That is a very typical symptom of having residual detergent in your clothes from either overdosing or improper rinsing.

Try reducing your detergent dose to 1-2 tablespoons, and use 5 rinses or more if possible. Also use the highest rpm spin available to ring out as much residual detergent as possible.

Adding about 1/4 cup of vinegar to the final rinse helps reduce alkalinity and acts as a natural softener for your clothes.

I am currently using Charlie's Soap and Sport Wash (which is basically liquid Charlie's Soap). I only use 1 oz. of the Sport Wash or 1 tablespoon of CS and everything is just as rough as with Tide HE or Cheer HE. The CS and SW are supposed to rince residue free. Could this be a problem with my washers rince cycle? I have had 2 LG 2277 washers because the first one was dented during delivery and they both rinsed the same.

Since you claim both washers produced the same results, it's highly unlikely they both are defective. I bet if you even washed the towels a zillion times without any detergent they would still come out rough and scratchy. I've noticed white vinegar doesn't do much for softening. It is important though for removing residual detergent in the final rinse. You may have hard water and a build up of minerals in the towels. A water softener like White King or using STPP may help remove some of it. You'll probably have to use a "free" type softener to overcome the rough towels. One other trick that works for me is to run the dryer in the "air-fluff" cycle for about an hour after the dryer completes drying them. The extra tumbling with no heat will usually soften them up quite a bit.

I've noticed older towels tend to build up with mineral deposites over time. It may also have something to do with the types of body wash or whatever else you use when bathing. If the towels are not washed after every use this problem seems to occur more often. I've compared new to old towels and the new ones appear to always be somewhat softer. A couple of my older towels are rough, but most of them are not.

Bruce

Hard water build up wouldn't have happened at exactly the moment the LGs were acquired, so I doubt that is the cause. I'm still inclined to believe it's something unique to the LG units, perhaps the way they rinse or the way they dry the clothes.

What detergent did you use in the top loader? Is it possible that the top loader never quite rinsed out completely and maybe the detergent you used had a built-in fabric softener?

I'm grasping at straws here because my front loader produces very nice and soft clothing without any need for fabric softener. This is a mystery -- have you tried searching the forums for this problem to see what solutions others have found?

I have to wonder:

If new front loader + towels washed/rinsed/dried with detergent residue remaining from OLD top-loader = rough/scratchy towels .....

then

..... towels washed/rinsed/dried WHILE old top-loader was the machine at hand should also = rough/scratchy towels.

No?

I had the SAME PROBLEM when switching from my Calypso clothes came out rough in the new He4t FL. Why? It uses much less water! And the LG also uses very little water, even for a FL.

Solution: I now use HALF a tablespoon Charlie's Soap powder. And I use Charlie's Soap liquid or SensiClena/Sportwash, but not 1/8 cup--only about 3/4 of the tiny capful or even less for small loads!

Everything feel much, much softer. Try this right away!

Sorry for the typos! Just woke up from a nap. Please let me know if this helps.

Try adding a teaspoon of STPP to your wash.

If you don't want to do that, try using Calgon in your wash.

Good Luck.

I mostly used either cheer liquid or Tide w/bleach powder in my top loader plus a bunch of other detergents over the years (All, Gain, Oxidal etc.) and I never had rough scratchy towels and clothes. I am going to try using less soap and the most rinses. Overal I am not happy with this washer and dryer but it is past Best Buy's 30 day deadline so I am stuck with them. I Still don't see how front loaders clean better and are gentler than top loaders. I don't know if this is how all front loaders operate or if it is just the way LG's work but my newest black T shirts, which used to hold their color for about a year, now are so faded they look grey and feel worn out after only being washed in the LG for 3 months! My towels are not only rough but aren't fluffy and seem matted no matter how much I fluff them in the dryer. It seems like this LG is rougher on my clothes. Is there any complaints about LG's being harder on clothes than other the front loaders?

I haven't noticed any fading in my Asko, but that isn't so much dependent upon the washer as it is on the water temperature and type of detergent. I've heard that TideHE tends to fade clothes, and if you are running your colors at 120 degrees or higher, you may end up with some fading issues.

Since you are using CS for the most part, I'd further reduce your dosage if you have relatively soft water and make sure you're getting 5 full rinses and bump up the spin and see if things have changed for the better. Try adding a bit of vinegar to the final rinse, as that will neutralize the alkalinity of the water and remove any remaining detergent residue which will result in softer clothes.

Use the extra rinse option on your washer and HE laundry detergent!

I bought an LG1814 washer last month along with an LG dryer. I'm using 1/3 the amount of HE liquid detergent recommended and still my clothes are coming out beat up. My wife's blouse looks like a shag rug with all the pilling. I've tried the "delicate" cycle, but still the clothes get torn up.

Use Wisk/All/Purex/Arm&Hammer/Sears HE laundry detergents and the extra rinse option on your washer!

Stay away from Tide HE/Gain HE/Cheer HE!

I have been using Amilya's Soapworks for a few years and have no problem with rough clothes. Soapworks is soap (Made with all vegetable, no animal, products). Soap is much more gentle on the fibers so my clothes stay new-looking longer than if I used detergent. Detergent is really hard on fibers. (Even Charlie's Soap is detergent. Read the history on Google.)

I happen to live in an area where we get Hetch Hetchy water, and soap works beautifully, rinses out completely and so, no scratchy residue. I always do small loads with low wash water and not much soap, and then high rinse water. Rinsing is the key.

Hard water areas pretty much have to use detergent, that's why detergent was invented. That's one problem with using Amilya's. Another one is that no retail outlets are carrying it any more, so you have to phone-order it: 1-800-987-6564. The other drawback is that you can't get a small sample to try and the only size is $20.

If anybody else made real laundry soap, I'd try it, but I haven't found any.

gwama99,

I have a box of Soapworks. It does make clothes softer than anything else. I had stopped using it because it did not clean that well in my Calypso, but I should try it again in the He4t.

But I bought it at my local Trader Joe's. And it was really cheap--something like $5.99. The box says 800-699-9917. SoapWorks, San Leandro, CA 84577, www.SOAPWORKS.com. Did they get bought by Amilya's or something?

Andrea

Amilya is the name of the woman who developed the product in the first place. There's a blurb about her on the box I have. (She was on Oprah on a segment about stay-at-home moms who became entrepreneurs.)
Trader Joe discontinued it - what a blow. I had to go to the website to find a phone number. I hope they start to sell on Amazon or something. It could be that Amilya herself sold to a larger company.
Anyway, I bought it at that price although it bugged me to do it.

I have to wonder if the scratchy towels is a sign of too much soap. I have one of the new GE Adora FLs and use half the recommended dose of detergent when I wash towels. They come out of the washer almost dry and scratchy. Running them thru the dryer softens them some but nothing like they used to feel when we had our old Kenmore 80 series. I just thought it was a FL issue.

I usually skip the softener when I wash towels since I read that the chemicals in fabric softener leave a residue on the clothes that decrease a towels water absorption.

I think reducing your detergent dose to 1 TBS along with increasing to 3-5 rinses should do the trick. Front loaders, by design, use significantly less water (1/5-1/10) than top loaders and the detergent dose should be adjusted accordingly. Most seem to get good results with 1-2 TBS.

Thus far, all the replies have focused on the washer and water, but going back to the OP's mention of new dryer, is there also some possibility the scratchiness is caused or worsened by overdrying? Just something else to consider.

I hadn't considered that, but definitely if you are drying at too high a temperature your clothes are going to feel somewhat fried. My Asko dryer seems to err on the side of leaving a slight bit of moisture in the clothes after the drying cycle finishes, so that's definitely something to consider.

See if you can put your dryer into a "low" or reduced heating mode.

I have a Miele washer and my old Maytag dryer. With my TL I used very, very little detergent and my clothes were never stiff or scratchy. There was no residual detergent visible in the FL when I began using it with no detergent for the first loads.

Because I have a whole house softener, I am dosing my FL washer in tsps. But initially, my towels and whites especially seemed stiffer and scratchy. Was using the same temps on my dryer. Miele actually suggests using more detergent if stiff to see if that makes a difference. I am using 1-3 tsps with not a lot of additives, just on certain loads and usually that would be White King D, Oxiclean and very occasionally Borax, as well as vinegar in the rinse. I seem to have a few more suds when I use the additives.

I initially wondered if the dryer could be causing it as the clothes are so dry straight out of the washer. I surmised that possibly the lack of moisture plus fast dryer caused them to dry too quickly before the fibers relaxed. My old TL probably spun at 600rpm max if that vs. my current 1200.

I did try some slower spins, but finally decided to dry some loads on delicate as well as regular, even though my regular heat is not terribly hot. I do not have a moisture detector on my dryer. For the last month or so, the clothes seem to be feeling softer to me when they come out of the dryer. Sometimes I leave it on regular, other times remember to hit the delicate. Will watch a little closer and see if I really can tell a difference drying them at a little cooler temp. The dry times seem close.

Update on good soap!!

The Amilya's Soapworks is two 7lb boxes for $20, including shipping. (It just arrived) Now that's a deal. Try it in your machine if you have softish water - maybe the washing soda or vinegar options might help the hard water problem.

Also I figured out that my machine doesn't spin as dry as it should so I reset the cycle to spin again before rinsing to get rid of as much soap and crud as possible, and use lots of water for the rinse.

A lot of messing around for something that should be automatic but my laundry comes out great, and I line-dry.

gwama99,

Where are you getting your soapworks from? The only website I find makes you buy their whole line up of products. You can't just buy the laundry soap.

I found a phone # somewhere on the website. They don't make it easy.

It's 1-800-987-6564. I called up ready to gripe about having to buy stuff I don't want but she said, "Sure, I can send you soap." And it arrived.

I also found some interesting-sounding soap on Ebay. When it arries I'll try it and post a reaction.

Ha ha! Finally I found out how to use the "search" function here and get back to this thread.

I recalled seeing that Soapworks was from Trader Joe's and it was discontinued. I purchased a 6.88 lb box on 22 Jan 06... from Trader Joe's. It was $8.49. I live on the EAST coast, in Alexandria, VA.

NB: Actually, it's called "Amilya's Soapworks Fresh Laundry Powder," if that's the same as what gwama99 and andrea2 use.

NB: In DC-land, we get historic Potomac River water from our taps. The water is neutral to slightly alkaline, and some days smells like a swimming pool, as the water dept. puts the federally allowable limit of chlorine in the supply to kill potential bugs. At this point, with my new LG w/d combo, I can't say that my laundry is cleaner, but the sudsing level (very low) is the same with "Concentrated ALL" and "Soapworks." My laundry has no smell, which on other threads suggests that all the chemicals are washing out. But my clothes aren't all necessarily soft, either. I'm still working on the soap amounts, but it's really hard to fathom low water/low soap having the same capabilities as high water/high soap.

BTW: I *AM* a rocket scientist. And it is rocket science to me! I *WILL* get the cleaning curve for the soap/water/spin/temp/rinse combinations, even if I have to plot the graph in five dimensions at the same time!

vonst, you'll need an extra dimension for the dependent variable. - DR

dross: lol

So...how do front loaders save on water usage if you have to do 3-5 rince cycles to get the soap out of the clothes?

Why, thank you so much for asking!

Dilution is exponential in the number of rinses, but only linear in the amount of water for a single rinse. That means that for a fixed amount of dilution, as you increase the number of rinses the amount of water necessary per rinse drops so quickly that even when taken together it can be relatively small.

Here's an experiment anyone can try. Take a 10oz glass, put in 2oz of cola (which is supposed to represent wet soapy clothing), and fill with water. Now pour out all but 2oz of the liquid, and set aside. In a second glass, start with 2oz of cola, and add a mere 1oz of water. Pour off 1oz of the mixture, add 1oz of water, pour off 1oz, etc, until you've added an ounce and poured off an ounce 4 times each.

If you sample the two mixtures, they will taste remarkably similar. That's because the first glass now has a 20% cola concentration, the second an almost identical 19.75% concentration. However, the first glass (corresponding to a typical TL machine) will have used 8oz of 'rinse' water, whereas the second (like a FL) only 4oz altogether. - DR

Thanks dross for his very clear explanation that gives more insight about the benefit. of multi-rinses against single rinse.

Overdrying with high heat is a possible culprit for towels and other cotton fabrics that become rough. This link explains how high heat causes tears in the cotton loops:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/08/990831080157.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Study Finds Hot Drying Wears Out Clothes Faster

Dross, et al,
When you mention 5 rinses, is that something you program into the LG--or do you manually restart the rinse cycle four times after the first complete wash cycle?
BTW, how "green" is this new-fangled equipment if we have to run cycles 5 times? Doesn't that use extra energy?

I don't have an LG.

The numbers I gave were just to illustrate a principle. I think the LG can be raised to 3 rinses with a button setting, and even 3 rinses on a machine like the LG should still give better results than a TL's single deep rinse.

The energy use in running a rinse cycle is negligible - it takes very little power to turn the drum. The only consideration with extra rinses is water use, which is less with the multiple shallow rinses. - DR

I just purchased a top load expensive maytag and it is doing the same thing. In all my years of doing laundry, I have never experienced this. I am not happy.

If you are switching from a traditional agitator top loader to one of the Maytag high efficiency top loaders, 1) reduce the amount of detergent--you may have significant detergent residue left in fabrics. 2) Also, from the outset that I had my first front loader that spun at faster speeds than my top loaders, I stopped using high heat on the dryer and only using medium heat for what I used to dry on high and the rest dried on low/delicate for what used to be dried on medium or low.