I would try washing them in hot water, regardless of what the care label says. Hotter water does wash better.

I would soak them in hot water and extra detergent plus cup of baking soda for couple of hours, rinse and drain and wash them in the hottest water possible without ading additional detergent b/c there might even be some old detergent residue in. Possibly rewash them again.Rinse really good! Would not use FS, only vinegar for rinsing. After couple of really hot washes it should be fine. If not rewash them again using normal amount of detergent. It will eventually come out clean.
I had little problem few months ago w/ my BF towels and this worked for us.

Joann, do you know if your water is hard? I think most of Florida has very hard water. We've lived all over the state and I remember the Jacksonville, Tampa & Orlando areas having very bad water. I'm in Broward county now and the water is pretty good, but we have a softener anyway.

If the water is hard, you probably need to use a little more detergent. Another idea is to track down Mexican powder detergents that have phosphates. The phosphates make the water soft so the detergent can clean properly. There have been a number of posts here that recommend them.

Usually they are in plastic bags under the brands of Ace, Viva or Ariel at stores that sell International groceries.

There is a product called Calgon that I think would work well for you. It is a water softner that also helps strip mineral and detergent residues from clothing. I would use 1/2 cup powder with the towels alone for a hot load with an extra rinse. Putting in a kettle of boiling water to help raise the temperature of the water may help too. I use this product to strip my cloth diapers and towels and it works great. Good luck!

I have a water softener and my washer & dryer has no odor. Its a little over 2 yrs old and a Kenmore. The other clothes seem to be ok, its mostly the colored items that I can't bleach. Oh, and borax didn't help either. Any other ideas? No lotions, ointments or skin problems going on.

Joann, why don't you try washing one of towels in question with your white load that you've added bleach to. See if that makes a difference as far as the odor and if the towel was faded by the bleach.

There are a lot of bright colors that can withstand bleach from time to time. Your towels might just benefit from a shot of Clorox to disenfect and deodorize them. To kill germs/bacteria & whatnot, you don't need that much bleach; a fourth to a third of a cup is enough for a full load.

I added bleach to my last load of colored towels and now the have a "popcorn" smell. Whats going on here???????

Joann, you might try adding tsp to your laundry. I didn't even realize that our towels were not fluffy, until I talked to the Charlie's soap people who recommended that I try tsp. It's like magic! Now my towels and sheets are so fluffy I have a space problem in my very large linen closet.

I use a HE toploader that is about 6 mo. old, and live on the Central east coast of FL.

Joann,

Are you using powder detergent? If you are using liquid, that is part of the reason why it is stiff. Also make sure the towels have some room to wash as well.

Good luck

beachlily, a tst of what????

I use liquid detergent. Should I switch to powder?
Have you ever had a popcorn smell?

Joann,
I use to used liquid detergent and made my towels stiff and when I switch to powder it took about 2 times to get it soft. I also when I put it in the dryer. I put high heat and also select in cool down or wrinkle free too help help it fluff up.

Hope it helps &
Good luck

I really like Sears Ultra formula powdered detergents. They clean very well, rinse out well, leave towels soft and fluffy, and are VERY inexpensive. They're being repackaged in boxes now, but Sears stores and appliance stores may still have them in buckets. I like the Stain-Fighting and Oxi-Clean formulas. HTH

Sorry, Joann, that is TSP (trisodium phosphate). Its a cleaning agent. At Charlie's Soap, Taylor said that apparently Florida water has some mineral that blocks the soap from cleaning properly. He recommended I use TSP to "clean the water" to allow the soap to work. And work it does!! I use equal amounts of Charlie's Soap and TSP. My laundry is fluffy and clean! I get the TSP at Ace Hardware or WalMart.

Sorry for the confusion.

I just bought some Sport Wash at walmart today, I'm gonna try it. Its liquid, its all they had. Its suppose to be just like Charlies soap. (as per one of the forums here) How do you like Charlies Soap? Does it actually cost more to use?

I came looking for an answer about those pricey laundry smell removers you can buy, and found this thread.

Yes, I have the popcorn smell in all of our gym clothes. I attributed the odor to all the corn products hidden in what we eat and then sweat out, even though we eat fairly cleanly. But if it's in your towels, maybe I'm wrong about the origin of the odor. Our towels are not so old, and don't smell; I wash them in hot water regardless of what color they are. I bet if they got old they'd smell. The towels at our gym are stinky. It's a fairly fancy gym, and they use big industrial washers and super hot water and bleach. You can tell when you've got a new one because it smells better. I didn't start to notice the smell until the towels were a couple of years old.

My bed linens are old, and I wanted to improve the smell of the linen closet, too. Linen sprays work only for a few moments; the next time I open the closet, the linens have the same old smell. It's not exactly the popcorn smell. I wash them in hot water with powdered detergent.

Both our gym clothes and my sheets are very thin.
So I was wondering whether the very expensive laundry smell removers are worth it. I see you are about to try Sport Wash. That is the brand I noticed on the shelf first, a couple of years ago. But there are others out now. Will you let us know if it works?

My towels are about 2 1/2 yrs old now, I didn't notice the smell when they were new and they were not stiff then either. I just used the sport wash today so I can't tell yet. I'll post again in a few days and let you know if it helps. I personally would not use the the laundry smell removers. I never had any luck with them when I tried them. As far as you linen closet odor, try a solid fragrance gel or something like a fragrance block you would put in your car, that my help.

There is one more thing I have forgot to tell you Joann. If the Sport Wash doesn't help. Try to fine the powder detergent it will make it soft and also try to fine either oxy-clean or an oxygen bleach base to help remove the stinky in your towels.

P.S.
If anyone wants a more powerful oxygen bleach than oxy-clean, just ask and I will type the link up.

Good luck

Could the dryer actually be the culprit?

I live here in LA, Southern California we have hard water. I noticed that powder laundry detergent will not clean very well in less I add a little bit of TSP it sold in bright orange/red box. I got my TSP box from 99 cent only store 99 cents so well worth the money

Closet odor is due to luck of air circulation or chemicals leftover from washing. Just plain old a/c doesn't work. It needs to be rewashed. My mom told me to use basic stuff for washing and cleaning. Hot water and some baking soda( w/ some exceptions)is very important to me. She also said, more stuff you put in the water, more trouble you get b/c if it isn't rinsed properly, it will build up and damage the laundry. I think she was right. I have towels,many 15 years old and still soft and in one piece. Same for sheets, after 13 years I still don't need any new ones. The black ones are slightly faded but no holes or freys either.
I don't use bleach b/c I am allergic to it. If I have any trouble spots, I boil it out on top of the stove w/ extra soap and I also used product like iron out. IMO lots of people use way too many chemicals in the washing process. At work I smell people yards away. They think it is fresh clean smell. Well they are wrong. The extra soap and ton of softener just clings to the laundry, irritates skin and gets baked in next time another load of soap is added. Vinegar and touch of lemon juice is great in rinsing. Or add some essential oil in. We also have hard water and no problem getting the laundry done. I had babies and muddy and grassy stains and cat hairballs on on my bed too. But never had problems like you guys here. I would never put oxy anything in my laundry. I used it once on my driway after I had load of mulch droped on and it left black huge stain after the 3 weeks sitting there. Nothing would take it out, not even pool acid. I wetted it down and covered w/ oxy clean, let it sit, brushed and rinsed.I was shocked how clean the driway was. My laundry is never this dirty, why put something so harsh on it? I would advice scale back on dosing, get rid of build up by using some safe degreaser w/ hot water and rinse, rinse, rinse. Over past many years I used Persil, cheap soap, powder, liquid, HE and it never made a difference in my washers so maybe it is do dosing and water not being hot enough.
My mom was lousy cook but her laundry was the freshest and cleanest. I'm glad I listened to her.

Joann fla,

Do you leave your washer door open to dry out?
I believe stiff towels is caused by using the liquid soap and it also sounds like you are getting a mold issue. I would do a couple clean washer cycles HOT water and 1/2 cup bleach.
I have had both those issues and I ended up getting a new washer, that ended the smell, it was mold. In the new washer I would wash towels using sanatize cycle, but I ended up getting stiff towels too, it was due to using only 1/2 TBL Liquid Tide HE and not enough water to rinse. I had a brand new Whirlpool Duet FL washer and that is when I ended up with stiff towels, they ended up real stiff, I noticed they were full of soap after using the liquid HE. It took me well over 3 1/2 months using no soap and sanatize cycle in the new Duet, they were still soapy.
I dont have the problem of stiff towels now after again buying a different washer. I do have another fl washer but it gives more water to rinse.

I now use 1/2 - 1 Tbl powder non HE and no Problem clothes come out clean and towels are starting to be soft again, I thought I was going to have to replace them, but they are starting to be normal again after having a different washer for 1 month. I am starting to feel normal again after having problems as everyone here knows its been BAD.

MY ISSUES RESOLVED !!!

Good Luck! I hope that some of these ideas of all the posts help you.

The "sport wash" seems to be doing great so far. I've only washed my towels about 2 times with it and there is no smell. They also seem to be getting a bit softer. When I finish useing the sport wash I think I'll try the Charlie's soap.

we live outside orlando and are on a well, as is our whole town. we had a problem with sour towels. i tried everything. baking soda, vinegar, bleach, twice as much laundry soap, you name it. i did a search for sour towels and came across someone's post on here. one person recommended charlie's soap. so i went on ebay and bought 2 bags. i use it with downey's april fresh fabric softener and sheets and i have to tell you that truly my laundry has NEVER EVER smelled better. my friends have even commented on the smell of my clothes. and all of our towels that i was seriously going to throw out if charlie's didn't work smell AWESOME!

Joann - my sisters and I were all complaining about the stink of our towels, dish clothes and laundry in general. I finally ditched the liquid detergent and went back to powder. What a difference. I just don't think that liquid totally rinses out. But my laundry is back to the way it used to smell (great) and so is everyone elses. I am done with liquid detergent. Same with my dishwasher, the liquid just does not rinse off the dishes no matter what I do. It could be the water in different areas, I don't know. But go back to powder detergent and you'll see a huge difference.

This may sound obvious but are you using a large enough load setting? I ALWAYS set it on the biggest load setting when doing towels no matter how many are in there, because they are so absorbant and big.

Also, you may want to tell it to do "second rinse". I do that all the time too.

Today is my first visit to the laundry forum and I'm amazed to see all the posts stating problems with these new "efficient" machines. Even though I have one myself, TL, I am beginning to wonder how efficient they really are.

Hi all

I too have this stinky towel problem. I have tried everything! I'm actually thinking it's the towels themselves. I have some old towels that 100% real cotton and guess what they don't smell.............. When I bought my new top loading washer I thought I would also buy new towels. I am on the hunt now for real cotton towels. Very hard to find. Some how there so many different cottons? My husband has slowly migrated to our old towels and they are great! No smell

Josephine

What washer do you have? What cycle do you wash the towels on? Water temp? Detergent?

Also what fabric are your smelly towels if not cotton?

I wouldn't be to quick to ditch perfectly good towels if the only problem is odors.

he washer and stinky towels=too much detergent and poor rinsing

Rewash all your towels using no detergent and with one cup of vinegar in the wash.

Then use no more than 2 tablespoons of detergent, a hot wash cycle and and extra rinse option for all subsequent washes.