Soaking Up Water

WETNESS OF THE CLOTH

Yeah, that makes sense, since fabric softeners are typically applied from 'drier sheets,' and being heat-released from the sheed, it must use a wax or wax-like carrier.

Having visited kinfolk and friends who use fabric softeners when they wash towels, I would venture to say that the dryer sheets versions of these make the towels freaking water-proof. I hate it. It feels creepy on wet skin as the towels will not absorb the water. I feel like these towels just smear the water around and until you soak the towel, it will not 'wet'.

However, without fabric softener, those fluffy towels and soft t-shirts can feel like coarse burlap against the skin, so it's a tossup. Towels might be able to get away with fabric softener every tenth wash or so, to get the best balance between 'fluffy' and 'absorbent,' but I know from personal experience that modern blends of t-shirts require fabric softener every wash to stay comfortable for all-day wear.

Not for me. My towels are nice and soft AND absorbent. Towels get that coarse burlap feeling from not getting clean. Yes, they look clean and they might 'smell' clean but they are NOT clean. If you line dry, you will get that eco-burlap feeling. Tumble drying keeps all the fibers 'loose' and hence soft feeling.

My trick is to put phosphates back in detergents where they belong. Then the clothes actually rinse clean with far fewer residues. I purchase trisodium phosphate from a hardware store or big box store. The most common brand seems to be Savan with the little red triangle in the corner. I add about three tablespoons to each top-load washer load in addition to a slightly smaller portion of the worthless stuff they call detergent today. TSP does a wonderful job of softening the water so the enzymes and surfactants can do their job. Also, that BS about washing in cold water is a bunch of malarkey. Sure, I don't abuse my deepest darks but everything else gets washed in warm or hot for whites. Everyone (should) knows that higher temperature fosters faster chemical reactions. Washing ones clothes is just another series of chemical reactions.

My white undershirts come out softer than a newborn babe's behind.

By the way, I add a tablespoon of TSP to my dishwasher loads too. The spotting on the glasses has been eliminated and the white haze on the glasses disappeared after three or four washes once I started adding TSP to the standard consumer detergent. The dishes and utensils all come out clean and with no water spots unless something gets plugged in one of the spinning jets.

Cheers !

Fabric softeners can cause this. Do not use white cloths with brown stripes.

GA for the first part.

For the second part, EWWWWW!

There are two reasons I can think of, one is surface tension of the water, the second is the loose weave of the cotton...

http://www.autexrj.com/cms/zalaczone_pliki/4-07-2.pdf

http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-bath-towel/

Think of a candle- capillary action draws the molten wax up the wick to the flame. In the case of the dry cloth, there is a certain resistance of the material to wetting by the water (largely due to surface tension). This slows the wicking action of a dry cloth compared to a SLIGHTLY damp one, so you are correct. Note that this difference is less with soapy water than with tap water.

An easy way to see the difference is to take 2 similar cloths, wet one and wring it out well. Drip some water based food colouring in the middle and compare the rate of spread .

THIS IS CALLED THE capillary effect;)

Absolutelly right, and when capillarity is also present it makes a very strong wick effect, capable of creating the springs and streams we gladly polute on weekends.

When you use a wet cloth, I mean not a saturated one, the water particles are microscopically interconnected and when you wipe your body, water from the body is fastly attracted since the pores in the towels are interconnected totally by existing water particles. That means maximum pores in the cloth come in action. On the other hand, if the pores are dry it will be difficult to spread water in to the pores and it will take time to wet a dry cloth than wetting a wet cloth due to cohesive property of water.