It happens to the best of us: damp clothes are forgotten in the washing machine or left in a pile on the bathroom floor. The next minute, they’ve developed a musty smell – a clear indicator of mould.
Best way to wash mouldy clothes
While it makes sense to pop them straight into the wash to remove mould, there are a few things you need to know about the best washing machine practices for eliminating mould.
Dr Cameron Jones is an environmental microbiologist who loves to talk about all things mould. In an article published on the Biological Health Services website, Dr Jones looks at the best way to wash mouldy clothes.
To answer this question, he goes through an academic paper titled Effect of Household Laundering, Heat Drying, and Freezing on the Survival of Dermatophyte Conidia, published in the Journal of Fungi earlier this year.
Can mould be removed from clothes?
Explaining the study, Dr Jones says, “They [researchers] made some gauze pads, deliberately infected these with three types of fungi.”
Next, they looked at whether you could get rid of the Fungi with heat by putting them in the dryer, testing water temperatures, and also laundering with and without detergent.
So what did they find?
“At 40 degrees Celsius for 100 minutes, all of the different fungi were culturable out the other end,” says Dr Jones. “And yet at 60 and 90 degrees Celsius for 100 minutes or 150 minutes of laundering in your washing machine, they were able to get an excellent kill rate.”
Does detergent kill mould on clothes?
Interestingly, researchers got the same results without detergent.
“This is really, really interesting research, suggesting that whether you use detergent or don’t use detergent, as long as you wash at 60 or 90 degrees Celsius for a long period of time, you will be able to get rid of these fungi,” says Dr Jones.
Additionally, if you think you can skip the wash and go straight for a tumble in the dryer – think again.
“Putting your clothes and tumble drying them without washing was unable to get rid of these particular fungi,” says Dr Jones.
So there you have it, washing mould from your clothing is possible with the proper water temperature.
Dr Jones reiterates: “The key way of getting rid of fungi on textiles is to use a hot wash at 60 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Celsius for an extended period.”
He adds: “If you want to get rid of fungus on textiles, on porous and semi-porous, personal contents that are amenable to washing machine use, forget about the cold wash cycle. And you don’t even need detergent.”
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