What are they made out of? Microfiber towels can sometimes spread the water around intead of soaking it up. Micorfiber towels are soft and many mistake them for cotton. I would check the tag on the towel.

Are you using them new or have they been washed? If they are new try washing them in hot water with distilled white vinegar first. If they have been washed, what are they being washed in?

Try stopping the dryer sheets and fabric softener. Perhaps the towels aren't 100% cotton? Fabric softener is supposed to lessen absorbency.
Love your name, do you have a friend named Archie? LOL

I agree. Run a load of towels without any soap and use 1/4 cup of vinegar in the rinse. See if there are any suds in the rinse cycle. You may have to run them a couple of times to get all the soap out. Also, stop using fabric softener and dryer sheets since they do lessen absorbency.

I bought some Calvin Klein towels about a year ago that had exactly this problem. DH picked them out because they felt so soft in the store. I'd have better luck using a pair of pantyhose after my shower! I use the new towels for cat bedding.

I've tried all sorts of things, but none work. The towels are white and 100% cotton, so dye and yarn shouldn't be the issue. I normally use vinegar in the rinse water and no fabric softener or dryer sheets. My other towels are as fluffy and absorbent as ever.

I agree that some towels, for whatever reason, just do not absorb water very well. They feel luxurious, but don't dry you worth a darn. This is not the result of any particular washing or drying method, as they seem to be that way new from the store, and only certain towels in our closet have this characteristic...if it was a result of my laundry method, then ALL of our towels should be affected. I think it must be either something put on the fibers/towels in the manufacturing, or a factor involving the yarn twist or spin. Unfortunately, there's no way to know until you get them home and use them.

I find that some towels have to be "broken in" by using them. We've had towels that aren't very absorbent, but by the time they've been washed 20 times or so they are much more absorbent than they were when new.
And of course the no fabric softener and adding vinegar to the rinse will help as others here have stated.

Plastics and synthetic fibers have made a fortune for that industry since they’ve stolen their way into every aspect of our life including the towels we are trying to get dry with after showering ! Old fashioned cotton towels with zero additives are the only thing that will successfully dry us off. And we used to take it for granted that when we whipped a fresh towel off the bathroom rack it would get us dry ! Forget that - now days it’s all about the plastics and synthetic fiber industry making a killing with their snappy salesmen talking every conceivable products producer into somehow incorporating their toxic substances into every conceivable product on the market today - and yes that includes our food now in the age of GMO fake produce..

Ah HU143186761...this thread has been dead for over a decade, you might want to try a more recent thread.