Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/05/how-dryer-sheets-work-video.html
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I love the smell of dryer sheets emanating from the laundry room, but… dryer sheets are a major culprit in incredibly uncomfortable skin reactions due to some fairly nasty chemicals in them. It can keep flaring up even after you stop using the sheets because your dryer becomes coated in the chemicals. We had to ban them from our house.
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We don’t use them either. We got some of those woolen dryer balls and they seem to work fine. We don’t have dogs, but foster lots of cats, so fur is an issue.
Aside from the skin reactions, the dryer sheets leave residue on the lint screen. If you hold the screen under a tap, it’ll hold water. Which you don’t want it to do!
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The idea that the dryer sheet weave is more attractive to static than clothes sounds like bunk. If that were true, there would be antistatic-only dryer sheets that don’t cover your clothes in fabric softener, for the majority who like our towels to be absorbent. The antistatic effect comes from the softener coating the items being washed, not the weave itself.
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How do they work? Easy - it’s the carcinogens!
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Dryer sheets are basically lube for clothes. By coating cloth fibers with a thin layer of lubrication, the cloth as a whole moves more easily and feels soft to the touch. Kind of like those tissues with lotion added so they don’t chafe your nose.
The tradeoff is that same thin film of chemicals can cause skin reactions, trap stains or unwanted odors, and can take several wash cycles to remove.
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Dryer sheets are the worst. Chemicals, nasty smells, unnecessary waste… they’re like the mosquitos of laundry.
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Isn’t the dryer that big light in the sky? How do you get the dryer sheet to work with that?
I probably go to a launderette to use a dryer maybe once a year when I do a deep clean on the duvet, other than that, everything is line dried. Do people use the dryer in preference to using a drying rack?
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My understanding is also that dryer sheets don’t play well with microfiber and other tech fabrics, making them no longer breathable and wicking.
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In the US it’s definitely more common than anywhere else I’ve lived. And here, even when people line dry, they often throw everything into the dryer for a “fluff cycle” to soften them up.
We finally got a drying rack this winter and it’s been nice.
@DukeTrout - that’s my understanding, too.
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That’s because dryer sheets are essentially a piece of single-use plastic, intended as a distribution method for fabric softener, which is terrible for any fabric that’s supposed to absorb moisture, because it covers it in a layer of gunk This gunk is polar, which means that it tends to negate any stray charge on the fabric.
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Dry clothes outside where the neighbors might see? Heavens!
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Tons of HOAs even have rules against it. It’s ridiculous.
And the drying racks you can use indoors are fine where I live now, but would not have worked in Florida or DC! The clothes would’ve likely mildewed before they dried.
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