How to better identify the quality of hotel linen towels?

As one of the hotel linens, hotel towels vary in quality on the market today. With a wide variety of towel types and styles, there are even cases of towels made from polyester materials being falsely labeled as pure cotton. This leaves customers confused when selecting towels, potentially leading to the purchase of low-quality products at high prices. Today, Huitingfang, a premium hotel linen fabric supplier, shares methods for identifying towel quality, helping everyone gain a basic understanding of towel-related knowledge.

Types of Towels

Nowadays, towels come in a wide variety of types, but generally speaking, they can be categorized as follows: face towels, children's towels, square towels, rectangular towels, bath towels, disposable towels, hotel sets, and beach towels.

From a technical perspective, they can be categorized as: plain loop terry towels, vertical stripe terry towels, segmented terry towels, raised loop terry towels, cut pile terry towels, jacquard terry towels, and printed terry towels.

From the organizational structure, they can be categorized as: single single hair, single double hair, and double double hair

Factors Affecting Towel Quality

The raw material of a towel directly determines its quality, and the prices of different materials vary significantly. High-quality towels must be made from 100% pure cotton, with cotton yarn being 21-count, 21-ply, 32-count, 32-ply, or 40-count. The advantages of pure cotton towels are unmatched by those containing synthetic fiber materials

To determine whether a towel is made of pure cotton, just pay attention to the following points, and you'll be able to tell for the most part

Absorbency. Pure cotton towels have excellent water absorption. When a pure cotton towel is gently placed in water, it absorbs quickly and sinks rapidly. After removal and wringing, when hung vertically, no water droplets should drip down—this confirms it is pure cotton. Towels containing polyester absorb water more slowly, and when wrung out and hung vertically, water droplets will fall

Appearance: Pure cotton towels exhibit excellent whiteness, with pure colors, whereas polyester-blended towels lack whiteness and appear dull. These differences make them easy to distinguish when placed together

Burning Method. Take a fiber from different towels, light it with a lighter. Pure cotton emits a natural ash smell. After blowing out the flame, the ember remains lit, and the smoke is slightly white. If polyester is present, the residue resembles plastic burning, igniting quickly with an unpleasant odor. After blowing out the flame, it immediately extinguishes

The most fundamental method is to take a few fibers each and place them under a UV light. If they display colors similar to banknotes, they undoubtedly contain polyester

Styles and Weights of Towels

The lighter the weight of a single towel, the better its style, indicating higher-quality cotton yarn. Conversely, if a towel has a relatively low weight but poor style—such as short, coarse, or thin fibers—it suggests inferior cotton yarn quality. The weight variance of towels should not be excessive, with a typical tolerance of 2% for 12 pieces (one dozen) and 0.5% for a full bundle. The pass rate should generally reach 99.5%, while the packaging accuracy should typically be 99.9%