Air drying is better for your clothes and your energy bill. With no heat and no tumbling, there's less shrinking, fading and pilling, and it costs nothing. Machine drying is faster, works in any weather and leaves towels and bedding softer. Most households do both: air dry delicates, knits and activewear, and machine dry towels, sheets and jeans.
Growing up, my mother insisted on air drying everything. Delicates, jeans, sports uniforms, even basic cotton tees, there was always laundry hanging from the backs of chairs or laid out by the windows. Once I had kids of my own I had neither the time nor the space for that. I started relying on the dryer, and shrank or ruined a few favorite things before I found a balance. I figured out (embarrassingly late in life) that there isn't one best way to dry clothes. These days my sheets and towels go in the machine, and my delicates and activewear are always air dried.
Air dry vs machine dry at a glance
| Air drying | Machine drying | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | A few hours outdoors on a warm day, up to a day indoors | About an hour for most loads |
| Cost | Free after a rack or line | Uses electricity or gas every load |
| Wear on clothes | Very little | Heat and tumbling cause shrinking, fading and lint |
| Feel | Can be stiff, especially towels | Soft and fluffy |
| Wrinkles | Few if you shake and hang well | Few if you take clothes out promptly |
| Weather and space | Needs dry weather or a well-aired room | Works any time, anywhere |
| Best for | Delicates, wool, knits, activewear, swimwear | Towels, bedding, jeans, everyday cottons |
Is air drying better for clothes?
Yes, for most fabrics. A dryer's heat makes cotton and wool fibers shrink, and the tumbling rubs fibers loose (the lint in the trap came off your clothes). On a line or a rack, colors stay brighter, elastic lasts longer and knits keep their shape.
It costs less too. A standard dryer uses anywhere from 1,800 to 5,000 watts, and the size of the load and the heat setting make a big difference. Residential laundry was estimated to produce 179 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year in the US. If you want to cut your share, try shorter, cooler dryer cycles, or skip the dryer and hang the load up.
Clothes dried outside often feel fresher. The airflow and sunlight help get rid of odors, and sunlight can even act as a natural disinfectant. It gently brightens whites as well, though it can fade bright colors if you leave them out for hours.
The downsides are time and space, and in winter the weather. Line-dried towels can come out stiff, and clothes that dry too slowly in a damp room can pick up a musty smell.
When to air dry
- Delicates, silk, lace and lingerie. Heat damages fine fibers and elastic.
- Wool, cashmere and hand knits. Lay them flat on a towel or a mesh rack so they keep their shape. Our guide on washing a wool sweater without shrinking it covers the rest.
- Activewear and swimwear. Heat breaks down stretch fabric and can lock in sweat smells.
- Anything whose label says line dry, dry flat or do not tumble dry. Our laundry symbols guide explains each drying symbol.
- A favorite pair of jeans or a good shirt you want to last.
- Anything at all on a warm, dry, breezy day.
When to machine dry
- Large, bulky things like towels, sheets and curtains. They're slow to dry on a line, and the dryer leaves towels soft.
- Comforters and blankets, which take too long to dry all the way through when hung up. A damp center can turn musty.
- Anything you need fast. Most loads are done in about an hour.
- Cold, wet or humid weeks, when clothes won't dry within a day indoors.
- Small homes with nowhere to put a rack.
Weather decides a lot of it. My family lives in Seattle, so I love air drying outside in summer but dry clothes indoors for most of the year, while friends in Southern California can hang laundry outside year-round.
If you're unsure about a mixed load, dry it on low heat and take out anything delicate while it's still slightly damp, then hang it to finish.
How to air dry clothes
- Spin well first. A medium or high spin pulls out most of the water and takes hours off the drying time. Use a gentle spin for delicates. Our guide to spin cycles has the speeds for each fabric.
- Give everything a firm shake to straighten the fibers and get most creases out before they set.
- Shirts and dresses on hangers, pants folded over a rail or clipped at the hem, and sweaters flat.
- Leave space between items. Clothes bunched on a rack dry slowly and can smell damp.
- Turn darks inside out if they're drying in the sun, or the color fades.
- Indoors, put the rack near an open window, a fan or a dehumidifier, not in a closed room.
- If towels come off the line stiff, shake them hard or tumble them for five minutes on no heat.
How long it takes to air dry clothes
On a warm, breezy day outdoors, most clothes dry in two to four hours. Indoors it usually takes most of a day, and longer for jeans, towels and thick sweaters. Humidity matters more than temperature. A cool, dry, breezy day dries faster than a warm, muggy one.
Machine drying without the damage
- Use low heat or permanent press for most clothes, and keep high heat for towels and bedding.
- Leave the drum a bit under full. Clothes need room to tumble or they come out creased and damp in the middle.
- Take things out as soon as the cycle ends. Clothes left in a warm drum wrinkle as they cool.
- Clean the lint trap every load. A clogged trap makes the dryer run longer. Our guide on cleaning the dryer lint trap covers the vent too.
With towels I add a few wool dryer balls. They bounce between the layers, which lets air through the load and cuts static, and ours are 100% wool and last for about 1,000 loads. If you'd rather use a sheet, our dryer sheets come in Ocean Breeze or Fragrance Free and are made from biodegradable cellulose fibers. Dryer sheets vs dryer balls has more on choosing.
What the air dry setting does
The air dry or air fluff setting on a dryer tumbles clothes with no heat. It's far too slow to dry a wet load, but it's good for fluffing pillows and down jackets, shaking dust out of curtains, softening line-dried towels and finishing clothes that are almost dry. Some washer-dryer combos also have an air dry option that uses fans and little or no heat. Check your manual for what yours does.
Frequently asked questions
Is it better to air dry or machine dry clothes?
Air drying is better for most clothes, and machine drying is better for towels, bedding and anything you need quickly. If you want something in between, tumble a load on low for 10 minutes to shake out the creases and soften it, then hang it to finish.
Does air drying clothes prevent shrinking?
Mostly. A hot wash can still shrink cotton and wool before the clothes ever reach the line. Wash anything you're worried about in cold or warm water as well.
How long does it take to air dry clothes?
Two to four hours outdoors on a warm, breezy day, and most of a day indoors. Seams, waistbands, pockets and hoods are the last parts to dry and the first to smell musty, so check them before you put anything away.
What does the air dry setting on a dryer do?
It tumbles clothes with no heat. Since the heating element stays off, it uses far less energy than a normal cycle, and it's the gentlest setting on the dryer for heat-sensitive fabrics.
