How to Choose Underwear for Business Trips: Cotton 100% Dries Slowly in Coin Laundry Dryers
Why Some Underwear Dries Slowly During Business Trips
During many years of business travel, I often used coin laundries at my destinations. For years, I found something strange but never really investigated it.
For some reason, underwear dries much more slowly than other laundry.
When drying laundry in a coin laundry dryer, dress shirts dry quickly, but underwear often does not dry within 20 minutes.
Since it is troublesome, I usually choose the 30‑minute course. With that, the underwear becomes almost hot and fully dry. When I have a little extra money (though the difference is usually only 100 yen), I use the 30‑minute course.
Today, I did laundry at a coin laundry again. Since I spent too much money yesterday, I wanted to save a little and reduced the drying time from the usual 30 minutes to 20 minutes.
When I took the laundry out of the dryer, the dress shirts were warm and perfectly dry, but the underwear was damp and half‑dry.
No, "half‑dry" is an exaggeration--it was almost not dry at all.
However, some underwear was dry.
I wondered if the difference was the fabric, and it seems that was the case.
All the underwear that was still damp was 100% cotton.
The underwear that dried properly was made of mixed fabrics--such as 65% cotton, 32% polyester, and 3% polyurethane. None of them were 100% cotton.
Differences Between Fast‑Drying and Slow‑Drying Underwear
- 100% cotton underwear dries slowly
- Mixed‑fabric underwear (cotton + polyester + polyurethane) dries quickly
- 20 minutes in the dryer is not enough for 100% cotton
- 30 minutes usually dries even cotton underwear completely
Although 100% cotton underwear feels like it might be higher quality, I honestly cannot tell the difference in comfort. So next time I buy underwear, I will avoid 100% cotton.
It will probably be a while before I replace my underwear, so for now, when going on business trips where I will use coin laundries, I will bring only underwear that is not 100% cotton.
I have been washing and drying underwear in coin laundries and hotel laundry machines for five years, yet it feels like I only realized this today.
I used to think that as long as underwear was comfortable, anything was fine. I never imagined I would have to consider the fabric type based on how easily it dries in a business‑trip dryer...
I hope to finish this period of business travel soon, forget about laundry and drying, and simply choose underwear based on comfort again.