Hot, warm or cold ???

[tnoy66]

Sorry for this guys, another MF washing question. Having read the Bettercarcare article on MF`s it threw up a contradiction.




MAINTAINING MICROFIBER

I’ve read a lot of tips on how to clean and care for microfiber. It’s really very simple.



The best general purpose cleaner is a liquid detergent. It’s better to use too little than too much. Liquid is recommended over powder because some powders do not completely dissolve and the granules will lodge in the toweling.



Wash in cold water only. Warm water can be tolerated, but hot water cannot. Polyester and polyamide both shrink in hot water. If you wash in hot water the fibers will shrink and the towel will not perform as intended.



Having read that, I then looked in a brochure from AG in Australia who recomend the following for MF care,




The dirt in the cloth or towel is trapped in the weave until they are washed. Machine wash regularly between 60 - 90 degrees. The heat is essential as it opens the fibres and unlocks the dirt. Do this when required or whenever the cloth or towel looks soiled



Hot or cold, or is the 60-90 degrees considered warm :confused: :confused: :confused:

[thinksnow]

60-90 degree water would feel cold (washing machine cold) to warm. Remember that 90 will still feel cool to the touch, as (it should be!) 98 and change inside your body. I always default to warm now. When I first entered the game, all I had were Wal*Mart mf`s and I washed them on hot every time. Now they are parallelograms and somewhat threadbare. My good mf`s get the "warm" and "gentle" settings b/c they are only used for product removal.



When the water temp is 60, I wear a full wetsuit:D



*edit*



Unless we`re in the Celsius world, in which case forgetting what I said is mandatory.

[tnoy66]

Thats another point, whenever I`ve read this 60 - 90 degree temperature guide, nobody ever said if this was F or C. My washer goes from 20 to 60 (in steps of 10 deg) and I`ve only just noticed it says on the front `deg C` :o (only had it 3 years :p)



I have washed sometimes at 40C (104F :o ). In future I`ll stick to 20C (68F) and 30C (86F) when they need a `good` wash.

[medic159]

I have to disagree with the cold water point in that article, it is wrong. The amount of shrinkage that polyester or nylon may have in hot water is so small as to not even be considered.



Hot water will always clean better, it helps the surficants in the detergent release soil from the fibers better.



There is also no household water hot enough to damage the fibers, I`ve even boiled fabric for some testing purposes and it did no harm.



The only reason why clothing manufacturers recommend cold or warm water is to protect the colors on clothes from fading. Since these are towels, this shouldn`t matter.

[chris0626]

:bigups Yet another example of why I`m thrilled to have Leo in Autopia. :bow

[Mantic6t9]

Let me throw this in. I tested this out a few nights ago. I recieved my new shipment from Ranny and of course i wash all my towels before use. I washed 2 in hot water and the rest in cold water using liquid Tide. Once i was done washing them i hung them up to air dry. The next morning i started to fold them to put them away. I noticed both towels washed in hot water were out of square and the onese washed in cold water were fine. I can`t argue with that and will continue to wash my towels in cold to warm water.

[GoodnClean]

My towels are also out of square from hot water washing...



Its VERY annoying...

[imported_ajbarnes]

Originally posted by DFTowel

I have to disagree with the cold water point in that article, it is wrong. The amount of shrinkage that polyester or nylon may have in hot water is so small as to not even be considered.



Hot water will always clean better, it helps the surficants in the detergent release soil from the fibers better.



There is also no household water hot enough to damage the fibers, I`ve even boiled fabric for some testing purposes and it did no harm.



The only reason why clothing manufacturers recommend cold or warm water is to protect the colors on clothes from fading. Since these are towels, this shouldn`t matter.





.............well, I guess that just makes this case close. What better person to anwser this question.;) :xyxthumbs

[medic159]

Originally posted by GoodnClean

My towels are also out of square from hot water washing...



Its VERY annoying...



This is probably due more to the thread or binding on the edges shrinking more than the towel did. In any case, it really isn`t important.

[chris0626]

I agree the geometry of the towels isn`t significant. But, Leo, does that dimensional change perhaps suggest that the thread used for hemming is anything we need to be concerned about?

[imported_jgv]

Every MF product I have bought with tags says wash at 80-90ºC, in fact, the first MF towel I got 4 or 5 years ago, from Scotch Brite also said that.

With all quimicals they get in touch with on the daily use, I wouldn`t ever consider washing them `cold`, and I don`t see how the waxes could be removed from them without `hot` temperature.

[Mantic6t9]

I agree with you. I hand wash my towel with tide and warm water. I no longer use hot water though. Hot water and hands = ouch.

[imported_jgv]

I only hand wash them if they had little use, otherwise I wash them in the washing machine.

[imported_vindaloo]

I always used 60deg C with no problems, any cooler & it just get the wax out of the fibres.

[k2dan]

Im going to check with my supplier but Im sure its 60degC thats the right temp. Thats on the care label and Ive never had a problem at this temperature.



A had a lot of trouble with shrinkage on Microfibre towels but since ive switched supplier about a year ago I dont have that problem. I think DF Towel is alluding to inferior quality ? with shrinkage or out of square problems and I would agree with that from my experience. It certainly wasnt the water temp.



Warm to Hot at about 60deg for me !



Dan



Sorry Guys 60 -90 in Australia is Celsius. Tony as we seem to share suppliers this is for AG Aust cloths which you mention