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Short Stuff: Thread Count · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, Welcome to the Short Stuff Podcast. I'm Josh, there's Charles,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: there's Jerome, and this is again the short Stuff Podcast.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: This one, in particular, is the short Stuff podcast where
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: we discussed thread counts in betting. Let's begin. Yeah, and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: this this one reeks of typical stuff you should know,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and that occasionally we will we will bust a myth
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: or two and bust a move that probably Yeah, that
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: probably might disappoint some folks like Dr Seuss lovers. Yeah,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: when we we pooped all over his early career. But
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: now we're gonna poop on thread count because thread count
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: has become one of these things starting in like the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: early two thousand's when you would literally see thread counts
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of a thousand. Uh, it became one of those numbers.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: And uh, they pointed out in this house stuff works
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: articles like i Q or gas mileage or something where
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: no one thought about anything but that number was like, oh, well,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it's a thousand. It's got to be better than the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: eight hundred, which is better than the six hundred, which
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: is better than the three hundred. And I mean, do
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you know where that came from the whole thread count thing.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: It's not like thread count hadn't been a factor before,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: but it was like an industry thing, and somehow I
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: got brought out to the consumer I'm guessing by some
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: yuppie scum who boasted about their thread count somewhere, maybe
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a movie or on a TV show, and then it
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: just kind of took off from there. Yeah. Here's the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: disappointing revelation everyone. What I read is not in this article,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: but I read in a different one that anything over
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: four hundred. Well, first of all, thread count is the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: number of horizontal, horizontal or in vertical threads per square inch. Yep.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So if you cut a square inch out of your sheet,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: get a microscope and count every single one of the threads,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: not where they crossed or anything like that, but just
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the individual threads. That's your thread count, and it's just added.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: There's no weird formula. Horizontal uh plus vertical. Well, you
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: also do the square root of pie right in the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: middle of it, right, just for fun. Uh. Here's the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: dirty secret though, Apparently anything over four hundred is just
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: bogus because a square inch is a square inch. There's
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: only so much thread you can fit in it. And
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: what I read was that four d is that number
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: without getting manipulative. Okay, alright, so what I read is
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that you can exceed that number without getting manipulative. But
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: you want to exceed that number, you have to use smaller,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: thinner and thinner fibers. But that's manipulative. I guess it's manipulative.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: But but you, yes it is, but um, but you
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: can like there's also outright manipulation where there's just not
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that many fibers and there's threat. Okay, all right, but
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you if you use thinner and thinner fibers to fit
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: more and more threads into that square inch, you're you're
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: giving the thread count that you're saying, but it's not
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: necessarily going to be a better sheet. Um. It might
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: feel pretty nice because what you're doing is creating like
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: one really solid piece of material, but because the thread
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: you're using is so thin, it might not be quite
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: as durable. Those threads might break more easily, leading to fraying. Pilling.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Pilling is the worst. UM. It might just catch fire spontaneously.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: It might suck the life out of you while you're
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: while you're sleeping. There's a lot of things that can
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: go wrong if the threads of your sheets, UM snap
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. Yeah. So there's a
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: woman named Lexi Sachs who works at the Good Housekeeping Institute,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: and she says in this article the sweet spot is
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: between three hundred and five hundred, or anywhere from three
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: hundred to five hundred because because higher than at then
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it the cotton becomes thin. Because, like you said, that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: probably means they're using thinner thread just to get that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: number up. Um. But what you're looking for is a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: It depends on who you are, But if you want
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a soft and durable sheet, then you wanted to be
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: in that four range, right, which is great. I they
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: don't even like mention thread counts much anymore, do they.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I haven't bought sheets in a while, but I bet
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: it's still a thing. Okay, But I think one of
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the reasons it used to be, like whether you were
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: in the market for sheets or not, you were you
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: were bombarded with thread counts on TV, radio, people in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: their car. Yeah. So, um, And it definitely has subsided.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And one of the reasons it's subsided is because we'll
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: be right back after this message, alright, Chuck. One of
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the reasons it's subsided is because again, some people were
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: just straight up perpetrating outright fraud, purpen fraud. Yeah, yeah,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: it's uh, it is weird. I don't hear as much
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: about anymore like you're talking about And maybe this fraud
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: being exposed has something to do with that. I think
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: it definitely is so Like for a period of time
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in the United States at least, we were duped into it.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Like I remember thinking like, oh my god, I don't
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: know what my threadcount is, Like I need to find it.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: That became the pickup line. It It replaced what's your sign,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I've got eight hundred threadcounts. She's so we were all
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: duped for a while. Um, But it really kind of
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: depends if you're shopping on what you're after in a sheet,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: like some people those flannel sheets. I think I had
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: flannel for a little while in college. It's too hot,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: uh for me for sure. Sometimes people cotton to those
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: all cotton they call them jersey or T shirt sheets.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: It's just weird. I went down that road for a
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: little while. Boy, you've tried them all, haven't you. Yeah.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I've never gone silk or satin. Ah. Yeah, no, what
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: about setine? No, what is settin? It's a synthetic satin
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: or yeah, I think it's even like more satiny than satin. Okay, Well,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: supposedly a setine we've will float the yarn over a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: few rows at a time, which makes it smoother apparently.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: So what about per kale, I'm not I don't even
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: know what that is. So per kale is kind of
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: like a crisp, sturdy cotton weave. It's kind of like
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: a basket we've um. But it's funny how like you
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: can use if you use certain types of fibers and
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: certain types of weaves, gonna get totally different fields. And
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: it is it's it's totally personal preference. I'm sure when
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I said Jersey just feels weird, somewhere out there is
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: like your your nuts, Clark. I love Jersey. Who doesn't
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: want to sleep on a T shirt? It's all just
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: personal preference. And luckily the the textile industry has has
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: heard this that there are many different preferences and they're
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: giving us many different different things to work with. Yeah,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and some of those like jersey sheets and the cotton
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: sheets like that. Well, then this something I've just learned
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: by having a young daughter. It will tangle your hair.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: A lot if you have long, straight hair or curly hair,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: God forbid, because that cotton, when you move around, it
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: just it grabs hold. So what they recommend is like
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: a satin pillow case for kids, for toddlers, because you're
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and it just makes sense your hair will slip around
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: on that and not get as tangle. So it's it's
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: in the mail. It's coming. I'll report back on success rates.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: But that is supposedly a big anti tangler is satin sheet. Yeah, um,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you mean has gotten a um silk just pillow cases,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: not the sheets, just the pillow cases. Yeah, it's yeah,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it's great. I had no idea why. Now I understand why.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I just thought she was showing off or something. But um,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you're thinking of France, right, we've got we've got silk
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: pillow cases now. Um, but they, I mean they are
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: very nice to sleep and I have to admit, Yeah,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: it's a small indulgence. I like it, but it's the yeah, right,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: it's just a fraction of an indulgence. You get the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: whole sheet set or whatever, then you are showing off.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think I would like it. I I just
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: like it's fine for a pillow case. I'd be afraid
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I'd slip off the bed or something exactly because I'd
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: wear my silk pajamas. Silk on silk. You know what
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: that means. Well, yeah, your toast, you're just gonna keep
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: sliding indefinitely until a car like stops you. So everyone's
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: getting duped. It's in the two thousand's. Uh, they start
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: coming out with these crazy numbers, like I said, up
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to a thousand, and they were able to do this
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: because there's no FTC mandate on how to determine thread count,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: so you can kind of just say whatever you want
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: and you can't be like tagged for false advertising. Well,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: what they were doing also was they were saying, oh, well,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: we're using two ply cotton threads, which is two thin
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: strands of cotton wound together to make a thicker strand
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  Speaker 1: of cotton. So we have three hundred of those in
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: a square inch, but they're two plies, so we're gonna
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: call these six hundred thread count. Some people, apparently India,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Pakistan and China were putting out a substantial amount of
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  Speaker 1: sheets that just it didn't matter what what you did,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: you weren't going to come up with the thread counts.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: That they were being advertised at and so the the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: International Trade Commission heard some complaints and they actually authorized
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: customs agents around the world to see sheets sheets shipments again,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: to see sheets shipments bam man, that's a tough one. Yeah,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and um test them. I don't know if they tested
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: them on the spot or what, but I'm sure there's
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: some nervous boat captains like standing there like, you know,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: is it gonna is it gonna come back with man?
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  Speaker 1: And um they found like a lot of sheets that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: were coming out again India, Pakistan and China that weren't
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: up to the thread counts. And I think that was
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: kind of like the the um the crest of that
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: that wave and the fact that the International Trade Commission
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: actually took action on it, it just kind of beat
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: back that that little subset of fraud. And so that's
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: where thread counts went. And apparently one of the other
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: things that was fraudulent was Egyptian cotton. Yeah. Egyptian cotton
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: is a real thing, and it is great because it's
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: a longer fiber, longer staple is what they call it, Yeah,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: which means it's softer for sure, and more durable. So
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: it's not like, if you see Egyptian cotton, it's not
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: some big scam unless it's not Egyptian cotton. And again,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: all kinds of brands are advertising a Gyptian cotton that
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: we're not Egyptian cotton. So if you go into a
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: store today and you see a one thousand thread count
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Egyptian cotton sheet, be very wary. I would say, yeah,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: runaway screaming. Well, unless it's it costs you a pretty
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: penny and it's from a brand that you know and trust. Well,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I think the rules. Well that's true.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it's true in this day and age.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: But at a time I think if you bought sheets
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: from a brand, a very trustworthy brand, and they were
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: expensive sheets, you would think you're probably getting what you're
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: paying for. This. This article from House to works Um says,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: if you see Egyptian cotton and it's inexpensive, you're probably
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: not getting Egyptian cotton. I'm surprised there's not an an
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: app delivery service called sheety Oh. I'll bet there's going
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: to be in about two weeks now. All right, just
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: give us a small cut, that's all I ask. Did
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: they ever though, Chuck whenever you come up with these
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: ideas that they did shark name, do ever give you
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: any I got no Sharknado money. You got no sugar
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: from Sharknado? Nope? Did you seize the sheets from Sharknado sugar?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I don't even know what that means. It doesn't mean anything.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I got nothing else. I haven't had anything else for
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: about thirty seconds. So let's end this, okay. If you
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: want to know more about this, go to how stuff
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: works dot com and check out this article, and also
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: works dot com