottons must be used (softerness+)and to maintain softness, washing in hot water with not to much detergent, rinse good and put some vinegar in the last rinse (if you don't like the smell few drops of fabric softer) spin not to hard, dry them on a lower setting or... hang them out but before they are completly dry put them in the dryer to finish (works for me) they are softer when tumble dry... just try it see what works for you!

 

[lightedcontrols]

What I always do...

I usually hang the towels and remove them when they're almost dry and then finish them in the dryer. It will only take about 10 or 15 minutes and you end up with lovely soft and fluffy towels!!! Mark

 

[foraloysius]

If you have really soft water it's important not to use too much detergent. With soft water it's difficult to rinse properly.

I agree with Mark, using a dryer for a short period (on the cold setting is enough) makes your towels really soft and fluffy.

 

[dyson2drums]

Hi
That happened to me when i used lenor in the hotpoint but i then changed to comfort, no problems.
Try it to see it helps, a cool new one would be comfort sunshine the yellow one, my favourite.

 

[electron800]

I used to use comfort

and the problem was even worse lol. I use 120ml of powder for a full load. Is that too much?

 

[gizmo]

120 ml is 1/2 a cup.

that's way too much, especially with soft water. Does the detergent come with a scoop?

The older Hoover probably doesn't have a detergent saver system, so a good portion of each dose goes straight to the sump, waiting to be pumped out at the end. The Whirlpool is more likely to have a detergent saver ball valve in the sump, which means all the detergent ends up in the wash, which makes over-dosing much worse.

Cut back to 30 or 40 ml per wash and see how that goes. If you can't believe that could be enough, think again.

Chris.

 

[dyson2drums]

Hello
Firstly 30 to 40 ml of persil powder is not enough, i would say for a good wash use 70 to 80ml,and don't forget conditioner like comfort or lenor.
Hope it helps, worth a try!

 

[chestermikeuk]

Dosage!!!

Hi Matt, I take it you have a water softener then??? I would start cutting down your detergent by half!!! if you select a hotter wash even more, the heated water produces more sudz!!!

I`ve seen a Bendix front loader spew sudz everywhere on one tablet of daz on a hot wash with softened water!!!a splash of vinegar and a few drops of conditioner will soon sort the problem I`m sure!!!

Cheers, Mike

 

[aquarius1984]

Dont you just hate detergent that dosnt sudz in the wash.....

Lidl Formil Biological Liquid,

 

[aquarius1984]

For it to Sudz manically in the rinse!

 

[aquarius1984]

Servis

 

[aquarius1984]

I ended up adding a cap of cheap blue softener to the towels to get them to rinse.

Im sticking to the Wisk Automatic!

 

[electron800]

I don't have a water softner

just naturally unbelievably soft water. I'm gonna try cutting right back on detergent, using the minimum amount that will do the job. I'll try about 30ml and see how it goes. I guess it dosent help that I have some pretty old worn out towels (some from as far back as the 60's) so maybe some new really fluffy ones are in order =]

 

[jeffg]

Cotton and most other natural fibers lose its body after many years of washing and (especially) drying at high temps. No real fix except to replace it.

 

[whitekingd]

SUAVITEL FABRIC SOFTENER!!

 

[electron800]

Thanks for your help everyone

Turns out I was using too much detergent. I've cut back to 30ml now and everthing is great (better in the Hoover but it would be naturally =]). I'm also only using 35ml of regular softner and it does the job fine.

I guess as they say less really is more.

Matt