Color me impressed! Stain removal w/Duet Steam

[mattl]

Catching up on some odds and ends laundry today.  I had a table runner from Christmas that was siting around, as I did not have any like colored stuff to wash it with.  It's old, poly/cotton, seen many holidays, don't use it often, and the time or two before when it was used  either some grease/oil or candle wax got on it and stained it.  I was in a hurry this Christmas and it was handy so I used it. It's dark green, with red holly berries embroidered along the edge.

 

As I mentioned it's been washed several times and the stains never came out.  Today, I used some old Spray and Wash, the solvent based one in the pressurized can, some Tide and some Oxygen bleach. Ran it through the Duet using the Steam cycle along with the Oxi option and when I pulled it out, not a spot to be seen!  I know I used the S&W on it before, but I have to believe the steam option did the trick this time.  I use the steam option from time to time and I am always impressed with the results.

 

[frigilux]

I'm an advocate of steam features, too. I've had good luck removing greasy without stain--without pretreatment of any kind--from chef's aprons and other kitchen whites using the Sanitize or PowerWash cycle with the steam option on my Maytag 8100. Yes, it's a long cycle, but the great results are worth it.

For the curious: The deleted post below was an unintended replication of this one.[this post was last edited: 2/3/2016-06:11]

 

[frigilux]

I'm an advocate of steam features on front-loaders. I've had great results removing greasy stains from white chef's aprons. Yes, it's a long cycle, but the results are worth the time.

 

[appnut]

Yup, I've experienced amazing, knock me off my feet results from using the steam for stains and allergen cycles and sanitize water temperature with my Duet.  I find it hard to believe people complain their front loaders do not clean and their garments emerge still dirty.  They aren't using the machine properly with the correct options--probably all cold water.  Any Kenmore Elite He2T through He5T as well as all Duets with heaters & stain treat/steam for stains options will yield similar results with correct dosage of laundry aids.  Whirlpool pioneered this ability for the U.S. market on the original Kenmore Elites with heater and steam for stain options that gradually heats tepid/warm water to 130, 140, and 155 degrees.  I haven't used spray & wash or shout since I got my Duet.  Just Tide with Bleach alternative He and maybe even throw in a little bit of Biz for the worst stains--like a white terry cloth napkin that had been turned black by using to clean some stuff outside (I didn't expect it to come clean, but did.  Was perturbed my company grabbed that "cleaning rag".  I don't worry about stains any longer.  I just push buttons for the proper combination of options and go about doing other things for the duration of the long cycles.  This is why I chose my Duet over LG, how it does this approach. 

 

[lordkenmore]

> I find it hard to believe people complain their front loaders do not clean and their garments emerge still dirty.

No experience with front load machines, past coin operated laundry machines.

That said...

I suppose some complaints might tie into washers that aren't particularly good designs. One bad experience with such a machine, and many will condemn the technology of that machine, even if there are better machines out there.

I have also wondered if the public at large who whine don't have some other issue going on sometimes, like using cold water washes only. As a hypothesis, I have to wonder if cold water wouldn't work better in top load machines vs. front load machines simply because there would be more water in the top load machine, which might help cleaning. Not that I recommend using cold water in any machine, of course.

Then I suppose there are people out there who are locked into what they know. Some will cling to older technology because of sentiment. Or else they are locked into doing things a certain way, and don't adapt to new procedures. (I think a lot of Americans are like that with washers--they hate laundry so much they spend as little time doing it as they can. Which means learning new techniques is not on the agenda, even if those new techniques might prove to be well worth learning.)