What Does Fabric Conditioner Do? And Should I Use It?

I hear people on the internet recommend to not use Fabric Conditioner in their laundry to save the durability of the clothes. In my country, it was the norm to use Fabric Conditioner during laundry so I was at a lost.

Is it actually necessary?

  • DrMango@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    To add on to this:

    General advice for clothing longevity is to always wash cold and hang dry. Taking it a step further though you can make sure all of your zippers are closed prior to going into the laundry so they don’t catch or scratch your other garments in the jumble. Extra sensitive clothings like athletic wear, lace, and other delicate fabrics can be placed into mesh bags for added protection (just search for “mesh laundry bag” at your preferred home goods retailer to find some). You can also wash garments inside out to mitigate wear on the outside surface or designs.

    I second the woolite dark recommendation, and add that you really don’t need to use much in each load. Modern detergents and washing machines are pretty powerful, so less is more in this case.

    If you don’t like how your clothing is a little crunchy after hang-drying you can toss it in the dryer on the tumble setting (or whatever the NO HEAT setting is called on yours) for 10-20 minutes and the garment will soften right up. This is generally more of a concern with natural fibers (cotton, wool, etc.) than synthetic (polyester, lycra, etc.).

    If you don’t have time for all that drying, use the lowest possible heat setting on your dryer, and pull the clothes just before they are totally dry if you can. They don’t need to be damp, but even just letting them finish out the last 10% of drying in room temp can be beneficial as dryers tend to over dry clothes which can also be harmful to the garment over time due to applying heat to a dry garment much longer than needed. Depending on your dryer the “delicates” setting may also help to mitigate some of this.