Towels no longer soft

[Belladesconocida]

hello, how do you keep towels soft? Mine are rather rough. I use fabric softener and pop them in the tumble drier for a bit (20 mins ish) before line drying them - I'm sure that used to work. Is it time to get new ones?

they might have a soap residue.

If you haven't already done it, give the washer a service wash (no powder, no fabsoft, a cup of washing soda, the hottest longest wash it will do. If the water goes grey and foamy with old soap, do it again until the water stays clean)

Then put the towels in, no soap, no fabsoft, half a cup of washing soda, on a cotton wash (if they are coloured they are more likely to fade from the very hottest, longest wash; but OK if they are white). Again, if the water goes grey and/or foams up, that will be old soap residue coming out. Do it again until the water stays clean.

Cool washes do tend to leave more residue as the soap does not dissolve so well.

If you find this helps, buy a bag of soda crystals and use half a cup per wash for a week or two, see if it suits you. They are not needed if the water is soft.

Thank you pigletJohn, will give it a try!

Come back & tell us if it worked? :)

I dont use fab soft on towells and mine are still going strong after 6 years.

I tumble them if I want them really fluffy.

Not tried it yet, am doing a maintenance wash with some special maintenance wash stuff (possibly not actually required but hey ho)- attempt to get to shop to buy washing soda yesterday was cruelly thwarted by DD1 screaming so much I thought "sack it, to the back garden we shall go". Will try again today.

. (impatient, sympathise with the failing to get out when kids are at home & unccooperative little gits)

Clothes actually smell nicer with the washing soda than with fabric softener, but towels still the same.
Fluffycloudland's post got me thinking though, they are exceedingly old towels, maybe 10 years or so.

What temp did you use?

Try this , normal fab soft isn't that good for towels. Although I don't use any softner at all, and a combination of line and tumble drying.

Vinegars a softner too. I like a hard towel tbh but dh doesnt.

bike - it has bad reviews (unless lakelanders are difficult to please).

fluffy, I washed one load at 95, partly tumble dried then line dried, rough.

I then washed another load at 50 and tumble dried. Not so rough! Thing is, now I can't tell if they're softer than they used to be, or just softer compared to the roughians. I think the former, result!

Will continue washing towels at 50 and tumble drying them.

Thanks pigletJohn

I try to put mine on the line until damp, then finish off in the tumble for fluffiness. Uses less electricity. But I have a water softener so they don't go hard.

Interesting, I've always done it the other way round - will give that a try too

So tumble drying is what made them softer, not the temp you washed at?

I've always been told never to use fabric softener on towels. Never have done and have soft towels.

I read somewhere that using white vinegar in place of fabric softener will bring back the fluffiness to very old towels. Haven't tried it yet myself, but I do intend to.
Let me know if it works.

I imagine the vinegar removes some of the accumulated limescale