How to remove severe yellow stains from white pillowcases?

[brisnat81]

I second the Ammonia suggestion. Every other month I soak all my Synthetic gym wear in Ammonia, Omo and Hotwater overnight. The water usually comes out brown.

I then just wash as usual with detergent.

 

[michaelman2]

Fabric all cotton?

Are these sheets 100% cotton?

 

[dustin92]

Can't really use ammonia, she has cats and ammonia + cats = marking. Definitely don't want that.
I believe they are a cotton/poly blend, some may be 100%, not sure. I'm going over tomorrow, and I want to get them washed and ready to use, they have been in the closet for quite some time and we are cleaning closets out. If they can't be saved they will likely be thrown out, they just look nasty even though they have been washed and are technically clean.

 

[michaelman2]

May be the problem:

Dustin92. I believe therin lies the problem. If there is any polyester fiber in those sheets it will yellow bleaching can make things worse. If you decide to replace the sheets... make sure they are all natural fibers.

 

[panthera]

Cripes!

If they just wanted to throw them out, they wouldn't have asked the world's leading washer site for our opinion.

Honestly, could we just try being a bit nicer? We can save the nasties for Dirty Laundry.

 

[ea56]

You know Dustin, hydorgen peroxide is very inexpensive, why not buy a couple of quarts of medicinal (3%) peroxide and put the sheets in a sink or dishpan and thoroughly saturate the sheets with the peroxide and let them sit for 20 to 30 mins and see if that doesn’t take out the yellow. Then wash them in the hottest water possible with Tide powder with Bleach. This may do the trick. Even if you bought 3 quarts of peroxide I don’t believe it would cost more than $6.00 or so. And you can always use the Tide with Bleach. That’s what I would try. Sweat, or persperation stains are not unlike urine stains and I think peroxide works on urine stains.

And for what it’s worth, Keven I agree with your statement above, well said!
HTH
Eddie

 

[helicaldrive]

ROFLMAO !!!

I always wonder if Gyrafoam knows how funny he is. Like when he said washing machines today have become sewers for laundry. Very funny guy.

Hopefully someone will get another good laugh at my expense here. See, for me it’s all about the challenge. So I’d get them clean first, and then I’d throw them out!

 

[askolover]

I have cats and use ammonia...have never had a marking problem with them.  When a neighborhood cat decides to mark my door outside I clean it with windex to remove the cat's smell...works every time.

 

[dustin92]

I picked up a tub of Oxi Clean and some Borax, will soak them in that and Tide, possibly throw some Dawn in there for good measure. They don't have to be 100% perfect, but at least useable. The pillowcases are literally lemon yellow right now. Will see what happens

 

[launderess]

Before starting sort out the fabric content first.

Polyester has different properties from say cotton. For one the thing is famously hydrophilic (resists water) and loves oil. If you've ever gotten salad oil on say a polyester tablecloth you know how bad things can get.

If pillow slips are already clean I'd start by first giving them a quick pre-wash with perhaps some STPP if you can find it. Purpose here is to strip out detergent residue that can also make things seem dingy looking.

Since or once the pillow slips are (already) clean, what you want is to reverse/bleach out the yellowing. For this there are a few methods.

One calls for dissolving Oxiclean, sodium percarbonate, sodium perborate into a tub (not metal) of water, then adding more warm to hot water to fill. Then immersing the item or items and allow them to soak for several hours/overnight. Every now and then agitate/push down the items.

After about 12 hours or more (oxygen bleach will remain active for some time in solution), lift items or items out and examine. If no change put back into soaking tub and continue. After about 24 hours if there isn't a change, you'll need to make up another batch of soaking solution as all the oxygen bleach power has been spent.

The other method calls for dissolving oxygen bleach in a non metal pot (stainless steel will work, but not aluminum) filled with some water, then add enough water that will cover items/item. Put pot over burner and allow to slowly reach temp of about 180F. Do not fill pot more than 3/4's full and keep an eye on things. As the water reaching hot to boiling items will float up and the oxygen bleach will froth, both can cause a "boil over" mess if not careful.

Boil for one half hour, then turn off and cover. Heat accelerates the bleaching power of all hydrogen peroxide bleaches. So instead of soaking for 12, 24 or whatever long hours, you can cut that time down to a few. OTOH boiling is harsh on textiles especially in an alkaline environment.

Either way when satisfied with results, and or feel things are about as good as they are going to get, remove things from boiling/soaking pot and rinse thoroughly. You can do this in washing machine or by hand, but all the chemicals used in soaking must be washed out.

Or: https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Sweat-Stains-from-Sheets

 

[rolls_rapide]

And, after all of this sage advice...

... hopefully your whites will be white... right through!

 

[gyrafoam]

"could we just try being a bit nicer"

LMAO, the "house hypocrite" has spoken. Hahahahahaha.

Sometimes it just isn't worth the time to try and re-invent the wheel. New pillow slips are cheap.

 

[panthera]

Here's a question - I don't know the answer and am c

Can some oil/fat based stains in laundry be removed using another oil, one which is easier to remove?

I'm thinking of how we often use warm olive oil to remove greasy/oily stains from our hands.

No idea, but I am curious.

(I'm not going down the lighter hydrocarbon road here. No benzene, kerosene, etc. Sure do miss Carbon Tetrachloride, though. That stuff would have removed this problem, 100% sure.)

 

[rickr]

LOL!! Steve, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[foraloysius]

Set grease stains are often burned in if they haven't been soaked in warm water but directly washed in hot. No use of trying to get those stains out.

 

[michaelman2]

Yep, that is why I asked about the fabric and the fiber content in reply 20.

It was then it came out then we were dealing with something other than 100 percent cotton.

If they are a poly-blend they simply may have seen better days and the yellowing will always be present.

The lemon yellow you describe is very common in that blend once a bleaching agent has done all it will be able to do.

Sebum binds with the esters used to produce the polyester. The Ammonia suggestion is a good one with Ammonia being a strong base.

It may lift the yellowing a bit and if you then use a vinegar rinse, there should be no problem with the animals being attracted.

 

[mrboilwash]

Yellowing can also occur if there is too much iron, copper or manganic content in the water. The metals bond to residual sebum that has not been removed sufficiently in previous washes.
If that is the case a lime and rust remover (bathroom spray) might help.
The next step would be to remove the remaining grease stain completely. If you prefer boil washing with Persil, ammonia, soaking, TSP, STPP, dry cleaning or all together is up to you.

 

[launderess]

There are basically few ways of getting oil out of fabrics

Using moderate to high pH (think sodium hydroxide (lye), sodium metasilicate, washing soda, phosphates, etc...

That and or using emulsifiers such as soaps along with solvents such as types of alcohols. http://www.cleantool.org/teilereinigung/reiniger/alkohole/?lang=en

In the old says commercial laundries and others could purchase soaps built with benzene. That or people simply bought the stuff straight to use with laundry as a spot treatment and or in the wash. Other extreme was to add gasoline or kerosene to the wash tub.

Mr. Fels solved this issue by finding a way to build naptha (Stoddard solvent) into a soap in such a way it wouldn't evaporate and thus remain shelf stable. This spawned a host of copycat "naptha" soaps.

Am here to tell you Fels naptha soap of old (the one with naptha/Stoddard solvent) will remove all sorts of oil/fat stains from fabrics. This along with lipstick, makeup, etc....

If you examine the ingredient list of modern emulsifiers for commercial laundries most contain soaps, and some sort of alcohol (butyl being common) or alcohols.

Commercial laundries faced with items badly soiled by oils/fats (such as candle wax) will first launder in water (dry cleaning can set certain stains due to the heat), dry, then dry clean the article. Solvents used in the latter process are normally more than enough to remove whatever fats/oils remaining in fabrics.

 

[hoovermatic]

Napisan

When I was a bar attendant, many years ago, working long hours and perspiring in the heat of a busy, smoky bar or nightclub, my white shirts used to get very yellow under the arms after a while, which I guess was a combination of sweating and deodorants/antiperspirant building up. Some kind person mentioned that I soak my shirts in a solution of Napisan before washing - at 23 years old I had never heard of Napisan so she bought me a box and sure enough, it took the yellowing out completely. I went on to make this part of my laundry routine from then on. Not sure if Napisan would work in this instance?

 

[ea56]

When I had my first washer in 1972, a used Maytag wringer, I always used Fels Naptha Powder. That stuff was the bomb! With the combination of the vigorous Maytag agitation, hot water and Fels Powder I never have before or since see such perfectly immaculate laundry. And the clothes were soft, even though I used to hang them outside to dry most of the time.

I sure wish they still sold this product.

Thanks for the memory Launderess
Eddie