Does Anyone Use Pine Oil In Their Wash?

[toggleswitch2]

I've seen this done mostly in laundormats. Said to disinfect. I is a spritiual cleanser and keeps the sud level down in a front-loader. (It's OIL DUH!)
When done/used is a very small quantity, the smell of clothes out of the dryer isn't too bad, actually!
If you don't use pine oil, what is the strangest laundry additive you do use?

 

[foraloysius]

I've used Lysol on some items that needed a good cleaning.

 

[panthera]

pine oil

removes old acrylic and alkyd paint.
unbelievable, but true.

I try to get it all out before popping clothes in the dryer, tho'.

Pine oil burns.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Never

I wouldn't want to use in in a washer. I think it would damage some synthetics, not sure what it would do to washer parts. I know it will discolor plastics

Actually, I never use Pine oil anyway, can't stand the smell. Me I likes Bleach, good old Liquid Chlorine Bleach.

 

[statenislandgwm]

Lysol ....

I use Lysol pourable on sheets/comforter etc. after I have been sick with a cold or flu, for whites naturally I use Clorox to disinfect.

 

[animasinsulinpu]

I used it

Hi, Steve. I used to on my dad's underwear. He died 2 yrs ago from end-stage Parkinson's. It works great. It dosent suds up in my Duet. I also use only regular Tide with bleach. Never a problem.....Bill in Az.....

 

[launderess]

Am Sorry

But the scent of Pine-Sol reminds one of either cheap motels/restaurants or horrid public restrooms. Ditton for Lysol.

However if one is going to use any sort of "Pine" disenfectant, make sure the product has an EPA registration number on the label. That is the only way to be sure said product contains enough pine oil to actually kill "germs".

Just as with many chlorine bleaches, Lysol and other disenfectant products, not all are EPA registered. If one looks carefully at many of the variations of Clorox, some do not mention disenfecting and or also do not carry an EPA number.

L.

 

[frigilux]

In 1967, I lived in Montevideo, MN for awhile. Our next door neighbor, who had a lower-end Maytag (with a wringer-style agitator) used to pour Pine Sol over every load. Her kids and I played in their basement, and I recall the overwhelming scent.

It was also the first time I saw anyone run the drain hose from their washer directly into a sump pump. The Maytag would kick into spin-drain, and a few seconds later, the sump pump would fire up. I wonder if all the lint, etc., ever caused problems?

Years later, I bought a bottle and used some on a load of bath towels. Never again! I'm with Launderess on this one; the smell is icky-sticky-cheap.

 

[gansky1]

Nope, no way.

I've had clients that insisted on using Pine-Sol for cleaning and after several "arguments" I now usually give them a flat "NO" and leave it at that. Some have other people cleaning for them now, oh well.

Can't stand most of of the oil cleaners - Murphy's is tolerable for a scant few things but terribly inappropriate for most cleaning tasks. Oil (-Sol is an abbreviation for solvent) will dissolve finishes on wood when used regularly, it can also be harmful to painted surfaces and plastics as mentioned above.

One of my grandmother's neighbors used Pine-Sol in her wash, mostly for rugs and the like. I can still remember the toxic smell of that crap permeating the house. Blech.

 

[launderess]

Pine Oil

Actually is not that great of a broad scale disenfectant. Lysol is better, but the gagging scent of the original formula (in the brown bottle), is horrible.

Just watched a PBS program last night on Polio, and one has to remember that Lysol predated the first antibiotics by years.

In the absence of drugs to "kill" germs, housewives were admonished to keep their homes almost clinically clean,to avoid transmisson of disease, especially in the nursery and or any part of the home with wee ones. Hospitals were around, but many persons with illnesses, some very contagious illnesses wer cared for at home. This included measles, mumps, scarlet fever, dipthera, cholera, and so forth.

Obviously a mother with a sick infant, brought down by any of the above, or other infectious disease, had to do her best to make sure the rest of the household, including herself didn't sucumb as well. This would mean finding ways to "disenfect" sickroom laundry.

 

[toggleswitch2]

To me it reminds me of the sexiest guy I had ever met, who used it. (He was the one who taught me to "iron" jeans with one's hands as they emerged form the washer and place them in the dryer partially folded as one would hang them on a hanger on the closet. Works beautifully to avoid setting-in creases/wrinkles/lines form the spin.

But mostly, I get flash-backs to junior high school when the whole school stunk of pine. The principal was literally a prison warden before he changed careers. That place ran like a swiss watch. There were assigned seats at lunch. If there was ever a problem during lunch period, attendance would be taken and you'd get in trouble for cutting lunch if you were not in your assigned seat.

So for me that scent is both good and bad.

 

[everythingold]

I have experimented with using oils in my wash concoction. I believe that it helps to replace natural oils in fibers (synthetics excluded of course) that are removed by washing and drying. I think that it might also give a layer of protection to new clothes. Oil dissolves oil, but a certain amount of oil also prevents other oils and stains from taking deep root in the fabric. But, I've been wrong before. Matt

 

[spankomatic]

Years ago I used a cap full of Pine-sol in my Maytag top loader when washing sheets. I hung the sheets out to dry on a nice spring day. I'm pretty much a fragrance free guy but I do remember those sheets smelling so good that night when I went to bed. The ever so slight scent made the going to sleep experience just a little more pleasant. I also like the smell of ironed sheets when going to bed.

Jim

 

[sudsmaster]

I'll have to google a bit on it, but if I recall correctly, Pine-sol doesn't contain much in the way of real pine oil.

Stay tuned ;-)

 

[sudsmaster]

OK, the original type Pine-sol has 8% real pine oil (distilled from pine leaves, apparently) with isopropyl alcohol, surfactants, etc. The "scented" Pine-sol products have no pine oil, as the pine oil destroys the other fragrances (like lemon).

 

[polkanut]

My Grandma Baumann used to use the old formula powdered Spic & Span as an additive when she would launder my grandfather's work clothes. He was a millwright (maintenance man) at the paper mill, so his clothes would get quite soiled. They actually had quite a nice scent when they were dry. She had a 1956 Speed Queen wringer, and never had a dryer.

 

[jamiel]

Yeah, you need to read the label on Pine-Sol...even different bottles of the pine-scented stuff have different properties...some are EPA registered disinfectants, others are not. Likewise with Lysol...some products are disinfectants, others are not. That said, even 1/2 cup in a tubfull of laundry isn't disinfectant in the strict EPA sense.

 

[iheartmaytag]

If I am not mistaken, didn't Spic-N-Span contain lye?

 

[toggleswitch2]

Not sure, but the phosphates were wonderful!