Most laundry damage is not caused by the machine. It is caused by one item in the load. Zips and velcro do more harm to clothing than heat, detergent and spin speed put together, and the whole of the prevention is about two minutes of work before the drum door closes.
Why zips and velcro do the damage
A turning drum is fabric pressed against fabric under weight and moving constantly. Everything soft in there is being rubbed against everything else for half an hour.
Anything rigid in that environment stops being a component and becomes a tool. A metal slider dragged across a knit sleeve two thousand times will find a loop eventually.
Knitted fabric is a continuous loop structure, which is what makes it stretch. Pull one loop out of line and the distortion runs along the row. That is a snag, and it does not go back.
Woven fabric fails differently. A hard edge abrades the surface and eventually breaks a thread, and the weave opens into a small hole that grows in the next wash.
Pile fabrics get combed. Fleece and towelling are made of raised loops or cut fibre, and a hard fastening lifts and drags that pile until the surface goes patchy and thin.
Zips and velcro account for most of it, and the rest of the list is short.
So the question for every item is simple. Is there anything hard on this that is currently exposed, and can I close it, cover it or bag it.
What an open zip does in the drum
Zips and velcro cause damage in different ways, and the zip is the more familiar of the two.
A closed zip presents a smooth back and two rows of teeth locked into each other. It is not harmless but it is contained.
An open zip is two exposed rows of hard teeth on flexible tape plus a slider with an edge on it, all of it free to move.
That is what produces the classic damage, which is a line of pulls across the front of a knit top that was washed with somebody’s hoodie.
Zip tape itself is stiff and abrasive at the edges, and it is the part that quietly wears a hole in a thin cotton shirt over a season of shared loads.
Zips also damage the machine. A heavy jacket slider hits the drum wall hard, chips enamel and scratches a glass door, and pieces of enamel become their own problem.
So do up every zip in the load, including the ones on trouser flies, cushion covers and duvet covers. Then turn zipped jackets inside out, which puts the slider against the lining rather than against the next garment.
Fasten the storm flap over the zip where a jacket has one. That is what it is there for.
Why velcro is the worst thing in the load
Velcro is two strips. One is a field of small stiff plastic hooks and the other is a field of soft loops, and the hook side is engineered specifically to grab loops and hold on.
A towel is loops. Fleece is raised loops. Knitwear is loops. A velcro tab loose in a drum full of those is doing exactly what it was designed to do, to the wrong things.
The damage is a pulled and matted patch that will not brush out, and on a towel it is a permanent bald spot where the loops came away.
There is a second cost, which is to the velcro itself. The hooks fill with lint, hair and fibre until they no longer close on their own loop side, and that is why the cuff tab on a jacket stops holding after a year.
Close every velcro tab onto its own mate before washing, and press it down properly. Where a tab has no mate to close onto, fold it back on itself or put the whole item in a mesh bag.
The usual offenders are jacket cuffs and hems, sports supports and braces, children’s shoe straps, bibs, gloves, weighted vests and the closures on soft bags.
Zips and velcro together on one jacket is the single most destructive item most people put in a mixed load, and one minute of attention removes both problems.
Hooks, underwire and the rest of the small metal
After zips and velcro, the small metal fastenings are the next largest source of ruined clothes.
A bra hook is a small metal hook, and its job is to catch and hold. It does that to a knit sleeve as readily as to an eye.
Fasten the hooks to their own eyes before washing. That alone prevents most of it.
Then put bras in a mesh bag anyway, because the second problem is the underwire. Spin cycles bend wire, and a bent wire pushes through the fabric at the end of the channel.
A loose underwire in a drum is genuinely destructive. It gets into the perforations, into the drum seal and sometimes into the pump, and it can score the drum on the way.
The same logic covers dungaree clips, sports bra clasps, anything with an S hook, and the small metal fasteners on a duvet cover.
Coins, keys, hair clips and pens do the same damage without being fastenings at all, which is why emptying pockets belongs in the same two minutes.
Drawstrings, ties and long straps
Cord damage is different. It does not cut things, it tangles them.
A long drawstring wraps around other garments during the wash, pulls them into a rope and stops them washing or rinsing evenly. The wrapped items come out creased into shape and still soiled in the folds.
The cord also loses. Agitation drags one end of a drawstring into the hem channel, and getting it back is a safety pin and fifteen minutes.
Tie the two ends together loosely before washing, or tie a knot in each end that is bigger than the eyelet.
Dressing gown belts, apron ties, tote handles and long tie fastenings on dresses all behave the same way. Tie them or bag them.
Shoe laces on anything washed with laces in should come out and be washed loose in a bag, for the same reason.
Buttons, studs and rivets
Buttons are the one fastening that should go into the wash undone, which surprises people who have just been told to close everything else.
A fastened button holds tension on the buttonhole and on the thread while the garment is being pulled in every direction, and that is what tears a buttonhole open and works a button loose.
Undo the front, the cuffs and the collar, and turn the shirt inside out if the buttons are fragile.
Mother of pearl, painted and thin resin buttons crack against a steel drum. Inside out or in a bag is the whole answer.
Metal studs and jeans rivets are abrasive edges by definition, and they are the reason a print comes off a t shirt washed with denim. Turn jeans inside out every time.
Snap fasteners on workwear and children’s clothing behave the same way as studs, so close them and turn the garment inside out.
The two minutes that prevent all of it
Do this as items go into the sorting container at home rather than standing at an open drum, when you are in a hurry and will skip it.
Run a hand over each garment as it goes in. You are feeling for anything hard or anything loose.
Close every zip, close every velcro tab, fasten every hook and snap, tie every drawstring, undo every button.
Empty the pockets, including the small inside one, and unroll the cuffs where grit collects.
Turn jackets, jeans, printed shirts and anything with studs inside out.
Keep a few mesh bags where you sort. Bras, small items, anything with a fastening you cannot neutralise, and anything genuinely fragile go in a bag, and the bag does more good than any cycle setting.
Load loosely. Clothes that have room to move are washing against water. Clothes crammed in are washing against each other and against every fastening in the drum.
The Rockville part
The cold half of the year is when this matters most, because it is fleece season. Fleece is a raised pile fabric and it is the material a loose velcro tab damages fastest and most visibly, and it goes through the wash far more often than a wool coat does.
Winter outerwear is also where the fastenings cluster. A single insulated jacket can carry a main zip, two pocket zips, a pit zip, a velcro storm flap and two velcro cuff tabs, and every one of them is exposed unless somebody closes it.
Humid summers push the volume the other way, into athletic clothing washed several times a week. Supports, braces and adjustable straps are almost all velcro, and technical knit fabric is thin and snags easily, so those two categories should not meet in a drum.
Hard water makes the surface of towels and fleece matted and slightly harsh over time as mineral settles into the pile. A hook dragging through matted pile takes more of it away than it would from a soft one, so the damage compounds in an area with mineral rich supply.
Twice a year everything comes out of storage at once, coats in the autumn and lighter layers in the spring, and that changeover wash is the one most likely to be done in a rush. It is also the load carrying the most zips and velcro, so it is where the two minute check pays the most.
Where a fastened load has room to move
Preparation only pays off if the drum is not packed tight enough to press everything together anyway.
The machines at our self-service laundry on Rollins Avenue give a properly fastened load room to move, and the water volume in a larger drum means garments float and tumble rather than grinding against each other under compression.
Our machines and the store are cleaned daily.
Nou wash-dry-fold service covers the everyday laundry.
For general guidance, The American Cleaning Institute publishes a fabric care guide that is a useful cross-check.
The short version
Zips and velcro cause most laundry damage, so deal with them first. Close every zip before washing and turn zipped jackets inside out so the slider faces the lining. Press every velcro tab onto its own loop side, or bag the item, because velcro hooks are designed to grab exactly the loops that towels, fleece and knitwear are made of. Fasten bra hooks and bag bras so a bent underwire cannot escape. Tie drawstrings and long straps. Undo buttons rather than fastening them, since tension tears buttonholes, and turn jeans and printed shirts inside out. Empty pockets, use mesh bags, and load loosely so clothes move against water rather than against each other.
WaveMAX Rockville is at 180 Rollins Ave, easy to reach from Rockville and the surrounding area. If you have a load that will not fit at home, call us at 240-444-1350.