How to Wash Bathing Suits to Keep Them Looking Their Best

This summer has been a hot one, which means you’ve probably taken a dip in the pool, jumped in the lake, swam in the ocean, or have at least let the sprinklers spritz you a time or two at this point in the season. And whether you’ve purchased a new swimsuit or are wearing an oldie-but-goodie for basking in the sun, the material of swimwear never seems to hold up for that long, which can be frustrating when you really love a vibrant pair of board shorts or a perfectly fitting bikini. 

Oftentimes the colors fade, the material gets eaten away, and the elasticity loses its stretchiness so that you are forced to throw out your favorite swimming getup.  

Your bathing suit deals with an excessive amount of sun exposure, chlorine or salt, and sunscreen lotions when in use; when you take your swimsuit off and leave it out in the sun to dry, all of those things are absorbed into the fabrics of your swimwear. The chlorine and sunscreen chemicals eat away at the fibers of your outfit while the sun lightens the colors, so the first thing you want to do keep your bathing suit looking new is to remove it from the sun as soon as you’re done swimming and get it ready to be washed right away. 

Just because your bathing suit can take a beating from the ocean waves and regular roughhousing in any body of water, that doesn’t mean it should get the same treatment in the washing machine. The trick to protect your trunks or bikini is by putting all the swimwear in a mesh bag which will keep it safe from its surroundings. For example, if your washer has an agitator – the long spindle-like mechanism in the center – containing your swimwear in a mesh bag keeps them safe from getting thrashed throughout the wash cycle.  

Just a few more laundry tips and tricks and you’ll soon know how to wash bathing suits like a pro! 

When tossing your swimwear-filled mesh bag into the washer, be sure to keep the load light. A few towels from your earlier adventures are fine to throw in, but the less you have tumbling around, the better.  

Also, because heat can be damaging to the fabric and color of your bathing suit, set the washer to a delicate cycle and wash in cold water for the best results.  

There are two ways you could go about drying your swimsuit attire. The safest way is by gently squeezing the water out and lying flat to let air dry. Of course, you can always dry your bathing suit in the dryer, but this calls for extra caution since, like we mentioned earlier, swimwear doesn’t always respond to direct heat well. But, if you do go the dryer route, choose a delicate or air dry option to only expose your swimwear to cool/room temperature air.

We hope these laundry tips and tricks have been useful and if you’re looking for a new washer to help you with more than just your bathing suit cleanings, we can assist you with that too! Contact our store to learn more about our washers and dryers and how their special features can aid you during laundry time.