Where does bacteria thrive the most in your home?
The Life of a Towel
After a nice shower or bath you dry yourself on your towel as it absorbs moisture and picks up dead skin cells. Bath towels, being designed for absorbency and softness inherently trap moisture for many hours. Bacteria requires moisture and organic food which skin cells provide so they feast and feast. Bacteria doesn’t grow in size, they split. One bacteria can multiply to millions overnight. The next day you not only deposit more moisture and skin cells to repeat the process, but you smear a layer of bacteria over your body. Eventually your towels begin to stink and so do you.
Based on an article by TIME Health, towels are way dirtier than you think.\
What a Microbiologist Found
Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona found that nearly 90% of bathroom towels were contaminated with coliform bacteria and about 14% carreid E. coli. - LEARN MORE
What does it take to control bacteria without a towel warmer?
Wash towels every other day
Wet towels are a petri dish for bacteria. In fact bacteria grows so fast that experts say you should wash them every other day. On top of that, to kill the bacteria, you really need to not only wash the towels, but wash them with hot water and bleach (see next 2 points). That’s a lot of water, energy to heat water and electricity to run the appliances — not to mention your time and energy.
Use HOT water
To kill bacteria, you need to wash towels in high temperatures from 150ºF to 190ºF (90ºC). Many washers only use your house water temperature which is generally a lot lower. And those washers that heat the water often don’t heat this high. Either way, all those tips on using cold water to extend the life of your towels goes out the window.
Use BLEACH
Believe it or not, bacteria can survive detergent. Not only do you need to use hot water, but also use a product with activated oxygen bleach! There goes your towel’s longevity and its bright colors — not to mention the increased cost of buying new towels on a regular basis.
