Washing White Underwear in Hot Water

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philcobendixduo

philcobendixduo

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For as long as I can remember, I've washed my crew t-shirts, briefs and socks (all white) in HOT water with bleach for the longest wash time (14 minutes on my machine). I don't recall having any issues with this washing method causing damage to the clothes but now, it seems my briefs are shot after 2 years or so. The elastic is completely stretched out around the top and the legs making them very baggy. I have 28 briefs so they don't get washed THAT frequently. I know that washing directions are for warm or cold water wash but, really, who wants to wash underwear in cold (or warm) water? Is there ANY men's underwear that can be safely washed in hot water or do I just have to start washing in warm water? The brand, BTW, is Haynes.
 
you have to factor in the quality of materials used.....

as with anything else, not what they used to be.....

and as we learned with a lot of things, from a manufacturers standpoint, they wear out faster needing replacement sooner....

most designer names can be a bit of a 'your only buying it for the name'.....probably a few exceptions are Calvin Klein or Jockey seem to be a bit more sturdy....

we can always introduce you to some upgrades as well......
 
Two things come to mind. First of all, the quality of moderately priced underwear like Hanes and Fruit of the Loom has deteriorated over the years. I personally like FTL white briefs, and I’ve noticed that they aren’t quite as long lasting as they used to be. But for the excellent price and the good fit, the trade off is worth it if they have to be replaced more frequently.

The second thing is, if your weight tends to fluctuate, this can cause stress on the elastic, stretch it out and it won’t bounce back when you drop a few pounds. I know this from personal experience, because all my life if been up and down the scales, though not so much for the past 4-5 years.

I wouldn’t stop what your doing in your laundering practices, you are doing the right thing.

Also, I bought some Gildan briefs, which are another moderately priced underwear, and they seem to use a little better quality cotton fabric and elastic. But that being said, I’ve noticed that in one pair of briefs the elastic in the legs has stretched way out, and my weight has been stable the whole time I’ve owned them, so I think it’s just dud pair, the rest of the 12 pairs have held up great.

Eddie
 
Agree with the quality of materials going down

I've noticed the same thing. I buy boxer briefs at big box stores.  The better ones, but nothing at Target is going to be "high-quality."  I like to have plenty on hand and I replace them all in a batch so I don't have to worry about some being more worn than others.

 

You can't count on any brand or model being consistent, so when replacement time comes I usually buy a "trial" package and if I deem them acceptable I'll buy a month's supply of them.  The second to the last batch elastic didn't last long so for the last batch I switched to warm water.  Didn't seem to make much difference, they still stretched out.  I remember they used to get holes in them and the band was still good.  No more.

 

Sign of the times.  At least they are cheap!
 
Eddie, I also have several pair of the Gildan briefs and they remind me of the quality and construction of the old FtLoom. I really like them and they are sturdy and remain decent after numerious launderings.

When I worked for Saks they had a private label on which I would get a substantial discount. I decided to try a pack of three briefs and three boxer briefs. These things literally came apart after the first laundering. I mean the seams came apart, the fabric was pulled away from the elastic waistband. Terrible.

I didn’t return them, however, I did let let the manager in that area know my experience. I can’t imagine anyone paying the crazy high retail price for such schlock. Not to mention why Saks would have something so crappy in their stock. Last check they have not changed one iota.

I now have six dust rags that read “Saks Fifth Ave”... kind of the ultimate pretentious paradox.

Since I learned about using STPP via this site, I rarely, if ever use a bleaching agent with whites
 
Glad I'm not alone with having white personal garments--mine of choice are boxer briefs and V-neck undershirts.  Glad to know I'm not the only one who has a month's supply either.  I've experienced the same phenomenon as the rest of you.  I've been buying/wearing Hanes for decades.  I no longer use LCB any longer either.  Tide with Bleach Alternative.  This load gets washed mostly on Whites heavy soil which reaches a temperature of 125-130 degrees.  I initially did this load on Allergen after I got my Duet because the temperature was over 130 degrees for several minutes, but found it hard on the elastic.  Kitchen cleaning rags and terry napkins are done on Sanitize.  Drying temperature is medium.  I stopped using high heat once I had front loaders due to better moisture removal.  The sad thing is I've in some ways come to expect this.  I just got rid of about 6 pair because the elastic was so bad they wouldn't stay up any longer.  I'll see how long the new pairs (10) I bought in August last. 
 
 
I bought a couple packages of Gildan ankle sock while ago.  Love them.  They're not so oversized as the typical size 8-to-11, so fit more snugly, and are holding up well.  There were none upon checking again @ the WM source a few weeks ago.  Worn socks are recycled to cleaning rags.
 
 

 

I usually get my boxer/briefs at BJ's (yeah I know there's a joke in there somewhere). Their store brand. They wear well and last a year or so before the elastic starts to go. As for T shirts, Stafford (JCPenny) heavy weight T's are very good quality and last for years. Their briefs too are good quality.

 

I agree with Eddie, I wouldn't change your washing practices. I too wash whites in hot, and a bit of bleach. Can't stand dingy whites.
 
Hanes has quite a few lines of briefs these days. I buy the "Comfort Soft" ones because I think they're closest to the line they used to have. I also wash them in Hot. I use 1/2 cup of bleach in a large load in top-load washer (Maytag A606). The bleach does weaken the elastic over time, but I don't think it any happens sooner than it used to.
 
So good to know!

Hey guys.

I've learned so much from this thread!
I never use hot water or chlorine bleach on my whites, because the label says not to.
Yes, they tend to get dingy. (dingey? I never know how to spell that)
But I figured there was nothing I could do about it.
I've tried peroxide based whiteners, but I never felt like they did much, if anything.

As for underwear brands:
I've been loyal to the big names. FOTL, and Hanes.
It seems like the quality gets worse, basically with each waistband design change.
I didn't even know that Gildan made underwear.
I've already ordered a few pair to try.
And I'll take a look at JC Penney's as well!

Barry
 
Barry, to put it bluntly, I don't usually pay attention to care labels.  Why?  Because they all say wash in cold and if any heat is an option, it's "warm".  All this is probably because people are too dumb to know how to properly wash any more and they end up shrinking things sometimes.  Also companies are so afraid someone is going to sue them.  But I want certain things truly clean with hot water.  I cannot imagine washing cotton towels (of any color), undergarments, cotton sheets, cotton cleaning cloths and the like in anything but hot water.  I had some really dirty kakhi cotton wrinkle free shorts.  The whole lot of them got washed in a "medium" hot water (between 115-120 degrees). 
 
Tide with bleach alternative

Is Tide w/bleach alternative non-chlorine?
In other words, safe to use on colors?

Y'all have inspired me to start doing whites, towels, etc in hot water.
I'm ready to get a little rebellious! Lol

Barry
 
I've bought Gildan socks at Walmart but for underwear I use Fruit of the Loom and for undershirts I use Hanes crewneck. I used to hang the undershirts to dry but now I always run through the dryer and they look much better. I do not use briefs anymore but instead use the boxer briefs in colors, but haven't had any problem with the elastic.
 
I agree with Bob about washing in hot water. I wash just about everything in hot water, and never have had any problems with shrinkage. Most everything is preshrunk these days, they used to call this “sanforized”, but I date myself.

Yes, hot water washing does cause things to fade a little faster, but I’d rather have clean with a little fading, instead of stinky and grimy, but no fading. The only things I wash in cold water are the sheer window panels and the synthetic slipcovers in warm, which in todays washers is cold for all intents and purposes.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 9/8/2018-19:12]
 
 
Any bleach in detergent is oxygen bleach so typically is touted as "safe for all fabrics" ... but oxygen bleach can and does fade unstable (non-fast) dyes so the usage instruction always warn to test it on "an inconspicuous corner or seam" of such items.
 
Thanks Martin

We're pretty much Tide loyalists, but we use the "Original" in liquid form.
We've been pretty happy with it, so we've just stuck with it.
I'll check out the powder w/bleach alternative though.
Maybe we'll alternate or something.
Who knows...we might like it better, and that will become our go-to.

Barry

P.S.
And thank you, everyone who responded while I was (slowly) typing a reply!
 
Agree with eddie and martin

the cotton quality has really dropped over the years. I usually wear FOL because Hanes,well, they just aren't as comfortable as they used to be.

Either way, they don't last as long as they once did.

For tshirts, I have had good luck with Jockey and whoever supplies Lands End. I wear XLT and both of those brands seem to hold up rather well.

And yes,I use piping hot water and the appropriate amount of bleach along with A&H with enzymes.
 
Water Temp and Briefs

I didn't notice much difference going from hot water to warm water (which is 105 in my heated Neptune.)  I use Tide HE with Bleach, full dose, 25 minute wash period, no LCB.  Things still look clean to me.  It does not, however, seem to make much difference in how long the bands last.

 

I still do white towels and washcloths in hot water with LCB but this probably benefits keeping the machine clean as much as anything.

 

 

 

 
 
Socks

A majority of my socks are Nike. Most of them are about 7 years old and are washed frequently. They have been washed in Hot every time. Bleach, sanitize cycles, and steam cycles have been used numerous times as well. I have only thrown two or three pairs away due to holes. For the most part they are still very white. Most of our underwear is colored in our household. However, any white pairs tend to wear down quicker likely due to bleach exposure and 'over washing'.
 
Thanks....

.....for all the discussion on this issue.

I do think that declining quality is a big factor in clothes wearing out sooner.
In reading reviews for Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, etc. one will see many comments about how the material is thinner, the stitching is poor, the fit is "baggy", etc. NOT like they used to be made, for sure.
BTW - I now noticed that I misspelled "Hanes" in my original post. OOPS!
I bought some Jockey brand full-rise Y-front briefs and will see how they hold up (pun intended).
No doubt that liquid chlorine bleach IS hard on fabric as evidenced by spilling a drop or two on my "wipe-up" rag and having holes appear in it after a few hours time.
My washer is also hard on clothes being the famous direct drive "shred-more" with the dual action agitator.
Perhaps a shorter wash time....
 
Fruit of the Loom has deteriorated over the years

I live in tank tops in the summer.

A few years ago a purchased a 5 pack of Fruit of the Loom tanks at Walmart, size medium, they held up great though many, many washings.

Went back two years later to get another pack, also in medium, after one or two washings they promptly shrunk several inches. I had to return them and get another pack in large size which also quickly shrunk to a wearable medium size. Oh, and the price went up $2 to boot.

I noticed they had changed the place of manufacture from El Salvador to some other third world local but obviously their cotton quality had changed drastically as well.

Another example of Shrink-flation, in this case literally.
 
I'm following this...my husband wears undershirts daily; was previously quite loyal to Stafford XLT from JCPenney, but during their swirl of the drain they changed brands to Foundry, which was not nearly as good. He wears generally cotton boxer briefs which don't seem to hold up that well. I wash almost everything in hot in a DD Kenmore (we have a water softener), use bleach about every 6th wash on whites, never tumble dry underpants/socks, and rotate detergents. I rarely wear undershirts, prefer synthetic underwear (Under Armour/Jockey Pouch) and have a variety of colors and ages...they seem to really hold up better (I wash in warm and don't tumble). I do have a pair of Zimmerli briefs (from Switzerland) which are about 20 years old and are just as good as new--they're the industrial strength European type with 90 degrees on their care label :)
 
I mostly wear white underwear and regularly wash them in 120F temperatures, which my washer calls very warm or warm+. Never tried them at 105 which is called warm. Once every 6 months I will do them at 140F and no higher than that. I found that 140F will make short lives of the elastic.

I also don't use chlorine bleach in any of my laundry. I use a detergent with oxygen bleach and only use that on whites. For colors I use a non bleach detergent. So far I seem to keep underwear for about 5 or more years.

So I agree with the others - ditch the chlorine bleach which overtime can turn white dingy and yellow causing the opposite of why we might have been using it in the first place.
 
Issues with chlorine bleach

One major drawback with using chlorine bleach is the stuff is *very* difficult to rinse from many fabrics. Cotton and linen in particular tend to hold onto and require several rinses. The single one on most top loading washing machines just isn't going to work. If you can still smell a whiff of chlorine bleach on wash, then it is still there and going to eventually work havoc on fabrics.

Commercial/industrial laundries use chlorine bleach in controlled amounts and cycle is followed by several rinses, and then use of an anti-chlor to ensure all remaining traces are neutralized.

For the record many have long warned against use or over use of chlorine bleach/eau de Javel. Housewives were told to only use the stuff in controlled amounts and to rinse, rinse, and rinse afterwards. Europeans as we know rarely use chlorine bleach for laundry due to the long held reputation that it "eats" textiles. For cleaning that is another matter; you can find "Javel water" in many French supermarkets, but in the housecleaning product section, not laundry.
 
Smell of Bleach

I wonder if young people view this differently.

 

Just this afternoon I was talking to a younger guy (probably late 20s) at my gym.  We were talking about the various gyms in town and out of the blue he says one of his biggest complaints about his old gym was that their towels "always reeked of toxic bleach" and how he wouldn't use them and brought his own. 

 

I would feel 100% better about using a community gym towel that "reeked of toxic bleach" but I let that comment pass!
 
Out of the mouths of the generation who knows nothing but everything is toxic, causes climate change, evil.  Washes everything in cold water with some "green" detergent, all cleaning agents in his dwelling are 'green" and heaven help him if anything were a toxic disinfectant, and doesn't believe in using the dishwasher nor cooks anything at home. 
 

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