Tea Towels

A fairly banal topic I know but something of an annoyance nonetheless.
I've bought a few sets of teatowels over the last few months and they all suffer from one or both of these problems.
1. Leaving fibres behind on the items that are being dried, even after the teatowel has been through the washing machine a good few times.
2. Very poor water absorbtion, with a few drops of water in a wine glass taking quite a few wipes to get rid off.
It's the same with cheap and not-so-cheap tea towels I've bought.
Luckily the dishwasher does most of the drying.
Can anyone recommend decent ones which don't suffer from these flaws?

the best thing to do with new tea towels is to put them through a 40 deg wash in your washing machine with no powder or softener before using them......

Always thought tea towels were supposed to be boil washed? Although I suppose not when they are brand new? Anyway the best tea towels I ever bought were from Laura Ashley- do they still sell them, I wonder?

what i recommended is the initial wash before the tea towels are ever used....

Boiling teacloths ? Are you serious

Are you washing them with fabric conditioner? That will cause them not to soak up water. Never use fabric conditioner on towels.

Having worked in the catering industry and been involved in using a lot of tea-towels I would recommend 'Lamont' tea-towels.
Available in Arnotts in Dublin, and Household Linens in Cork and any other supplier of quality sheets and towels.
You must wash your towels, sheets and tea-towels a few times before you can get propper absorbency.
...And yes, boil tea-towels and dish cloths. So you need good quality and ones that colours wont run.... 'Lamont' are recognised by being white with a coloured check (various colours) that dont run and will last for years....litterally.

Happy dish drying.

Totally agree with Lyonsie, "Lamont" are the only tea towels i will ever buy, taking after my Mum who's been using them for years. They never leave any fluff, and are very absorbent. Can be bought in the likes of Shaws dept stores around the country, in case you're not in Dublin.

capall said:

Boiling teacloths ? Are you serious

Click to expand...

Sure - the old fashioned way was to boil them, but just put them in the washing machine at the hottest wash and they'll be grand.