My New Towels Don't Absorb Water
- This is from the finish used when the towels are manufactured. To clear the problem just wash the towels in hotest water possible to avid shrinkage and color fade but add a cup of plain white vinager to the wash water this will help strip all finish and any laundry soap build up that are on the towels. A special finish is used to make them appear softer and fluffy at the store. They will be fluffy, soft and they will absorb the water, imagine that a towel that actually does what it is intended to do, absorb water not just look and feel pretty.
Source: New Towels Don't Absorb Water - Fabric softeners can reduce the absorbency of towels. Try washing your towels separately and not using any fabric softener in the washer or dryer.
Source: WikiAnswers - My cotton towels don't absorb water how can I fix that - the absorption of towel depends on the composition of the fabric. Cotton has good moisture absorption. But a new cotton towel will not absorb much water because, there will be finishing agents on the surface, so by washing it thoroughly, in warm water or hot water will definitely help, but if you have a towel which is a polyester blend with high polyester content, nothing is going to help you. To identify what material the fabric is made of, just pull out a single yarn and burn it. If it burns like a paper, then it is cotton and you can try washing it with hot water with a bit of softner. But if you see the yarn burning like plastic with some dripping, then it means that there is huge amount of polyester to it, and cant do much about it.
(moisture regain of polyester is only 0.4%)
Source: myLot - New Towel not absorbing water? - Often recommended source if you can afford it: Restoration Hardware
