I am having trouble buying cotton bath towels. Seems the towels I bought, 4 sets of 100% Cotton (100% pima cotton loop) bath towels, are nonabsorbent (moves water from one area to another) and leaving lint all over. I'm not talking about cheap towels either, I paid $18.00 dollars for each thinking perhaps it has something to do with the price. NOT!
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I bought a set of sheets a few years ago that had a flyer in it with tips from the cotton council. One of the tips was that fabric softener used on cotton towels will make them almost non-absorbent. I quit using fabric softener & it was amazing how dramatic the difference! My only problem with this was that without fabric softener the towels were rough. I found an alternative online. You use white vinegar in the rinse. It removes the soap residue which is what causes stiffness/roughness.
As far as the lint - All of the expensive towels I have bought shed lint everywhere. What a mess!
Hope this helps,
kwedje
don't use fabric softener,instead use an equivalent amount of white vinegar in the place of the softener.
I have heard this tip many times.
hth
brenda-ohio
If you are not using fabric softener, have the towels been washed several times to remove any fabric finish used in their manufacture? However, I think that the word 'algodon' is spanish for cotton.
Try the vinegar, if that fails to help, take them back to the store!
I also bought new towels that are non-absorbent. The tag indicates "100% ring spun cotton". Does anyone know what that means? I have washed them using vinegar in the last rinse and have never used fabric softener sheets on them. But they are still not absorbent after several washings. I like the idea of putting the vinegar in the Downey ball - thanks!
Is the type of towel velour vs loop? I found velour difficult to absorb water.
Although I love all the beautiful colored towels out there, I have found that my white (or bleachable light colored) towels get rid of their lint problem quicker. Just a quick mention, I have read on some websites that residual vinegar can corrode the washer.
I think they just put cotton and the spanish word for cotton on certain items sold in this country. Were the towels washed before the first use? I bought some chocolate brown towels and even tho tags said to wash first I chose not to....big mistake....lots of lint all over me when I dried off....the joke was on me! Light color towels are the best and white towels and wash cloths are nice because you can bleach them. You can have a nice set of matching towels for decor purposes but white is nice for drying off.
I recently started using vinegar in the wash. Now I read here that residual vinegar in the washer can cause corrosion. I wonder if that's really true?
The nicest towels feel so soft when you buy them, but WHAT THE HECK?
They are as absorbant as a plastic bag when you try to dry off with them!
They must soak new towels in gallons of fabric softener.... the same thing happened to me.
I guess the softest towels on the shelves are the first ones purchased.
Try putting a cup of vinegar in with the machine's rinse cycle.
The acids in vinegar can cut through the sizing, which is the finish that makes the fabric feel soft when you buy it.
That's what makes the towels useless when you try to dry something with them!
It took about 5 washings, each with a vinegar rinse until they felt like my normal towels.
How do I get lent out of my brand new towels?
Wash a few times with no soap. Do you have hard water?
It seems the problem is universal. I have recently purchased six new towels to replace my worn ones. (with the old towels I had the same problem). Two of them "refuse" to absorb and I put them back in the washing machine every time I assess this fact. The other four are fine. Funny is that they were all manufactured by Burlington. I tried to elicit response to this question from Burlington, several years ago, but had no response. I am still wondering how I could speed up the process of my towels becoming absorbent (I am using no fabric softeners).
I found that using vinegar the first time I washed my new towels and clearing the lint filter four(!) times while drying completely took care of the lint and absorbency problems. Each of the times I cleared the filter, there was no way it could have possibly held any more lint!
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