Terry in the laundry:
so the goods last what you paid for
The service life of a hotel towel is decided less often at purchase than in the laundry. Three mistakes cost the most, and all three can be stopped for free. This guide says what white and coloured goods need, how full machine and dryer may be and how you recognise that a towel has been treated wrongly.
What decides the service life
A hotel towel sees more wash cycles in a year than a private one in its whole life. Three levers decide whether it survives the cycles.
Temperature
- White is processed at 95 degrees
- Coloured according to the dyeing process
- Reactive dyed: no chlorine
- Vat dyed: chlorine and light resistant
Loading
- Overloading abrades the hems
- Pulls threads in the pile
- The fabric cannot open up
- Applies to machine and dryer
Fabric softener
- Coats the loop
- Takes away exactly the absorbency you paid for
- The towel feels soft and does not dry
- Strike it from the programme
The way through the laundry, station by station
Four stations at which a towel takes damage or does not: sorting, washing, drying, folding. What to do at each station.
Sorting: white from colour, towels from mats
White goods run at 95 degrees, coloured ones according to the dyeing process. Whoever washes both together either washes the white too cold or the colour too hot. Bath mats at 650 and 700 grams need longer in the dryer than hand towels. Dried together, the mat comes out damp or the hand towel too hot.
Washing: 95 degrees for white, the process for colour
White is the safe choice in a hotel because it can be processed with chlorine bleach. With coloured goods it is not the shade that decides but the process: reactive dyed goods are washfast but only limitedly resistant to chlorine. Vat dyed goods, indanthrene, stand up to washing, light and chlorine much better and therefore belong at pool, sauna and spa. Chlorine on reactive dyed goods bleaches them out, and faded towels are sorted out long before they are worn out.
Drying: let it open up, do not burn it out
The fabric must be able to open up in the dryer, otherwise the towel comes out hard. That needs space in the drum, so no overloading. Drying too hot for too long makes the fibre brittle, then the loop breaks and the towel sheds lint. A towel that is hard after the dryer was either overloaded or run too hot, it is rarely the goods.
Folding: check hems and pile
When folding, the laundry has every towel in its hands once. Abraded hems, pulled threads in the pile and hard patches are the three signs that something in the process is wrong. A double-stitched hem stands up to the commercial laundry. If it tears anyway, the machine was overloaded. If the hem tears, the towel is lost, even if the pile is still good.
The three signs of wrongly treated goods: hard after the dryer, soft but not absorbent, abraded hem. Each points to a different cause: overloading or heat, fabric softener, overloading.
What extends the service life, what shortens it
The list from practice, to hang up in the laundry.
Extends the service life
- Load machine and dryer only to the capacity the drum is built for.
- Let the fabric open up in the dryer, otherwise the towel comes out hard.
- Insist on double-stitched hems and ring-spun yarn at purchase.
- Process white goods at 95 degrees, coloured goods according to the dyeing process.
Cuts it short
- Fabric softener. It coats the loop and takes away exactly the absorbency you paid the gsm for.
- Overloaded machines. They abrade the hems and pull threads in the pile.
- Chlorine on reactive dyed goods.
- Drying too hot for too long, which makes the fibre brittle.
Think ahead at purchase
The laundry can only preserve what purchasing brought in. Double-stitched hems and ring-spun yarn are the two features that separate hotel goods from household goods, and both should already be in the enquiry. Whoever orders coloured goods for pool and spa insists on vat dyeing, otherwise the laundry is at a disadvantage with chlorine and sun from the start.
GSM, weave and dyeing process in context are explained on the overview page Terry Towelling for Hotel and Spa.
Frequent questions about care
What housekeeping and laundry ask about terry.
Goods that fit your laundry?
Tell us how your property washes, in-house or outside, white or coloured. We recommend quality and dyeing process to match.
