Not to alarm you, but accidentally washing your favorite article of clothing in the wrong water temperature can cause them to shrink, stretch, fade, and have a shorter lifespan overall. Talk about a major wardrobe malfunction.
It might be possible for hot water to shrink certain clothing items to their maximum shrinking capacity after just one wash. Besides shrinkage, washing your clothes with hot water can also damage items by permanently causing color fading.
Con: Hot Water Can Damage or Discolor Clothing
Hot water can cause bright colors to run and fade, and can shrink certain types of fabric.
When you wash clothes in hot water, the heat relaxes the tension in the fibres, allowing them to return to their natural, more compact state. This relaxation of the fibres is what causes the fabric to ``shrink.''
Take a bucket of warm water, add half a cupful of hair conditioner and a squirt of washing up liquid and mix. Add clothes and stir until hair conditioner has covered all fibres. Squeeze clothing to expel excess liquid. Lay flat and manually stretch back to shape then leave to dry.
Baby shampoo soak: Mix lukewarm water with a capful of baby shampoo or hair conditioner. Soak the shrunken item for 30 minutes, allowing the fabric to soften and expand. Towel dry and stretch: After soaking, lay the garment on a flat towel. Roll up the towel with the clothing inside to remove excess water.
When to Use Warm Water – For man-made fibers, knits and jeans, use warm water (90°F). Most of your clothes can be washed in warm water. It offers good cleaning without significant fading or shrinking. When to Use Cold Water – For dark or bright colors that bleed or delicate fabrics, use cold water (80°F).
Using a warm or hot wash cycle can cause your clothes to shrink, especially if they're made from cotton, wool, and linen. Not to mention, hot water can fade the color in fabrics, reduce their elasticity, and make them prone to tearing or fraying.
Similarly, hot water may cause your clothes to shrink and fade color over time. Typically, fabrics that are safe to wash with hot water include certain synthetic fibers such as nylon or polyester, as well as preshrunk cotton. Never wash materials such as wool, silk, viscose, or other delicate fibers with hot water.
When washing colourful clothing be aware that hot temperatures could cause colours to run or fade and shrinking could occur. What temperature kills bacteria? Higher temperatures do kill off germs and are also very effective in removing any mould on clothing items.
Avoid hot water – high temperatures will cause cotton to shrink, so opt for a delicate cycle or a cold wash to avoid your favorite cotton items from shrinking. Flip them inside out – to protect the outside of the garment from the abrasive agitation of the washing process, turn them inside out.
Hot water is more damaging to clothing fibers, leading to them wearing out faster and shedding more microfiber particles. Washing in cold helps protect your fabrics to keep them looker newer longer. Extending the life of clothing can also help reduce the amount of textiles being added to landfills.
Not all stains respond to warmer water. For example, blood and sweat can actually set into fabric in hot water. Also, hot water tends to shrink, fade, and wrinkle certain fabrics. By not heating the water in your washing machine, you may reduce your energy costs with every load.
Clothes are much more likely to shrink when exposed to hot water or high dryer settings. Washing clothes in cold water goes a long way toward preserving the “off-the-rack” size. Avoiding heavy duty cycles, fast spins and high-heat drying can also prevent shrinkage.
Hot water will set some stains, particularly protein based stains. Use cold or warm water on these before washing in hot water. Always test to be sure that a stain removal product will not damage fabric by applying to a small part of the fabric that is not easily seen.
Due to the large amount of oily components in body soil, one should strongly consider washing in hot water to get the best removal possible. But if you really want to use cold water for white bleach-safe laundry, be sure to add Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach along with the detergent to improve the detergent performance.
Wash jeans in warm water: Most of the time when you have something that you want to wash gently you wash it in cold water. But that's not the case when you are washing denim jeans. Warm water will help the color stay in the jeans and help keep the jeans from shrinking. Hot water is too hot and can destroy the fabric.
Can You Unshrink Clothes? It is possible to unshrink most clothes and garments. In most scenarios, all you need is a container full of warm water with a capful of liquid detergent. Next, make sure to add in your clothes and stir them into the solution until they are completely soaked.
If you want to reverse shrinking or prevent your clothes from shrinking, sending your garments to a professional dry cleaner is the best way to do it. This is where we come in. We offer laundry dry cleaning and various services for all your laundry-related woes.
The Textile Academy defines shrinkage as "... the process in which a dimensions of fabric reduces and fabric becomes smaller than its original size (either widthwise, lengthwise or both), usually through the process of laundry/washing."1 A sweater for example, can get shorter, tighter, or less bulky.
Garments may stretch from the agitation, spinning and tumbling during the washing and drying process. Downy® Fabric Conditioner lubricates the fabric of your garments, making them more fluid, so that clothes can return to their original shape more easily.