How to remove severe yellow stains from white pillowcases?

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If all else fails, I'd try Didi Seven.

I know people tend to roll their eyes....

HOWEVER, the fact remain that since I was given a tube back in the 80's it's removed stains nothing else touched.

Jim
 
"Didi Seven..."

Ah - I vaguely remember the adverts on British telly! The wonder stain remover!

However, according to Wikipaedia...
"In 2011, Interwood Marketing was acquired by Northern Response. As of August 2017, the product is no longer available."
 
There are two ways to bleach fabrics; one can either add oxygen (oxidizing bleaches such as chlorine or oxygen/hydrogen based), or remove oxygen by use of a reducing bleach (sodium bisulfite, etc....)

Commercial and or professional laundries, dry cleaners, etc.. have long known about both types of bleaches and use accordingly. While DiDi7 formula was a closely guarded secret, going by the adverts and description of what product did/worked, am going to guess it was some sort of reducing bleach.

Reducing bleaches are also sold as color removers, and they do so *VERY well. RIT and other dye makers sell such bleaches to remove all color from fabrics before they are to be dyed (just as in the professional side of things).

Oxygen bleaches in most cases and especially if used properly will not remove colorfast dyes. OTOH reducing bleaches again can and will.

One suspects reason why Didi7 was removed likely involved same fate as similar products from Europe and elsewhere; the ingredients gave regulators fits about safety, and then there were consumer complaints. Things like someone trying to remove a red wine stain from a blue shirt and got a nice white spot.
 
Uhm...not to be a smartass...

 

 

Why not just buy new white pillow cases? And then just keep those white. When my white pillow cases get dingy, and no Tide/hot water/Clorox helps, out they go. For me, it's just not worth the extra effort and expense. 

 

 
And... Done!

Last night I soaked the pillowcases in a concoction of a full scoop of OxiClean, a full OxiClean scoop each of Borax and Baking soda, about 1/2 cup of Awesome degreaser, and about a load worth of Tide. Also a squirt of Dawn for good measure. All mixed in a bucket of HOT water. The water started turning yellow almost immediately, I let them soak for a couple hours while we went out to dinner. Came back and rinsed them out thoroughly, then washed in HOT water with a Tide pod, a scoop each of Baking Soda and Borax, and about a cup of bleach. The results- Spotless. No yellow to be seen. Also did the same to the sheets (although in the washer) and a little lighter on the products. Soaked those overnight, washed this morning. All look like new. Sheets/pillowcases were 60% cotton, 40% polyester.
 
Congratulations on your success and tenacity Dustin!

Necessity is once again the Mother of invention. I’ve never heard of just quite that exact “mix” for stain removal, but you proved to yourself it works. Good for you.
Eddie
 
Hotel laundries

Working in a hotel laundry we use a Ecolab product called POWER PAK. You might ask your local hotel manager about buying 1 package from them. We put 1 full package in the 50 pound washer and 2 packs in the 100 pound washer. Our reclaim cycle is a 45 minutes soak with a regular cycle that follows. We do our reclaim loads at the end of the day because the cycle time is so long.

Using a small machine you may only want to put a couple of tablespoons worth in the machine. Also you would need to rinse such items three times to get all the chemical out. This power pak becomes extremely sudsy. When drying use a medium or low heat as well.

At the hotel where I work we do around 200 pounds of reclaim laundry a week. Not bad for a property that does 2-3000 pounds of laundry every day.

David
 
Ecloab frowns upon domestic consumers

Or anyone else not "professional" or industry related getting mitts upon their products. Ecolab will provide *NO* customer support to domestic consumers. Industrial/commercial customers go through their local sales people IIRC.

That being said Ecolab's like many other commercial laundry *reclaim* products are highly dangerous things to mess about with if one does not know what one is doing.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...lusReclaimWhite.pdf+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

At dilution the stuff has a pH of 10.5 - 11.5, which makes it a hair less powerful than ammonia.

As noted reclaim washes are normally done before the main cycles. For one thing it will take several water changes and the actions of other chemicals to bring down the pH of fabrics and neutralize the strong base substances used in reclaim formula.

For the small amounts needed in a domestic washing machine (again you'd have to work out the dilution ratios on one's own as Ecolab won't divulge), even one packet would last a very long time.

Given the high amount of chlorine bleach and strong base pH level Ecolab rightly states this reclaim product is not safe for colors. IIRC the pillow slips in question have a print pattern.
 
Weakened fiber and fabrics

Dustin...this is great news regarding the removal of the staining!!

The products David mentions being used in hotels and other commercial applications are similar in alkalinity to the mixture you used.

They significantly weaken and degrade the fibers. A "reclaim" wash/cycle is used to try and get as many uses out of the sheets (and towels) as possible. I am a former hotelier and it was my experience when sheets and towels were reclaimed, they were very prone to tearing and becoming threadbare.

Strong alkaline chemicals also "open the pores or cuticles" of the fibers making them more prone to future staining.

Please use care when laundering in the future so you do not go from sheets to.... gauze. (I have seen this happen).
 
Good job Dustin! And you didn't have to throw them out! I use White King with my whites to soften the hard water here. Does wonders for dingy whites. If Wisk was still in production I would suggest using that but, unfortunately, Wisk is no longer. But it managed to get old yellow arm pit and collar stains out that had been in my white t shirts for years. I would still consider getting some White King if you have hard water in your area. You will start to notice how much brighter your whites and bright colors will get.
 
Believe one has stated before

In commercial laundries "reclaim" is for linens that otherwise were destined for rag bin. If the stains come out and things can be restored to service, so much the better. Should in the end you have items that didn't come out as planned, well there is always that rag bin.

Yes, all reclaim formulas (rust, yellowing, dingy, etc...) are extremely hard not only on the textiles in question but the washing machine as well. The process is all but certain to shorten the lifespan of both if repeated frequently.
 
Glad it worked!

Sounds as if the bucket did the trick! Using the bucket made the Borax, OxiClean, Tide, ect into what you might call "concentrated" emulsifiers and water softeners. More of these in the hot water than if they had been in normal amount water in the washer. Then rinsing all that out, and away...and starting over..
Good trick to know. I may have some dingy white sheets packed away in the attic.. If I can find them, I'm going copy technique to test
(I might change the concoction though)
 
Isn't there an old time solution for yellowed linens?

Namely, BLUING???

Me, I'd soak the yellow stained linens in a bucket of hot water plus STPP plus powdered detergent.

Then wash as usual with a good quality powdered detergent (like Tide).

And if all fails, add some bluing (if you can find it!).
 
Bluing can only counteract the slight yellow tinge

That comes from age and or poor laundering; it cannot nor will not totally reverse really bad "lemon yellow" stains.

Home economists, professional laundries (good ones) of old had a saying; properly laundered linens and clothing does not need bluing.

Suppose one could make up a bluing bath that would be dark enough to "hide" bad yellowing; but then you'd also likely have an article tinted dark blue as well.
 

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