No More High Heat: The Best Dryer Setting For Fluffier, Softer Towels

The prospect of having soft and fluffy towels can understandably feel like a fleeting luxury, especially if yours tend to stiffen after washing and drying them. There are several factors that can impact the softness of towels, such as material and age. If you have good quality towels, though, a simple adjustment to your dryer settings might just do the trick. Drying your towels on a low or medium setting is one of the best ways to keep them cloud-soft. With a few exceptions, you should avoid high heat settings for drying towels.

When you're washing towels, it's tempting to want to dry these bulky items on high heat settings to free up the dryer faster. Here's the problem, though: High heat takes a toll on towel fibers over time, stripping them of their softness. So while higher heat settings can dry towels faster, they do little to preserve the plush texture and feel. There is a key exception to this rule, though. Dishcloths and towels ought to be dried on a high setting to kill potentially harmful bacteria from food prep settings. With this in mind, you'll want to wash and dry kitchen towels separately from bath towels.

All of these factors make it a good practice to use a medium-heat setting at maximum on all bath towels. This is hot enough to get the job done efficiently without excess heat taking a toll on your favorite towels. In addition to adjusting your dryer setting, there are a few other simple ways you can keep your towels soft and fluffy moving forward. First, shake out each towel separately from the washer before placing it in the dryer. This easy and free laundry hack for soft towels will help them dry faster without resorting to high heat dryer settings. 

You should also avoid fabric softeners and dryer sheets. Despite their name, these products can be counterproductive in towels because they leave a film that reduces their absorbency and stiffens them in the long run. What's more, fabric softener buildup on towels can also increase drying time and subsequently damage those fibers you're trying to keep light and soft to the touch. 

Finally, don't throw your towels in the dryer on a low or medium heat setting and forget about them. Promptly remove and fold towels as quickly as possible once the drying cycle is complete to help preserve their plushness. On the other hand, if they have already hardened, there are some methods you can try to help soften towels.