Hi Mark
Of course you can add me to msn - anyone here can -
[email protected] BUT I'm hardly ever on it. I have to share this computer with my wife, and we only get to use it a little at midday when not working, and then an hour or so in the evening before bed - the reason, a toddler named Luke.
So when I go on the computer it's with a list of jobs to do as opposed to time to chat. But if I see you online it would be good to talk.
Yes - I think it's ok to put Ariel and Persil side by side.
LCB is liquid chlorine bleach and it's what many (most?) Americans use in TL machines in white washes for stain removal. Short wash times and the style of agitation render LCB necessary with heavily soiled whites. But if you use it with a powder containing oxybleach (all `green' and `blue' powder or tabs in the UK) the one bleach cancels the other out. If you use it with optic brighteners you get yellowing. So you have to use it with a `purple' colour detergent. When Luke was a baby the bibs were my biggest laundry challenge ever. No powder, no temperature, would remove those staisn and all our friends baby bibs were gross even when `washed'. Mine of course were spotless and glowing white and have been kept in the loft for any future babys. Solution? Persil colour powder, 60 degree wash, add LCB through the drawer washed down with plenty of water about 20 mins after the machine starts. Same principle as in the US - the clothes should agitate with the water and detergent a few mins before you add the bleach. This gives time for the enzymes to loosen stains first as LCB also kills enzymes.
When buying LCB in the UK, you need `thin' bleach not thick stuff surfactants as it foams too much. Thin bleach doesn't foam at all. I use Tesco value, there isn't really much thin bleach around these days. Don't use Domestos / Parazone, `toilet' type bleach. You need to be really careful with the dosage - between abot 50ml and 100ml of the value stuff is what I reckoned was a good dose. Too much can just trash clothes - it busts the fibres.
Oxygen bleach could be added to light coloured washes in the form of the pink tub of Vanish powder which is just oxi bleach, or in the white tub of `crystal whites' which also has mega quantities of brightener.
But this is just one way of doing it, you could of course just use a green powder like Ariel for everything (contains oxi bleach and brightener) and you may well be perfectly happy with the wash. I don't know if your maachine has a soak action, but you can always manually shut the machine off for half an hour / a couple of hours, whetever, and let the stuff have a good soaking which would help if you didn't use LCB. No internal heater though means the clothes are then washed in cooled down water so take that into account when deciding a wash temperature.
Fabric softener - Lenor lasts on the clothes way longer than the Comfort scent, and the longest lasting one IME is the green one with Febreze. If you're not allergic this is a possibility, especially if it's going in the first rinse, because also the second rinse would wash out some of the Lenor greasiness. I think the fragrance and the softness would remain well though.
Hope this is of some interest
Nick
