I see all sorts of answers online, but am not fully convinced. I tried finding some research on the longevity of clothes between wash and wash + dry. Considering that it dries for hours just the mechanical movement should damage the clothes I would assume?
As others have said, both washers and dryers let clothes tumble around uncontrollably for hours at a time which can do varying levels of damage.
My best unscientific advice from doing both a lot is to keep load sizes small. Reduces the friction and theoretically reduces the drying time, which also reduces damage. Also, if drying tshirts with ink prints, flip them inside out to protect the ink.
I always thing about this as I hear my clothes bouncing around in there. I wonder how long one of those drying closets would take to earn itself back vs. a tumble dryer.
Washer and dryer both do. But in different ways.
A dryer can completely destroy some fabrics.
A washer on spin can also be pretty destructive.
The washer is the one stretching the clothing. Making it look worn.
Dryer primarily damages synthetic and satin/silks.
One round in the dryer is like wearing that garment 100 times.
My dryer only has a low and a high setting and the length of time is human dictated.
I dry clean any really good clothing I own.
If I dry my clothes on high they are shrunk and sometimes ruined in other ways too.
Almost everything I own can survive the low setting with no noticeable negatives.
What do you suppose you’re removing from the lint trap?
I know this question is intended as a joke but it has me thinking. What is lint, actually? If its from our clothing then why is it always the same colour? Like, why can I put in a load of white clothing but the lint is still black? Is the lint burnt? Or is lint a byproduct of laundry soap? Or is it both from our clothing and our laundry soap? I genuinely don’t know. I’ve never thought about it before
Wat. Mine is always the average colour of the load.
It changes color
i see. But why?
It’s a similar reason that if you mix a bunch of crayons together they turn brown. They don’t always turn brown, they just usually do if you use all the colors.
If you dry a load of pure white towels, 100% cotton, you’ll get different lint than if you do all black polyester workout shirts.
Okay this is a satisfying response, thank you. I’ll have to test that out with the white towels. I’ve never noticed that before but it makes perfect sense.
The dead skin of my clothes.
Washing clothes defnetely damages your clothes. If you want your clothes to last as long as possible only wash them when they need them not just because you’ve worn them for a day. Also you can air them out instead of washing them to reduce the amount of wash cycles.
This, the process of washing clothing degrades it, in the washer and dryer. As well yes, you don’t need to wash something because you wore it once save for undergarments.
Replace your undergarments everyday because they will absorb the most sweat and oil from your body as well as any other material. That leaves external causes of soiling which are easy to mitigate. So you can wear a single pair of pants easily for a week. You replace your undershirt every 2-3 days and can wear an over shirt for a week as well. Just that people notice shirts more often so rotate your top.
Realistically, unless you’re in a profession where external soiling of clothing is high, you only need to do laundry once every 2 weeks deal. This save money, water, and reduces waste water with harsh chemicals in it.
either that or get gentler machines. i have an impeller driven washer and portable dryer that doesn’t ridiculously hot and my clothes has lasted for literal decades now.
it also helps being naked 99% of the time too. lol
Have you ever cleaned out a lint trap? All that lint used to be part of the clothes.
Serious question. I know this may sound silly, but why does the lint change colour then? Like, if I dry a load of white clothing then why does the lint still come out black?
My lint is always the color of the clothes in the dryer.
If yours isn’t, I’d start by deep cleaning your machine. Take the back panel off and vacuum any lint throughout the whole thing.
If you think it’s burning it to make it black. You’ve got a potential fire in your future you need to address.
Well until very recently I had a shared laundry set-up, where I was sharing two laundry machines with everyone in my apartment building. That might explain why it’s all black. I don’t think its actually burning theres probably just a lot of gunk in the system
Just wanted to comment this. The amount of lint can be quite shocking, but explains why e.g. t-shirts seem to get thinner over time…
By rules of physics it will damage it. Its rubbing against other clothes, its getting blasted with heat and it’s getting folded/bended over and over.
Damage is dependent on the material, but dor sure it wears them down.See thats the distinction that I’m curious about.
When articles say “Do not tumble dry” I wonder “Are we concerned about the heat from an old fashioned rotating oven or the mechanical stress on the fabric?” because I have a fancy pants heat pump dryer and my wife still insists it will somehow ruin the clothes.
Wife is always right! - Aside of the joke, I would attack this from an other point.
If the pants has a ‘permanent’ crease the dryer definitely will remove it, and the ironing will be a nightmare afterwards.
If you have garment bags you can always use it for the dryer, it would prevent some damage: stretching and so on.
If the price of your pants is less than a “disposable” amount for your family - probably not worth the hassle. If it’s pricey then honestly it is not that much more work to hang it on a pants hanger to dry. In that case it’s better safe than sorry.
I’ve heard stories about dry cleaners just using washing machines in the back, never got caught and got great reviews. So there is that. ;)I’ve always had the argument about baby/toddler clothes.
We dont buy expensive stuff, they get absolutely trashed by food, dirt, poop, paint, markers… but she still insists on air drying because the label says so. We’re due to have our second in a bit over a month so I imagine this is going to become a topic again.
Something to consider: damage from drying machines is apparently one way we inadvertently injest microplastics (the synthetic materials in the clothing gets broken up and then is ingesting through the skin). Might be something worth avoiding for your baby (though the convenience of a dryer is still hard to argue with).
Its the heat, mostly. If you use the low or very low/delicate settings, it will help.
I find that there is no benefit from using medium or high heat. It just shrinks my clothes. Low/delicate doesn’t and I haven’t noticed any damage.
Other trick: wash and dry pants inside out to avoid fading. Also, this stuff only applies to fabrics that are dryer safe, obviously
Yes, I once lived in an apartment where the dryer would sometimes snag my clothes on the edge of the spinning part and they would get these spots at the point where they got caught that were stained black and stretched out or ripped.
There’s no doubt that it’s more wear and tear on your clothes.
Like if I put on a pair of shorts I’m probably going to sit around in them for most of the day and then take them off before bed. Several hours in the drier where it’s hot and they’re rubbing around on everything is surely going to be the equivalent of many days worth of “wearing them”.
The way I’ve seen people around me use the dryer, for sure. High heat will ruin clothes more than anything else, especially if it continues to run after everything had dried out.
Back in university, we had timed dryers that could only do either high heat or tumble dry low for an hour. Rooms were too humid and cramped to air dry. Of course, I wasn’t going to spend more money waiting for low heat to do its work. Clothes came out bone dry and metal zippers scalding hot. Only the large towels held up, everything else noticeably faded and thinned over a couple years.
Night and day difference once I got my own place with a condenser dryer. It takes longer, but everything is just dry enough at the end of each cycle. It’s also a bit smaller so I have to air dry parts of larger loads, but either way, my clothes have held up much better ever since.
I mean literally the same machine as a rock grinder, generated heat and tumbling items smacking into each other.
But like they are soft. And if you don’t use as much heat it is even gentler, which is why the driers that act as a dehumidifier without heat are even better better.
Which are the dehumidifying driers please?
I think they’re talking about heatpump driers. Mine’s barely even registering as warm in the tiny room its in. Run it multiple times in a day and the room is quite noticeaby low in humidity. I think in Europe it’s almost the only thing you can get nowadays due to the energy regulations, that’s at least the case in Denmark.
Yup, what other person said, heat pump dryers.
They use the insides of the dryer as the closed loop of heating and cooling. Heating air through clothes to get moisture then cooling it on the other side to condense it. Generates water but doesnt have a vent.
Neat use of the tech.
It depends on the fabric. A lot of synthetic clothes are now made to do well in the dryer. But if it’s 100% cotton, it can be permanently ruined in the first dry.
I only wear cotton. It’s taking a long time for me to notice a difference in size/thickness but that prob depends a lot on the type of dryer and clothes you have. However, I still prefer leaking cotton into the environment instead of microplastics
