Zips and velcro do more damage to a load of laundry than anything else in it, and almost all of that damage happens to other garments rather than to the item carrying the hardware. Ten seconds of preparation prevents most of it.
What zips and velcro actually do in a drum
A washing machine works by moving garments against each other under water. That is the cleaning mechanism, and it means every item in a load is in constant contact with every other item.
An open zip is a row of small metal or plastic teeth with an exposed slider, travelling through that load for an hour. It behaves like a comb. On a knit it catches a loop and pulls it into a run. On a woven it snags a thread and creates a pull that shows as a permuted line in the weave.
Velcro is worse in a different way. The hook side is engineered specifically to grab loops of fabric and hold them, which is exactly what it does to towels, fleece, knitwear, and anything with a pile. A single velcro strap left open will collect lint, hair, and fibre from an entire load and arrive at the dryer as a matted pad.
Neither item is usually damaged itself. The cost lands on everything else.
The ten seconds that prevents it
Zip every zip closed before it goes in. All of them, including the small ones on pockets and cuffs.
Close every velcro fastening onto itself. If a strap has no matching loop side, fold it back onto the garment and it will hold well enough for a cycle.
Fasten hooks and eyes, on bras especially, since a bra hook is the most reliable way to destroy hosiery and mesh in a single wash.
Do up buttons on cuffs but leave shirt fronts open, because buttoning a shirt front strains the buttonholes as the fabric moves.
Empty the pockets. A pen is a dye disaster, a tissue is a lint disaster, and a coin will chip a drum.
Why zips fail, and how to keep them working
Zips fail in three ways and only one of them is really the zip’s fault.
The slider wears. It is the softest part and the sides gradually spread until they no longer press the teeth together. A zip that separates behind the slider needs the slider gently squeezed back with pliers, a few thousandths at a time.
The teeth get contaminated. Detergent residue, grit, and salt build up in the track and make the zip stiff, and forcing a stiff zip is what bends teeth. Clean the track with an old toothbrush and rub a graphite pencil or a candle stub along it.
The stitching at the base gives out, which is a repair rather than a replacement.
Washing a garment with the zip closed protects all three, because the teeth are engaged and the slider is not being knocked against the drum.
Velcro that has stopped gripping
Velcro almost never wears out. It clogs.
The hook side fills with lint, hair, and fibre until the hooks cannot reach the loops. Clean it with a stiff brush, a comb, or the point of a seam ripper drawn along the hooks, and most velcro comes back to close to new.
The loop side matts down under repeated use and can sometimes be lifted with a stiff brush.
Wash velcro closed, always. An open velcro strap in a wash is how it clogs in the first place.
Zips and velcro on the delicate loads
The best answer for a load containing anything fine is to separate it entirely.
Hosiery, lingerie, silk, and lightweight knitwear should not share a drum with jeans, jackets, or anything sporting hardware, no matter how carefully the hardware is fastened. A zip closed is far safer than a zip open and it is still a hard object.
Where separation is impractical, a mesh laundry bag for the fine items works well and costs very little.
The drum takes damage too
Hardware knocking against a stainless drum is noisy and mostly harmless. Hardware knocking against a painted or enamelled drum chips it, and a chip in the finish is where rust starts.
On a front loader, check the rubber door seal. Zip pulls and velcro strips work into the fold, sit there, and grind against the seal every cycle, and a torn door seal is an expensive repair.
Wipe the fold of the seal out regularly and look for anything lodged in it.
Drying
The same rules apply and the consequences are slightly different. In a dryer, metal zips get hot and can mark or scorch synthetic fabric they press against.
Turn garments with large metal zips inside out for drying, which puts the hardware against the item’s own lining rather than against everything else.
Never tumble dry velcro with towels. The hooks strip loops out of terry cloth and shorten the life of the towel noticeably.
The Carrollton part
Hard water is the local factor and it acts directly on zips.
North Texas water leaves mineral deposits, and those deposits build up in a zip track along with detergent residue. That is the grit that makes a zip stiff, and a stiff zip forced open is a zip with bent teeth. People here replace jackets and bags for what is really a maintenance problem.
The fix is straightforward. Half a cup of washing soda in the wash reduces the deposits, and an occasional clean of the track with a toothbrush and a graphite pencil keeps a zip running for years.
The heat is the second factor, and it applies to velcro. Summer sports gear, work wear, and kids’ clothing come home here carrying a great deal of sweat, and salt from dried sweat clogs velcro hooks faster than lint does. Rinsing sweat-heavy items before they go into the hamper, rather than letting the salt dry in, keeps the fastenings working through a season.
Where the loads get separated properly
The reliable answer to hardware damage is separating loads rather than managing them, and separating loads means having more than one drum available at a time.
The machines at our self-service laundry on East Trinity Mills Road let you run the hardware-heavy load and the fine load side by side rather than combining them, which is the only complete answer to snagging.
Our machines and the store are cleaned daily.
Nou wash-dry-fold service covers the everyday laundry.
For more on preparing a load, The American Cleaning Institute publishes a laundry basics guide that is a useful cross-check.
The short version
Zips and velcro damage the rest of the load rather than themselves, because a drum works by moving garments against each other. Close every zip and fasten every velcro strap onto itself before washing, along with bra hooks, which are the worst offender for hosiery. Velcro that has stopped gripping is clogged rather than worn, and a stiff brush restores it. Clean zip tracks of mineral and detergent residue and lubricate with a graphite pencil. Keep fine items in a mesh bag or a separate load entirely, and check the door seal on a front loader for anything lodged in the fold.
WaveMAX Carrollton is at 2760 E Trinity Mills Rd, easy to reach from Carrollton and the surrounding area. If you need two loads running at once, call us at 214-731-6575.