January 26, 2023

3 Easy Clothes Dryer Hacks

Introduction image for article describing 3 easy clothes dryer hacks to prevent static cling, keep towels soft and remove wrinkles from garments.
Introduction image for article describing 3 easy clothes dryer hacks to prevent static cling, keep towels soft and remove wrinkles from garments.

You can do some simple things to make your life easier when drying clothes.

Annoyances like wrinkles in garments, stiff spots in towels and static cling can be cured by following 3 simple dryer hacks.

  1. Add ice cubes to the load when you forgot to unload the dryer and you need to remove wrinkles.

  2. Throw 3 tennis balls in with your towels to keep the towels soft and fluffy.

  3. Add balls of aluminum foil to dryer loads to prevent static cling.

Ice cubes help reduce wrinkles

Toss in a few cubes on high heat. The steam helps smooth out wrinkles in minutes.

Be careful not to expose delicate fabrics to high heat.

What causes wrinkles in clothes?

Clothes get wrinkled in the dryer when they sit too long after the drying cycle finishes.

Garments can also get wrinkled if you overload the dryer so clothes don’t tumble properly during the cycle.

Wrinkles occur when wet clothes dries in a stationary position or when dry clothes gets pressed down in abnormal positions—such as sitting in the dryer drum after the cycle ends.

How to remove wrinkles from clothes

Luckily, you can easily remove wrinkles from clothes in your dryer. Our hack described in this article uses ice cubes to restore moisture to clothing and release wrinkles while clothes tumbles in the dryer on high heat.

You can also spray wrinkled clothes with water before restarting the dryer on high heat, but that’s more labor-intensive than tossing a few ice cubes in the dryer.

Even more labor intensive, you can iron the clothes. Dry heat from an iron will remove minor wrinkles. You’ll need to apply steam through the iron to smooth out heavy wrinkles.

Given your options, we recommend taking the easy way out when dealing with garment wrinkles by tossing a few ice cubes in the dryer to remove wrinkles.

Tennis balls fluff towels

Throw in a few new tennis balls. Watch your towels, blankets and pillows get fluffy. They’ll dry faster, too!

The tennis balls help prevent heavy, wet towels from clumping together while tumbling in the dryer. The tennis balls separate the towels as they tumble.

Keeping the towels separated allows hot air to circulate through the towels better so they dry faster—saving you money on energy bills.

Instead of tennis balls, you may consider using wool balls. They work the same way as tennis balls. Wool balls specifically designed for dryers and they last for 1,000 loads.

Aluminum foil kills static

Roll a few sheets of aluminum foil tightly into 3-inch balls. Toss in with clothes. Say goodbye to static.

You may not be able to use this hack when drying delicate garments because the foil could snag the clothes.

How does adding aluminum foil balls to the dryer reduce static?

As clothes dries, fabric rubs together while tumbling and produce static electricity.

Foil balls are conductors that dissipate the static charges built up on clothes as they tumble in the dryer.

How often should I replace the foil balls?

You’ll need to replace the foil balls monthly. You may notice that the foil balls loose effectiveness when using them for more than a month.

You can replace the foil balls more often if you notice that laundry has more static than usual when using this hack.

We hope that using these dryer hacks will make your life easier. We want to help your appliances work harder and live longer.

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