Vinegar - 1001 uses!

Bongedone

I will take a guess that it softens the water.

Fabric conditioner lowers the moisture holding properties of towels.

I am sure one of the experts will come along. I cannot convince my OH to use vinegar.

motherkitty

Just to let you know that I was a bit sceptical about this but it does work! Also has the added advantage of keeping your washing machine drawer and pipes clean and unclogged too, especially if you use soda crystals in with the washing powder. Does the same job as the additives you can buy (Calgon, etc) to put in the machine to stop it scaling up.
Your clothes will be soft and won't smell of vinegar once the are dry, but if you like your washing to smell good too then you will be missing out on that! I dried my washing on the line and although I could smell the vinegar when I put it out, it just smelled of fresh air when I fetched it in.
Hope this helps.

fitzroy

Bongedone wrote: »

I will take a guess that it softens the water.

Fabric conditioner lowers the moisture holding properties of towels.

I am sure one of the experts will come along. I cannot convince my OH to use vinegar.

Yes, I gave up using fabric conditioner on towels because, as you say, it lowers the mosture holding properties.

That's what I'm hoping - that someone with scientific knowledge will see this thread and be able to answer my query.

Your guess that vinegar softens water may, or may not, be right. If you are right I still can't get my head around a product that strips dirt is also good for softening.

rach

Vinegar acts as a surfactant to help get rid of the soap from your clothes. My DH has a chemistry degree and told me that's why it works! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant The function is probably slightly different to fabric softener but it certainly works!

fitzroy

rach wrote: »

Vinegar acts as a surfactant to help get rid of the soap from your clothes. My DH has a chemistry degree and told me that's why it works! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant The function is probably slightly different to fabric softener but it certainly works!

Thanks. I'll have a look at the website. I did try white vinegar instead of fabric conditioner but it made no difference at all to towels. It may be because I live in a very very hard water area and perhaps didn't use enough vinegar. Yes, line drying will get rid of the smell but when the bad weather comes and no line drying available then drying indoors doesn't quite get rid of the smell. I found this out when I tried it last winter.

MakeitandMendit

I swear by this now. I always put white vinegar in the drawer and it works wonders in several ways. Firstly it helps shift stains (e.g. sweat, ink, wine, tomatoes), then it keeps the machine clean and stops scale building (vinegar is a natural limescale remover - try it on your sinks too) and last but not least it softens.
Contrary to logic I've found it does not leave the clothes smelling as though you work in a chip shop - I find if anything, it enhances the smell of the washing detergent perfume. I mostly line dry or if eather bad dry on an airer. Do give it a try!

msb5262

I agree with MakeitandMendit - all our washing has had white vinegar in the drawer for the last three years, and it definitely doesn't smell of vinegar at all even when it's just out of the washing machine. It smells deliciously of washing powder, and the drawer of the washing machine is clean and unmildewed, unlike the horrid sight it used to be when I used fabric softener.
HTH.
MsB

InaPickle

fitzroy wrote: »

Yes, I gave up using fabric conditioner on towels because, as you say, it lowers the mosture holding properties.

That's what I'm hoping - that someone with scientific knowledge will see this thread and be able to answer my query.

Your guess that vinegar softens water may, or may not, be right. If you are right I still can't get my head around a product that strips dirt is also good for softening.

It's true! Idid this in 'A' level chemistry: the fabric conditioner is made up of two parts - the bit that attaches itself to the towel, and the bit on the surface (which we shall call the tail).

The tail is hydrophobic (i.e. doesn't like water), so it won't let the water get through the layer of fabric softener to get to the actual towel to be absorbed as we inted it to. So instead it stays on our body and just gets pushed around the skin until it evaporates due to our body heat.

Naturally, this isn't 100% correct: the towel will absorb some water if there is a lot more water than fabric conditioner, but that's the idea. The absorbancy and therefore efficiency of your towels will increase as the amount of fabric conditioner you use decreases.

Farway

I use plain old Smart Price malt vinegar, like you put on your chips

However as a bloke I just bung all my stuff in together and do not have white silk blouses etc to worry about

No smell of vinegar at all

painted_lady

Silly question, but is white vinegar the clear stuff, the one that looks like water in a jar and malt is the brown stuff we put on food?