How Long Do Towels Take to Dry in a Tumble Dryer?

Ah, one of the greatest tumble dryer questions ever asked!

Throwing towels in the tumble dryer can often be accompanied by a feeling of the unknown.

Will the towels take forever to dry? Will the towels come out feeling really rough? Is there a way of speeding up a towel’s drying time?

Well, if you have been losing sleep because of these towel-related questions, we’re here to help!

So, let’s take a look at towels in tumble dryers and find out more about this process, shall we?

How Long Do Towels Take to Dry in a Tumble Dryer?

A single bath towel put in the tumble dryer on its own should dry within 10-30 minutes, depending on the model of dryer and the heat settings.

A full load of towels is likely to take at least an hour to dry in a tumble dryer.

The amount of time it takes for towels to dry in the tumble dryer depends on several factors:

The exact model of tumble dryer
The type of tumble dryer (heat pump dryers take a bit longer than conventional dryers)
The heat setting you are using (lower heat = longer drying time)
The size and number of towels you are drying
Whether or not you are drying anything else at the same time
How wet the towels were to begin with

Since the drying time depends on so many things, it’s difficult to say exactly how long you need to leave your tumble dryer on to dry towels.

An average load of washing takes about 45 minutes to an hour to dry in a good quality tumble dryer. However, towels and jeans will take longer.

Towels, as you know, are fantastic at holding water. In fact, they wouldn’t make very good towels if they couldn’t. And so, the very reason we use towels is the reason they take a while to dry in the tumble dryer.

It may only take about an hour of tumble drying for a towel to be completely dry, but are there ways of speeding this drying up? Well, yes, actually!

How to Dry Towels Quicker

1. High spin rates

When washing towels, ensure that you wash them on the correct setting, of course. However, an excellent way of speeding up the drying time is to put the wash on the highest spin setting suitable for the load.

As towels love to hold water, a high spin cycle will force as much water out as possible. So, when your towels go into the dryer, they are already dryer.

2. Don’t overfill

If you overfill your tumble dryer, it has to work harder. There’s also way more water to get rid of. Of course, all this water will also come into contact with each towel as it is realised into the drum.

Towels love water as much as fish do. So, don’t overfill your tumble dryer. This gives plenty of space for the water to escape. It also allows for better airflow around the drum.

3. Use a dry towel

Some people say that throwing a dry towel into the tumble dryer with your wet towels can speed up the drying process. The dry towel will absorb loads of the moisture from the wet ones.

However, this article is about drying towels not creating another wet one! This tip does certainly distribute the water evenly across all of the towels in the dryer. Still, it seems a bit counter-intuitive if you ask me.

4. Use dryer balls

Dryer balls help to create hot airflow around the drum of a tumble dryer. They can speed up the drying process by up to 30%. Plus, they last for ages. Dryer balls also help to soften up your towels as well.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. As long as you’re careful with your settings, you can put towels in the tumble dryer without them becoming stiff or scratchy.

It’s best to experiment with different heat settings, loads and drying times to find what works best for your dryer and your towels!

We hope this look at towels and tumble dryers (often regarded as one of the hottest debates in all of laundry), has been helpful.

For more tumble dryer tips, explore our website some more. We have some fantastic articles about washing machines, washing tips and plenty of towel tips too!