Do Tumble Dryers Iron Clothes?

If you don’t have an iron at hand, but your outfit is full of wrinkles, you’ll be pleased to hear that a tumble dryer can release the majority of these creases from your clothes.

However, it’s worth pointing out that although a dryer can remove wrinkles from clothes, it doesn’t work in the same way as an actual iron. Irons and tumble dryers are very different, and serve different purposes.

An iron’s purpose is to remove wrinkles and creases from laundry, whereas a tumble dryer’s main purpose is to dry laundry. The fact it can be used to loosen wrinkles in laundry is an added bonus.

In addition to this, some people argue that an ‘iron finish’ (using an actual iron) is often better for clothes, in comparison to what a tumble dryer can do. But this of course does come down to personal preference. Some users like the crisp sharp finish an iron can give to laundry!

In many homes people are happy to just give laundry a quick shake, pop it inside a dryer, and store it when it’s dry. For many people, a tumble dryer will do a good enough job of removing wrinkles from clothes without having to iron them as well.

It’s important to remember though that not all materials should be tumble dried. So, using a dryer to de-wrinkle these items wouldn’t be the best idea, and you could damage your garments in the process. In this case it would be better to stick to the advice on the item’s care label.

Let’s take a closer look at how a tumble dryer can ‘iron clothes’ below. However, how successful it is at removing the crinkles from your laundry depends on a number of factors that will be discussed later.

 

How to Use a Tumble Dryer to Remove Wrinkles from Clothes

If you’re going to use a dryer to remove wrinkles from your clothes, you must follow these tips:

• Don’t overfill your tumble dryer with laundry, as this will encourage more creasing.
• Check the clothing care labels to make sure that your items are dryer safe before you pop them inside a tumble dryer.

To use a tumble dryer to remove the crinkles from your laundry, place a few items (maximum of three) into the drum.

Then add a damp (make sure it’s not saturated!) cloth to the drum, and select the hottest temperature possible for the material you need to de-wrinkle.

Start a ten-minute-long cycle and when the timer runs out, remove the items as soon as you can from the machine. The garments will need to be hung up or stored appropriately to limit further creasing.

It’s important that you add the damp cloth to the drum because when the cycle starts. The heat will warm up the damp cloth, and in turn, steam will be generated.

This steam acts in a similar way to the steam that you’d get from an iron, and it will loosen the tight crinkles and remove wrinkles from the laundry.

Some people suggest using ice cubes instead of a damp cloth, but you do so at your own risk. With this method, you add a few ice cubes to the tumble dryer, select an appropriate heat and start a ten minute drying session.

The ice in this case acts in the same way as the damp cloth. As the ice melts in the heat and turns back into water, the water gets turned into steam that then loosens the creases on the laundry.

For smaller or less creased items, it might be worth just squirting some tap water onto the creases, popping the items into the dryer’s drum, and starting a cycle.

Of course, you should always aim to make your laundry as wrinkle-free as possible from the start. So, to ensure that your clothes are relatively crease-free you should:

• Shake your laundry before you pop it inside the dryer. Make sure none of your items are clumping together (bed sheets almost always go clumpy after they’ve been washed, so give them a good shake!).
• Don’t overload the dryer with too many items. Make sure your clothes have lots of room to move around.
• Choose an appropriate cycle and temperature that suits the material you’re cleaning/drying.
• If your tumble dryer has an easy iron setting, you should use it.
• Remove your laundry from the washing machine as quickly as you can to stop it from getting crinkly.
• Remove your items from the tumble dryer as fast as you can, otherwise it’ll go wrinkly.
• Hang clothes up when they come out of the dryer/store them accordingly.
• Shake clothes once they’ve left the dryer.
• Pop some dryer balls in the tumble dryer to help de-clump laundry and to dry it more evenly.

 

Can You Just Tumble Dry Clothes Instead of Ironing Them?

It is possible to release the wrinkles from your clothes by popping them in a tumble dryer.

However, a dryer alone may not give your clothes the sleek iron finish that you’re after every single time. But it does, of course, come down to personal preference.

For the dryer method to work effectively you should add a few dryer-safe items to the drum (about two to three items), pop a small, damp hand towel in the drum, and run the hottest cycle permitted for the garments.

The cycle should only last about ten minutes, and when the dryer stops, you need to remove the items from the drum, give them a shake, and hang them up on a hanger to prevent further creasing.

You should then repeat these steps for the rest of your crinkled laundry, but remember that you should not overfill your machine.

If you overload the dryer, your items will come out of the drum wrinkly, and that’s not the end result you’d want to see!

Of course, it’s often better to prevent the wrinkles from putting in an appearance in the first place.

So, make sure you shake your laundry pre and post drying, don’t overload your tumble dryer with clothes, hang your garments up after they’ve been dried, and don’t leave your laundry in the washer or the dryer for too long after its been cleaned/dried as this encourages wrinkling.

 

Does a Tumble Dryer Get Rid of Wrinkles?

A tumble dryer can potentially remove a lot of wrinkles from clothes, but you’ve got to make sure that your laundry is dryer friendly before you try this method out.

In addition to this, if you plan on de-wrinkling your laundry in a dryer you will need to pop a damp cloth inside the dryer with a few items of clothing.

As the dryer heats up, the liquid in the cloth will turn into steam. Just enough steam will be created, similar to that of an iron, and this will help to loosen the crinkles that are plaguing your outfits.

When you’re done, you need to hang your clothing up or put your items away.