Do you wash towels separately in their own load?

[JacknDiane]

I've always bunged them in with the rest of the washing, am I doing it wrong?

Yes. 3 people, 2 bathrooms plus dishcloths and tea towels makes a whole load a week.

Wash at 60 with no fabric softener and a cup of white vinegar.

Yes. Because I wash them on a 60 degree wash and always have enough for a full load. Same with bedding.

I tend to do them separately because then I have one easy load to wash dry and fold up.

Also, my washing machine repair man, told me to run a 90 cycle regularly in order to help keep the machine clean and not mouldy, and to do that with towels or bedding , so I tend to do the towels on a really hot wash.

I do the same.

Separtely at 60 degrees to kill bacteria.

Interesting! I see I've been very lax and thrown everything in together, I dont even separate whites and darks. I like the thought of washing towels on a 60 degree wash but my machine would take forever for that and I dont have the patience.
I didn't realise not to use fabric conditioner with towels. I've never noticed the difference. I like older rougher towels anyway, fluffy towels that fluff over you are a pain.

Towels go against all skin so need to go on a hot wash to kill any nasties. But they don't need to go in a separate wash. Mine often go in with pillowcases or undies which also need a hot wash.

I only wash 1 bath towel and 2 tea towls a week so not worth a separate wash

I wash them separately because I wash them at a higher temperature and I also tumble dry them which I don’t really do for anything else.

With 6 of us in the house the hand towels seem to only last day or two before they get damp so I throw them in the regular 40° wash. Every now and then I will do all the towels together on a hot wash, but not regularly. I have never used fabric conditioner and don't like pods, i find the old fashioned powder (daz) the best, we do have soft water though.

Towels don't need a higher temperature. They are the only things that don't touch anything dirty.

Sometimes depends on what else is being washed

Do you really think that the bacteria that would survive a normal lower temperature washing machine cycle (assuming the towel looks and smells clean at the end of it) would be a threat to human health?
We have bacteria all over our skin, and loads of essential bacteria in our gut. Our bodies are ecosystems with about the same number of bacteria as human cells (because the bacteria are 1/100 - 1/1000 as big).
Unless someone in the family has a bug and you’re sharing towels you will be just fine with non-sterile towels.

Yanbu, I swim, so those towels go straight in the machine with clothes, and barh towels too. It's bathmats that go seperately.

No, why separate them? They aren't inherently dirty. Dishcloths (especially) and tea towels are much dirtier. I mean who hasn't smelt pseudomonas on a dishcloth?

Yes I do separately as they fill up the washing machine when I do them.

My washing machine broke down one day. The engineer told me to put it on a hot wash at 60 degrees every so often. I decided to do my towels, tea towels and dish cloths every week at 60, to fulfill that requirement!

Sometimes, I put a cup of white vinegar in with them, as it’s supposed to make them softer?

Yes because I use fabric conditioner on clothes and obviously this makes towels hard and isn't recommended for them.

I do towels once a week on their own, on a “cotton” cycle. There’s only two of us so it’s two big bath sheets and two hand towels which is a decent load. If there are odd bits waiting like my nightshirts or face cloths I bung them in too. I never use fabric conditioner on anything.

Always separate with capful of dettol and at 60 degrees - other clothes not washed at 60 hence separate wash

Yes, I wash them on a hotter wash and I don’t use fabric softener on towels and cloths so they’re more absorbent.

Yes because they are red.

I let them dry in the bathroom. I don't have a second set.

I agree. I suppose I don’t think of washing clothes etc as killing bacteria, just that it’s getting them clean. I’d say we’re a pretty healthy household too, very rarely do any of us get colds, flu, vomit bugs etc. one daughter did get a cold a couple of months ago, no one else caught it however so I must be doing something right!

This, although people get very confused between sanitising, disinfecting and sterilising. We will never be sterilising at home. 😂 we are sanitising. And disinfecting if we use agents such as bleach etc.

Sometimes, not always, It really depends on how much washing I have whether i make an extra load or not