How to wash... (advice needed)

[jkbff]

I was thinking of posting this in my GE post that I have, but I guess its general knowledge vs something specific to one machine...

The first question I have is in regard to grease.

I have 10 Chef's Aprons I want to wash, but from their various places of use and laundering, there is grease built up.

What would be the best way to launder these aprons, get the grease out etc?

I have the sanitize cycle, it did melt a lot of it out, and a lot of the smoker smell is gone from the nasty ones... I wasn't sure if I'd wanna use degreaser in the machine or not, but I have my persil pearls, the 2 in one, various tides, some oxy clean and other random detergents...

Should I use a bit of dawn, the persil 2-n-1 and the sanitize cycle?

Or I do have the Cascade Boil-out, would that work?

They are various blacks blues and greens. Mostly cotton/poly blends.

 

[jkbff]

Please help--Grease removing laundry detergent?

Hi Y'all, In a house with two preteen boys, myself and my husband, my dear husband is the only one who consistently manages to avoid wearing his food. The rest of us end up with little round oil stains on our clothes after washing and drying. Laundry (gasp) is low on my priority list. I want...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[washingpowder]

While working on recipes for my cookbook *plenty* of aprons, towels and such required proper washing technique, took a minute to figure out a satisfying one.
Powder used was Premium Plus from Biokleen, which I find the best from what more eco-friendly laundry has to offer. It actually beats Tide, proven by my Partner's Grandma.
One scoop of detergent plus 1/4 cup of pure sodium percarbonate (Amazon) dissolved in near-boiling water with 1 cup of non-sudsy ammonia did the trick after a brief agitation and overnight soak. Toughest spots had been pretreated with Method's dish liquid.
In case of a front loader (I assume) I'd start the sanitize cycle with additives mentioned above, pause it mid-cycle (when the temperature is raised high enough)and let soak, maybe starting from time to time every hour or so to agitate the load a tad.
After the soak I'd let the load drain and start a new sanitize cycle again (with all the additives), letting finish; just to avoid soil redeposition effect, as well as clean whatever was left behind.

 

[stan]

You could

Wash normal, hang dry.
Then take them to the Dry Cleaners and have them do a "clean only"
The solvent should remove any oil left that wet cleaning missed.

 

[mrboilwash]

Assuming that the aprons are colorfast, I`d try an overnight soak in cold water with a heavy dose of liquid detergent in the FL. Persil would be a great choice because it also contains a grease targeted enzyme called lipase. Intermittent agitation is nice to have, but really not that essential. Wouldn`t use Megaperls for soaking, because of the risk of spot bleaching the colors.
Then I`d follow with a sanitary cycle with fresh water and a good detergent. Most poly-cotton blends can take very high washing temperatures without exessive wrinkling. Again I`d use as much detergent as possible without oversudsing the machine. (line 5 up to a full cap for a full load, if your detergent and water conditions allow for it.)
I wouldn`t use dishwasher detergent because it`s very hard on fabrics. (Too caustic in pH)

 

[jkbff]

With what I have on hand and curiosity from my random searches I tried a wash care with soak cycle with a pre-wash (cold, temp non-selectable) of 2 tbsp tide original powder and 1.5 tbsp dawn blue original, intermittent tumble for the soak in the cold pre-wash, then the main wash (hot) with 2 tbsp tide original powder and .75 tbsp dawn blue original and 3 rinses. I ran two quick wash cycles with cold wash/rinse/rinse/rinse afterwards with no detergent.

I haven't pulled them out of the dryer yet to see how the grease is, but I am sure there will be buildup left.

I need to go pick some ammonia and biz up, I haven't needed them yet. I'm also going to look into the online detergents mentioned, but I have 3 cabinets of detergents full already ....

Also, with this machine, if you hit the pause button, it drains the water. ( The wash care with soak is only 1.5 hours, the soak lasts about 30 minutes... With just cold water.

I wished I could connect to it and program my own cycles into it. I wonder if LittleSwan would release info like that

The next thing I should try is the sanitize cycle again with the heavy grease cutting suggestions.. The sanitize does an intermittent tumble until the water reaches temp (2 hours) then does the regular wash program. I never did check and see if the sanitize fills with cold or not. I might have to do that this round with no detergent so I don't pump the soap out when I pause/open the door.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Aerosol stain pre-treaters like SHOUT and Spray and Wash have dry cleaning fluid in them so they are very effective on grease, but you would have to spray everything heavily and it is only the formulas in the metal cans that have the solvent. The enzyme that digests oil sounds like a good solution, IF YOU CAN FIND IT HERE. Since the things are not white and have polyester in them, they were probably washed in cold water which is why they are a mess now. I would not recommend chlorine or very high temps with colors and chlorine is not all that effective on grease; ammonia would be more effective. STPP should be part of your arsenal in attacking the grease.

The main thing to remember is that you should not put these items in a dryer until all of the grease is removed from the fabrics to avoid a fire.

 

[dustin92]

Go to Walmart, get a bottle of Zout stain remover, pretreat all the stains, let soak for 15-20 minutes, then wash with Persil (liquid) on Sanitize, heaviest soil selected, all options selected. That should remove it all, Zout is great stuff. Haven't yet found s grease stain it won't shift.

 

[mamapinky]

I'm with Tom about cold water..did you try fels naptha? You can either wet the fabric and rub the bar well over it or boil a few cups of water and shave a few spoonfuls of fels into it to disolve and apply the gooy solution over the fabric work it in a bit with your fingers...I would than soak in a bucket with warm water and a liquid detergent the persil 2 in 1 you have should work ..as liquid detergent works better on greasey stains..leave them soak all day or a few days changing the water once a day..rinse in warm water than wash with hot water and more detergent. ...don't put in the dryer if any oil remains. Cheryl

 

[washingpowder]

I agree cold water won't really help with removing grease, unfortunately.
Fels Naptha or any sort of actual soap should help. My personal favorite is coconut Kirk's.
Biz is a good idea; however it only contains a very small amount of percarbonate and mostly depends on washing soda with a bit of enzymes.
Said Biokleen's primary ingredients are enzymes, lipase included - which is great for removing fats in warm to hot water.
Am not sure if it's a good idea, but what I always did when dealing with draining front-loaders was simulate power outage by unplugging the machine. It would usually resume the cycle after being plugged in again.
Zout is based on amylase and protease, fantastic for starches and proteins, but highly doubt would work on actual grease if that's what's left in those stains.
Ammonia is a must, and will greatly help not only by removing the grease itself, but also by boosting alkalinity of the solution for the detergent used.

 

[mamapinky]

That's why I suggested the fels I've had great success using fels with cooking grease...I also suggested soaking in a bucket as apposed to the washer as its just easier to drain and refill throughout a few days..I just don't think this can be rushed its gonna take a few days maybe a week.
I also love kirks castile soap I just can't see it cutting this kind of grease just my opinion. .I also don't think sodium percarbonate is going to help at this point probably need to get some of this grease out with very warm water and laundry soap than you need the oxygen bleach. You should be able to get the fels at walmart for a buck..or maybe our soap expert can give a recommendation on a better one...and I'm talking about Stan. In the meantime ill brainstorm. ..lol cheryl

 

[stan]

Josh

Are the aprons white? And how many are we talking about ?

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Chef here!

I have many years experience @ cleaning cooking clothes. I've found the best results from soaking in hot water and either Dawn or a neutral floor cleaner. Then a spin cycle and a Hot wash and multiple rinses. Repeat hot wash as needed.
WK78

 

[stan]

Josh

We haven't heard from you yet to see what you tried, if anything yet.

Cheryl: I'd probably try the Fels as you suggested, or Zote, or just Lye Soap. As Soap dose have it own unique grease shifting ability, especially when the AP method is used (applied directly) and worked in with a soft brush.
I worked in professional Dry Cleaning and Laundry for years. There, we had professional strength chemicals, and we used them!
Also a spotting board designed for removing any stain right there at the board. The spotting board had a vacuum in the board that pulled the moisture or whatever chemical one was using through the fabric, a steam wand, and compressed air to simultaneously vacuum and dry the spot, and of course the chemicals!
Even with the right equipment, and chemicals, there was what was considered "water soluble stains" and "solvent soluble stains"
If a garment came in with both, sometimes it was necessary to do both! A wet cleaning, and a dry cleaning.
With colored aprons that came in from the hotel/restaurant accounts, they were washed first to remove dirt food ect (water soluble) then dry cleaning to remove any oil residue (solvent soluble)
Oil will sometimes stick to some Synthetics and synthetic blends, and for the sake of time and effort it, was just easier to run them through the cleaning machine.
Wish I could see what this "grease build" up looks like.

 

[mamapinky]

Stan that reminds me cracker barrel restaurant here sells a soap called grandmas lye soap..do you know anything about it..is it a laundry soap..any good for stains??
Josh any news on those aprons yet....cheryl

 

[stan]

Hi Cheryl

I'll hijack the thread here for just a minute and answer your question. LOL

Yes I'm familiar with "Grandma's Lye Soap"
"Lye Soap" is just a soap making term. All real soap is made with lye. Either sodium hydroxide (bar soap) or potassium hydroxide (liquid) or a combo.
If I understand correctly, Grandma's is made with whats referred to as a 0% lye discount, meaning that that after reaction, there is neither (fat or lye) left behind. By the feel of the bar I treid, I would venture to guess that they air on the side of caution, and scale the lye use back just a bit, to ensure that the soap never comes out "Lye Heavy" And the bars appear to be cold processed.
"Lye Soap" just means that the fats used to create the soap where animal fats, more specifically lard (Pig fat)
Opposed to say a Castile soap which is vegetable fats, more specifically olive oil.
The "Grandma's Lye Soap" is a simple basic lye soap that claims it can be used for everything, including taking a bath with. There is no fragrance added, and no enhancement, no preservatives.
Because of the unique fatty acid, (or acids) make up of lard, when processed into soap, it can be very effective on grease and dirt, with out drying out your hands or causing excess sudsing, and for soap..rinses fairly well.
So you might want to give it a try. It should work well as a stain stick, or pre treater for certain stains, say ring around the collar, dirty cuffs ect. And if used correctly, Lye Soap work very well for general cleaning.
One word of caution.. Don't apply soap to coffee, tea, or wine stains, as soap has a tendency to set those types of stains in fabric.

 

[mamapinky]

Thank you stan for the info on grandmas lye soap..I'll pick up a bar one day and give it a try. I didn't know soap sets coffee, tea and wine stains thank you for that info. I usually use fels on stains on kids clothes works everytime. Again thank you. Cheryl

 

[jkbff]

"With what I have on hand and curiosity from my random searches I tried a wash care with soak cycle with a pre-wash (cold, temp non-selectable) of 2 tbsp tide original powder and 1.5 tbsp dawn blue original, intermittent tumble for the soak in the cold pre-wash, then the main wash (hot) with 2 tbsp tide original powder and .75 tbsp dawn blue original and 3 rinses. I ran two quick wash cycles with cold wash/rinse/rinse/rinse afterwards with no detergent. "

So, I finally got a chance to fold everything, the hot wash with dawn seemed to work somewhat. When I go shopping over the weekend, I'm gonna see what supplies I can find and probably rewash them.

All but one came clean, the one that didn't was the one I used for the smoker. There is lot less than what was there, but there is still grease there none the less..

None of the aprons are white, they are all blacks, blues or greens. There are 10 of them.

I should mention that I was going through some stuff and these had been in a box for roughly two years... This is some old grease... I told them when I was managing the kitchen I hated how their laundry service did my aprons, but they would never let me wash them on my own.... Not sure how they left with me... ;-) lol

 

[stan]

Josh

If there are 10 of them...save yourself! Take them to the cleaners and have them do a bulk cleaning. We use to charge by the pound. A lot cheaper this way. They'll get run through the Dry Cleaning machine, handed back to you folded (not pressed) and free if oil. At that point you'll be able to keep them clean on your own by pretreating,