Best Way to Wash White Work Shirts and Best Detergent for Machine Wash Woollens

[carlstock]

Hi.

Work Shirts
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My sister is a trainee police officer in the Metropolitan Police Service in London (which covers the whole of London except the square mile in the very centre).

She wears work-issued cotton work shirts whose label suggests washing at 40 degrees C on a cottons programme, which we do. We pre-treat the collars, too. The wash label suggests using a low-heat cottons programme on the tumble dryer, so we do. The shirts are actually very nice – the cotton is especially good.

These shirts should be pre-washed apparently, which we do, because of the grit and dust in London, along with the fact that it’s a slightly messy job at times in terms of general day-to-day dust, etc. Stains don’t seem o be a problem with her as she doesn’t seem to get any!

We haven’t had any problems with them, but I would just like to ask all your opinions on how best to wash such items. I know this may be me being fussy, but there is a mostly dark blue Metropolitan Police logo, with a little black in it, that measures around three inches (7.6cm) wide and about half an inch (1.3cm) tall.

The police service is apparently very strict about how many shirts are given out, so I wouldn’t want the logo, which is sewn in, to fade prematurely. However, I guess it’s more important for the shirts to be very white because the shirt’s logo won’t be seen outside of a police station because she has to wear her stab vest..

She never gets them stained with food (hehe), so I’m really just asking for your best advice, guys, on washing white cotton shirts. I guess the small logo issue is largely irrelevant anyway, especially as I know from experience that sown-in logos withstand detergents with bleaching agents in pretty well, and of course the logo won’t be seen much of the time.

I’ve heard allsorts of suggestions from some of you guys, including using a liquid colour (non-bleach) detergent in the pre-wash compartment and then a powder detergent with a built-in bleaching agent in the main wash compartment.

All suggestions are welcome from everywhere, and if UK members could let me know which products to use, where and when, I’d be really grateful.

Machine Wash Woollens
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Quite a few of my sister’s items are woollen, which includes both a large jumper/top/cardigan and socks for the police. The jumper is very dark blue with a larger Metropolitan Police logo than that on the shirts and is worn over the stab vest.

We currently use Persil Silk & Wool liquid on the Miele washer’s Woollens 40 programme and with the heavy soiling dosage. On this programme, it is not possible to add any options, like Soak (for heavy soiling), etc., and the whole programme itself lasts 40 minutes – and that includes the wash, rinses and spin (at 400rpm)! Obviously, this is not necessarily a bad thing because the load has to be so small. Also, because of the gentle action required, there is not a great deal of washing going on – it’s mostly soaking with a few very gentle tumbles every so often. The wash part of the programme lasts around 21 minutes, followed by two rinses and then the 400rpm spin.

Basically, on this issue, can any of you UK members suggest a more effective – as powerful as possible – woollens detergents? I do not mean we’ve been having any problems, but I like to ensure we are getting these as clean as possible, also considering the rather gritty atmosphere of London. We live on the very edge of our town, where the rest of the landscape is open countyside, so we’ve basically in the countryside and so not used to pollution, etc.

I know products like this have to be used in order to ensure rapid mixing, as well as not damaging the fabric.

You help on this, too, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much, guys!

Take care.

Regards,

Carl

 

[lavamat_jon]

Carl - I would wash the work shirts on a standard cottons 40*C with a liquid biological detergent. Ariel liquitabs and liquid seem to work well on whites for me, despite being a liquid. Being a liquid it doesnt have bleach, so you wouldn't have to worry about the logo fading. Some may argue otherwise for white items, but I've not had an issue with whiteness and Ariel liquids/liquitabs, though other brands of liquid don't seem to be as good.

In terms of woollens - I like to use a non bio liquid detergent (though at the moment I'm using Sainsbury's Perform Kindwash, which is much nicer than Persil Silk & Wool IMO), and the Delicates programme. The delicates programme is as gentle as a wool wash as yesteryear and has a more thorough action than the wool programme. Whilst the wool programme is good for one or two items, the delicates cycle works better on larger loads of woollens. High water levels and slow tumbling speeds are used so no damage should be caused to the fabric.

Hope this helps!

Jon

 

[nickuk]

Hello Carl, hope you're keeping well!

Long answer:

White shirts can be difficult as anything to keep clean - collars and cuffs can still come out less than satisfactory with the best of detergents even on a hot wash.

I feel the key to great shirts is pretreating collars and cuffs, as you say you do. I have to admit, I don't often bother but when I used to the results were superb. Ariel liquid is a cracking pretreater, but even better I found was a bar of ordinary green Fairy household soap rubbed in (scrubbed in)generously, left to soak for 5 minutes and rinsed out. You can see the black filth pouring away you can also use Vanish stick pretreater in the same way - just as effective and easier to store than a huge block of Fairy on a plate.

If the shirts aren't stained, I might be tempted to main wash at 50 degrees (I would `carefully disregard' the 40 instruction but 40 would give good results too) with a biological liquid which contains OBA such as green Ariel liquid or liquitab. Why do I say that? Well, because from experience I find it gives dazzling whites on whites which are non stained. Also, I believe the type of soiling on shirts is a greasy type of soiling, which liquids are better at than powders. Might consider by-passing fabric conditioner on all cotton shirts too, iron them damp and she'll have wonderfully fresh, crisp, comfortable to wear shirts.

With regards the woolens - if they require a more thorough wash, consider laundering them on the delicates cycle rather than woolens. If the load is small you're very unlikley to cause any damage, the cycle would be more of a `square door Hoover' woolens wash than a modern `3 revolutions per hour' cycle. You might find you get a higher wash level and faster spin too - 700? I would imagine 400 might leave woolens a little on the wet side. The Persil silk and wool is appropriate (even for London `grit'), if she can stand the scent, especially since they are deep coloured garments. For a lighter scent Woolite is ok but I felt it faded colours for some reason. For a slightly heavier duty wash you could use any non bio liquid but be aware most have OBA. Or if you really don't want to leave anything to chance, I have been known to use half a persil non bio tab on woolens if the item is white and stained.

Funny thing, there's a big thing on this side of the pond about not using oxygen bleach on woolens because some of the dyes used on wools and silks aren't strong enough to resist it. Yet in the USA oxygen bleach is marketed as `All fabric bleach'. You could always test by dipping a small part of the garment into a luke warm wash solution in a mug - leave it a bit, squeeze it through and if dye starts coming out it's probably best not to use oxygen bleach.

`Most dyes which are colourfast to water and detergent are also fast to oxygen bleach'. Implication - if it's gonna run it would probably run even in detergent without bleach, it would probably run more with the bleach causing the garment to age quickly.

Short answer:

White shirts.....pretreat with Vanish stick and wash at 50/40 with Ariel bio liquid if not stained.

Wools - stick with the Silk and Wool, I think it's about the best one out there right now.

;-)

Nick

 

[lavamat_jon]

Nick - great minds think alike!

Jon

 

[rolls_rapide]

If I was washing, I personally would wash at 60 degrees Cotton cycle, with Biological Ariel Tablets. There shouldn't be any need to activate the prewash function.

If possible, try Cottons at 60 degrees, with temp reduced to 50 degrees C. This would still give good cleaning, whilst protecting the fabric from hot water shrinkage.

For Woollens, try Procter & Gamble's "Dreft" powder.

Depending on the dirtyness of woollen items (my father used to have pastel coloured Pringle V-necks, which tended to get newsprint on the cuffs - he doses off when reading the papers!), my mother used ordinary powder, Ariel or Daz. She tried wool detergents, but they were too gentle for Dad's jumpers.

I know you're not supposed to use enzymes on natural products, but she does.

Oh, and she found that the Wool Programme was too gentle on one of her previous machines, so she used 'Delicates @ 40 degrees'.

 

[nickuk]

Wow, Jon, LOL - yes, indeed sir ;-)

 

[kirk280980]

Hi Carl,

In addition to using liquid detergent or bar soap/Vanish stick on collars and cuffs, another product worth having on hand is De-Solv-It. When I used to work in a timber sales office, my shirt collars would be black by the end of each day due to me crawling around in filth and getting sweaty. This stuff cuts through the grime like a hot knife through butter, and will even shift oil, pasta sauce and curry stains in a low temp wash with no bleaching agents. It comes in an aerosol can and is citrus based (with a strongish orange scent), so can also be safely used on carpets, hard surfaces, skin and hair.

Start with your usual liquid detergent or Vanish stick pre-treatment and follow up with a short blast of De-Solv-It five minutes before washing, that way you're combining both enzyme and solvent action. This will break down the stain itself, and also the grease that binds it so tightly into the fabric.

And yes, I pretty much agree with what everyone else said about today's wool programmes. Fine for extremely delicate and expensive fabrics like cashmere, but almost too gentle for anything else. A standard delicates programme will clean better, and is plenty gentle enough for heavy sweaters.

Cheers,

Kirk

 

[carlstock]

Thanks.



Thanks very, very much, guys!

Notable thanks to Jon and Nick for their near-identical advice! Great minds do indeed think alike… or at least at the same time almost! ;-) I’ve never seen such similar posts!

Lots to go on here. Thanks very much!

The machine is washing woollen socks and the jumper on Delicates 40 with Persil Silk & Wool as we speak!

Take care.

Regards,

Carl

 

[sudsmaster]

If you can get your hands on some STPP, sodium tri-poly phosphate, that stuff I've found works wonders with whites. I get brilliant whites simply by using it along with plain grated hand soap. Plus, it doesn't fade colors.

You might have to go to a chemist's, though, to get some.

 

[lederstiefel1]

My advise: ARIEL for whites (add some drops of blueing from time to time to the wash-water!)
and PERWOLL liquide for woollens!
None better!

Ralf