Both my washing machine and my dryer have a “permanent press” setting; I realized this morning that I had no idea what that meant, putting it in the same class as “ball joint” or “surf break” or “remoulade”.
Permanent press fabrics are textiles that have been treated to resist external stress and hold their shape. Clothing made from this fabric does not need to be ironed.
Those settings on my washer and dryer? Here’s what they do:
In older washing machines, the permanent press setting sprays moisture during the spin cycle to maintain the moisture content of the permanent press fabrics above a certain specified limit to reduce wrinkling. Most older clothes dryers feature an automatic permanent press setting, which puts clothes through a cool-down cycle at the end of the normal heated drying cycle. Modern dryers tend to include this as a standard feature.
I have a laundry philosophy that skews heavily toward “just throw it all into together,” so I’m not sure whether I’d be better served by this setting or not.
I would have been much better served by taking home economics in high school than wood shop.
Comments
Maybe. But I don't remember learning much about laundry in home economics. I did learn how to sew a handy bag in which I could store more bags. My washer keeps asking me if I want to clean the tub and I literally "cancel" it every time. Cancel culture exists in this house when my washer suggests I take on more chores.
Tub Clean is something I can get behind! On our washer it doesn’t prompt, but there is a counter that I used to be able to read with my Android phone that would tell me is a Tub Clean was needed. Lacking that, I simply run the Tub Clean when the time feels right.