Few of MF's dried on high heat

BMW335i

New member
Of course when I went to wash my some of my MF's in the washer, I eventually forgot about them. I had left to school and came home only to find them in the dryer mixed up with other bath towels/etc. Of course, the heat was on high. Now mind you, I KINDLY asked my family to leave my towels alone, plenty of times. Yet, they just dont understand and think I have "towel OCD".



It really sucks when you tell someone to NOT touch your towels, then the next day they go ahead and do what they please with them (2nd time I said not to touch them). Gets me furious.



Are my towels damaged (they were for jamb work and window cleaning, not paint work)

If they are damaged in any way I would not hesistate to toss them.



How can I get my family to leave my towels alone...I don't live alone and its just bound that someone is going to touch my towels...
 
Other than lint from the cotton towels, they oughta be fine. DFTowel posted a while back that household driers don't get hot enough to damage MF. Note that you can *boil* MF towels without damaging them.
 
Accumulator said:
Other than lint from the cotton towels, they oughta be fine. DFTowel posted a while back that household driers don't get hot enough to damage MF. Note that you can *boil* MF towels without damaging them.



Thanks Accumulator. The only reason I asked is because I saw a post by DFTowel mentioning that MF fibers can be melted in the high heat of the dryer (therefore causing marring). Is there any way I check for "melted fibers" or are they too small to see?



They are PakShak towels (4 ultra, and some glass WW) if it helps.
 
BMW335i said:
Thanks Accumulator. The only reason I asked is because I saw a post by DFTowel mentioning that MF fibers can be melted in the high heat of the dryer (therefore causing marring). Is there any way I check for "melted fibers" or are they too small to see?



That's weird, we're both thinking of stuff that DFTowel has posted, but we're coming at this from different sides :confused:



I'd search on his user name...the thread I was thinking of was within the last week or so.



I'd CD-test the towels, that's the only way I can think of to spot damage that's not obvious.
 
I'm almost positive he said a home dryer on it's highest setting comes nowhere near the amount of heat to damage them.



As for the family wahsing issues, just tell them your towels are full of wax, bird droppings, tar and whatever else you wiped off your car. If they still want to wash bath towels with them, go for it.
 
tyoung said:
I'm almost positive he said a home dryer on it's highest setting comes nowhere near the amount of heat to damage them.........
That is correct, here is one of his posts on the subject of dryer heat:
DFTowel said:
This is wrong. If the towel is polyester microfiber and nylon the melting point of both fibers is a tad over 500 degrees. The hottest a dryer will get is 135 to 140 degrees. Therefore, no polyester towel will ever melt in a dryer. It's perfecrtly OK to dry on high heat.



http://autopia.org/forum/857253-post14.html
 
OK, thanks guys...I must have read someone elses post...sorry for the confusion. Nice to know they wont be damaged!
 
Thanks Accumulator. The only reason I asked is because I saw a post by DFTowel mentioning that MF fibers can be melted in the high heat of the dryer (therefore causing marring). Is there any way I check for "melted fibers" or are they too small to see?



That's weird, we're both thinking of stuff that DFTowel has posted, but we're coming at this from different sides



Ha... actually you're both right so don't think you're going crazy. There was a time that I did preach this which was before I completed some tests and some research. I needed to be sure about household dryers and their idiosyncrasies. I knew that commercial dryers we use in the textile mills where safe. It took me a long time, almost a year, to finally track down soemone who knew all about them, a professor at the Philadelphia College of Textiles (the MIT of textile science) and who had actually designed a few for Maytag. Once I was sure of the numbers I changed my opinion to include hot air drying.
 
It's really only common sense. I would suspect that if the polyamide/polyester melt temp is approx. 500°F (I couldn't really independently find any solid numbers last time I searched), then all your other clothes would really be in danger as well if a dryer got that hot.



I just shot my iron with an IR thermometer and it topped out a few degrees over 400°F. I'm pretty sure that an iron can scorch natural fabrics, ipso facto if a dryer could get hot enough to melt MF's (presuming the 500° melt temp is correct), then it would be hot enough to damage your other clothes and be a fire hazard presumably, as well.



EDIT: Not to mention that plenty of clothes are made from polyester and nylon as well, so without taking into account the thermal mass/surface area issues of a "micro" fiber, people would be melting their clothes left and right.
 
DFTowel said:
Ha... actually you're both right so don't think you're going crazy. There was a time that I did preach this which was before I completed some tests and some research.... Once I was sure of the numbers I changed my opinion to include hot air drying.





OK, thanks for clarifying that. And I commend you on performing the due diligence and for refining your suggestions as more information came to light :xyxthumbs
 
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