Changing lifestyles and family structures have changed consumer domestic washing behaviour in our country, with growing use of washer‐dryers and changing detergent preferences, including use of concentrated detergents. In particular, there has also been an increase in the number of combined washer‐dryers, which both save space and reduce the housework burden. However, power consumption for drying is extremely high compared to that for washing. This study reveals the drying performance of sweat‐absorbent, quick‐drying clothing in domestic washing, and uses the life cycle assessment method to evaluate washing and drying with heat‐pump washer‐dryers compared with the conventional washer‐dryer. In this study, it was assumed that drying was used on 99 days per year, based on the mean number of 99 days per year with rainfall in Tokyo. Both types of washer‐dryer showed high CO2eq emission levels for usage, with the highest levels for power consumption during drying. Compared with the conventional washer‐dryer, the heat‐pump washer‐dryer was able to reduce CO2eq emissions significantly through power savings and used less water as well, although it did require the use of larger amounts of detergent. However, the largest portion of CO2eq emissions was attributable to the drying process, and the use of sweat‐absorbent, quick‐drying clothing enabled these emissions to be reduced by approximately 10%. The residual moisture content of clothing after washing and spin‐drying, which significantly affects the amount of CO2eq emissions generated at the drying stage, depended on spin‐drying times and the proportion of polyester fibres in the clothing.

Fabric slipperiness is an important property whose impacts include clothing comfort, sports records and the medical or safety performance of anti-slip or slippery textile products. The characteristics of fabric slipperiness have been studied under limited conditions and with samples with regard to the fabric component. In this study, the MIU (average value of the friction coefficient), which is correlated with the slipperiness or non-slipperiness of fabrics, and MMD (fluctuations of the average frictional coefficient), which is correlated with the smoothness or roughness, were measured for more than 50 versatile fabrics by using the friction tester, KES-SE. As a result, it was found that the friction coefficient was mainly determined by the linearity of weave texture, the fuzziness of the fabric and the real contact area between fabrics and rubbed materials, which are proposed as new factors of fabric slipperiness; this approach contrasts with the past approach, which mainly relied on the fabric structure. The relation between MIU and each factor was not analyzed separately but instead analyzed from a new comprehensive and statistical point of view. This approach made it possible to obtain the practical contribution ratio of these factors for application in the design of new slippery or anti-slip textiles that are useful for our lives. On the other hand, the smoothness had nothing to do with those factors, rather, it was related to the three-foundation weave texture of the fabrics.