Towels need to be dried properly. “All the microfiber towels that a customer would buy should be washed and dried in a dryer before being used … at very low heat, if not air dried,” said Joe Gartland, the owner of Towels by Doctor Joe. The polyester in microfiber towels has a low melting point, and cannot handle the high heat that other fabrics that go in washing machines can. If the towels are dried at high heat, then the fibers will melt together and it will be like “cleaning with Plexiglas,” said Gartland. Danielle Harsip, marketing director at ERC Wiping Products, said that the main reason why microfiber towels are ruined is drying them at high heat.
Remember that it’s not just bad for microfiber towels to be dried at too high of heat, but it can ruin them completely. Once the damage has been done from heat, it cannot be reversed. Harsip described towels that have been dried at too high a heat as being “useless.” Improper maintenance can make a good investment a poor one.
When these microfibers have melted, you won’t actually see the difference in the towel. However, the performance will be greatly diminished. Harsip said when the towel has been damaged from heat, one thing you’ll notice is that it will not cling to your skin the way that it once did. She explained a good way of testing the towel. “The way to determine that the microfiber is melted is to hold the towel in two hands and put water on it. If [the water] sits on the cloth rather than soaking into it, then the damage is done."
