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?
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.
I think it depends. I’m my experience, towels last longer if they get thrown in the dryer. Wouldn’t throw my cashmere sweater in there though, if I owned one. The quality of the clothes you own plays a part. And most of us tend to go for the bargain over quality.
I feel like this depends on your climate as well. If you have sufficient sunlight outside, why do you even have a dryer? If it’s humid and stuff takes forever to dry on its own, a dryer might prevent certain bacteria to build up in the fabric and thus expand longevity. Although any act of aggressively drenching the fabric in water and chemicals and then blow drying it ought to age it by default.
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
It probably has never been researched because it is obvious?
What do you suppose you’re removing from the lint trap?
The dead skin of my clothes.
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Wat. Mine is always the average colour of the load.
It changes color
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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.
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Yeah, but only on a decade scale. There’s friction involved, there’s going to be some damage. If a tumble dryer–on low–manages to wreck a garment, it’s probably been dodging stains and tears for a very long time.
That said, graphic tees can be notably damaged by driers running on full power. Their dryer-resistance (and longevity in general) depends on the quality of the appliqué, the underlying garment, and the initial application equipment.
Also, “dries for hours” implies a less-heated condensation dryer. I’m used to the forced air heating kind. I believe the heat is a bigger source of damage than the actual friction action. Your armpits, legs, butt-against-seat, or sole-against-sock-against-shoe provide much more violent, repetitive, and focused friction than a dryer.
Granted, there can be a lot of lint that is removed in each cycle, which implies a lot of fabrics getting frayed. This is more common in things with loose, fluffy fiber like towels, blankets, or felts. Greater friction from greater surface area combined with less tight bindings and yarns leads to more fabric loss. But I haven’t seen a ton from generic pants and shirts loads.
That said, graphic tees can be notably damaged by driers running on full power. Their dryer-resistance (and longevity in general) depends on the quality of the appliqué, the underlying garment, and the initial application equipment.
Friendly reminder to all to flip your graphics tees inside out before laundering!
High key clothes dryers are like gen ai. Something we didn’t ask for, solving a problem that didn’t really exist, sold to us to consume more electricity and change our daily behavior, not the other way around. Air is free ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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.
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
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.
I have never worn undershirts. (I think in Australia we call them singlets), should I? I find it particularly annoying in the warmer months when it’s 30C+ when I really need to stay cool.
I only wear undershirts in the winter months and under work shirts. It’s uncomfortable for certain in warmer weather. Don’t take what I said as a bible but as guidelines that you don’t need to one and done all your clothes.
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”.
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.
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.
No more than wearing them does.
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.
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.
It’s got to. It doesn’t happen very often, but I have had pants go in fine and come out of the dryer with holes. Of course, they were a few years old, but still…
