Drying towels together with underwear?

amother

Thu, May 06 2021, 2:00 pm

I currently wash towels together with Dh's white underwear on hot.
And then dry them together.

Dh is saying that the underwear can get burnt, and gets yellow-ish in the dryer because the towels take a lot longer to dry than the underwear and meanwhile the underwear gets burnt.

Does that make sense? Can it be a problem?

I know people do separate towel loads but it being just me & dh, it would be a very small load and it's easier for me to combine.

(posting in fashion and beauty because it seems lately the household management section is anon disabled)

amother

Ecru

Thu, May 06 2021, 2:02 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Uhhh I've never heard of this. And I think you would have noticed by now if you were ruining his underwear.

Amarante

Thu, May 06 2021, 2:40 pm

I don't see why this would happen. I have always assumed that stuff with different drying times will stay moist from contact with the "wetter" thing.

However, I do also sometimes check stuff midway or so and take out items that are dry and might have issues if they are over-dried so they don't get excess wear and tear. This is especially true for stuff with elastic and I assume his underwear has some form of elastic.

amother

Puce

Thu, May 06 2021, 3:46 pm

It’s also just me and hubby. So I do three washing machine loads
1. Towels on hot regular cycle
2. Whites (DH underwear and white shirts) - on warm regular cycle
3 . Everything else including dark items - on cold delicate cycle

I used to try to dry them all in one load (I have a large dryer) on low heat and even normal heat but then nothing got dry since the towels keep everything wet. What works is to do two dryer loads with towels in one on high heat and then everything else on low heat

challahchallah

Thu, May 06 2021, 3:50 pm

I don’t think it’s a problem either, but if you want to compromise, you could put all the underwear in a mesh bag so it’s easy to pull out part way through the dry cycle. The yellowing is more likely caused by protein stains like sweat building up over time. Make sure to use something like oxyclean for that. FYI, bleach actually yellows protein stains more, so it’s not a good idea for items that have them.

amother

Thu, May 06 2021, 5:32 pm

Amarante wrote:

True, that does make sense.
I guess I could try to take a look midway to see what's dry and remove.

amother

Thu, May 06 2021, 5:35 pm

amother [ Puce ] wrote:

I do 3 loads too:
Whites (underwear) and towels on hot
Dark/ colored on cold
White shirts on warm with oxi

So splitting the white would make that into 4 loads... and it would be very small.

I don't wait to dry the loads, I dry them as they come out of the wash machine.

amother

Yellow

Thu, May 06 2021, 6:42 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Why can't you wash the white shirts with the white underwear?!

amother

Vermilion

Thu, May 06 2021, 6:47 pm

My husband does one load of his own every week. It’s his white shirts and white underwear. If I or the kids wear something white I will dump it in his basket but this way it’s done how he likes it. I don’t put his laundry away for him either.

amother

Apricot

Thu, May 06 2021, 6:50 pm

I don't know about underwear getting yellow and burnt but wouldn't such high heat shrink them? I never put any of our clothes on high heat. I think I would dry separately even if I washed together.