Please help--Grease removing laundry detergent?

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sarahperdue

sarahperdue

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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 it easy and clean with as little fuss as possible. And I know someone here knows the way or a detergent to get these stains out without pre-treating or scrubbing.

I'm using a Speed Queen TL Model: AWN412SP111TW01, Serial: 1004002047. We've used Arm & Hammer Free powder for years. I've recently tried Tide Free liquid, and it doesn't seem to do a satisfactory job either.

I'm washing on warm or hot. A lot of my "girl clothes" are labeled warm or cold only, but honestly, I'd risk the temperature increase to get them clean on the first try. I've had Whirlpool washers and dryers for years, but upgraded to Speed Queens several years ago when the last Whirlmore died.

I'd like a single detergent solution or a combination detergent and booster (2 products if necessary) that could be added together at the beginning of the cycle.

Please help.

Thank you,
Sarah
 
What I do..........

is to keep a bottle of Dawn Ultra (or store brand Dawn) at my washer, and dribble it onto the grease stains. I know it is an extra step, but it works well for me....dribble on some Dawn, wait a long minute, and throw it into the machine then. If I am doing it really correctly, I will fold the item together and rub it a little. Oh, and step up your detergent--Wisk is (at least here in my part of Ohio) cheaper than Tide, and is very good.....

This is my laundry testimony, and I'm holding to it.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
I hate to plug "boutique" products here, but for over 40 years my mother has kept a supply of Stanley products "Degreaser" in her arsenal and swears by it. I can attest that it worked miracles on dress clothes of our entire family back in the 1990s. I have not studied its chemical properties, but greasy stains that should not have come out DID!
 
I have had good luck with Tide Ultra Stain release (Liquid detergent), and Zout (pretreater spray) The Zout is the only thing I found that will remove all traces of kitchen grease and odor from clothes. I was head cook at a summer camp this year (and will be going back next year, loved it!) and pretty much trashed all my shorts and T shirts before I found something to remove the greasy food/stains/smell. Even after stains had been washed and dried, Zout removed them. I can't say I like the way it comes out of the bottle (almost a foam, but runny) but it flat out works. I have been using the Tide Ultra Stain release lately because I got it on sale and with a coupon I only paid about $3 for 32 loads. Seems to work excellent on normal everyday cooking stains (I'm back home now, using it in our Whirlpool Duet front loader, HE version of course) The Zout is only about $3 at Walmart, not sure where else it can be had.
 
Lestoil

I know you don't want extra steps, but sometimes it's necessary.

Dab some Lestoil on the stains and let it sit overnight (or all day, depending on your laundry schedule). Run thru a short wash on the hottest setting you have.

Then wash as normal with your detergent on a long cycle. Should work for you.

Zout is also an extra-good spot treater, as Dustin 92 said. Hard to find where I live, though.

My BIL is a roofer=filthy dirty clothes. My sister does the Lestoil thing in her Maytag, then fills it with hot water before she goes to bed. Lets it sit all night, then spins it out and does a regular (hot) cycle in the morning before she goes to work. Pins everything out on the line. No spots.

Good luck.
 
What I use is Shout in the can that says Grease removing. It works every time. Spray it on the grease stains and use the warmest water the fabric can stand. I also use Tide Powder, Borax and Clorox2 liquid, and a Tide Boost pac. I know some people dont use color safe bleaches but I use it for whites and colors. I never use chlorine bleach since it eats fibers and weakens fabrics.
A friend of mine swears by Lestoil, which by the way here is getting hard to find. But try the Shout in the aerosol can and it will get those stains out for you.
 
...but it's a long extra step...

Thank you all for your input. I use Dawn and Zout regularly, and they both work very well. It just takes forever to find all of the spots and pre-treat them. It doesn't help that I wear mostly solids...

Sigh. One step solution, anybody?

Sarah
 
Another Helper:

This is neither the one-step solution you seek, nor a solution for petroleum-based stains at all.

But if the stains are organic, I suggest a trip back to the late '60s for BIZ enzyme booster. It was great then, it's great now. Walmart carries it, as do most grocery stores.

It has to be used with warm water, to activate the enzymes. But those little suckers can munch their way through food stains, blood stains, skid marks, and what I will discreetly refer to as Those Stains, a name bestowed upon them by the woman friend who told me about the miracles BIZ can perform with ladies' wonderwear, as well as eliminating bacon stripes on her hubby's dainties. She said it made doing laundry a lot more bearable, and I have found that to be true. No matter how hygienic a stained garment may be in fact, handling funky-looking underwear is repulsive.

Also great for removing the little blood spots left by guys who shave daily, on pillowcases and towels.
 
Biz works very well for me, since November 2001.  It has probably let me down 5 times.  Even when I still had the Lady Shredmore, I never once looked at individual pieces of clothing before I put it in the machine once I used Biz.  And as a friend of mine told me, Biz is a lady's best friend.  Before Biz, I'd spend the time while the washer was running going through all the entire next load. 
 
Sarah,  crank the cold tap down a little and make your warm water a tad warmer.  Or start your fill on hot then switch to warm.  Your warm may not be warm enough.  I also use Maytagbear's  "Dawn" method on obvious grease stains especially on  shirt fronts.  

 

They use "Dawn" to  remove crude oil from wildlife after a mishap.  That's effective and safe enough for me.  I wish you the best.

 

 
 
Soak

You`re looking for a simple, no fuss solution ?
Have you ever tried to stop the washer after a few minutes into the cycle ? I think 30 min up to one hour of soaking time might work miracles. This should be safe for whites and colorfast items. Not recommendet for items that bleed.

I`d also suggest a good enzyme containing detergent like Tide, Wisk or Purex with Oxi and most imporantly use enough ! I`d start with one and a half x of the recommended dose on challenging loads and see if I could get away with it without oversudsing the washer. This way you also keep the risk of soil redeposition while soaking as low as possible.
 
It means ordering online...and from Amway, but their classic stain remover never fails to remove greasy stains. I use it on dress shirts, as I don't want to wash those on a long cycle with hot water.

I order 3 or 4 cans once a year.

frigilux++10-22-2014-07-00-4.jpg.png
 
Hummmmmmmmmm

Here I use dishwashing detergent. (not the dishwasher one, the silly one used for manual dishwashing) simply aplly it straight on the stains and rub with the finger to spread it. let it there for a few minutes before putting in the washer.
You don't need to rinse it before putting in the washer.

it's cheap and it works!
 
Sarah,

I don't think you are going to get a one step solution to remove all of your stains. A small amount of effort on your part is going to be needed to get the results you want. I agree with the others; Wisk with a dash of STPP (not TSP), Shout and hot water have always produced good results for me. Rubbing a bar of Fels-Naptha soap over the dampened greasy spots also works well. I don't think there is a magic detergent that will do it all without a pretreatment of some sort.
 
Stephanie:

For organic stains, BIZ is as close to a one-step solution as it gets. The enzymes in it will eat organic material of many kinds - food grease, blood, grass stains and bodily secretions of all sorts.

The trick is to use it regularly, and to pre-soak with it if stains are serious. In my Maytag 806 washer, I fill the machine, putting in detergent and BIZ. I use the Soak setting on the timer knob. Once the machine is halfway through the Soak cycle, I turn the machine off and let things sit. Usually it's one hour, but two to four hours have been used on tough stuff.

Once things have soaked, I start the machine back up and let it finish its Soak and Wash cycles. No pre-treating, no scrubbing, no real work at all.

BIZ has not yet failed me.
 
My 2 cents

I've used Dawn for years if I know where a greasy spot is. I LOVE Biz, but it's gotten very hard to find in this area. Stop & Shop and Walmart here don't carry it and Target is hit or miss (mostly miss).

The other solution: Resolve/Spray N Wash Stain Stick. If we have a dinner party, I can put it on all the wine spots, grease spots and gravy spots on the tablecloth, and let it sit in the laundry room until I feel like washing, and it comes out like new. Just train your messy eaters to put some on their spots before they throw them in the hamper (or whatever system you use), and the extra step isn't YOURS (except for your own spots).
 
Grease

Sarah, I have three boys and had this exact problem with powder detergent. No brand of powder detergent would remove grease stains - especially on dark items of clothing.

All I did was switch to a high end liquid detergent and I don't have the problem anymore. 1 step! In the states, try a high quality liquid detergent (Tide?) use enough of it (v important) and always use a good warm water. Tepid is not good enough.

Throw in a powdered oxy wash booster at the start of the wash too, and this will deal with bleachable stains and odours.

However, this advice might be `baloney' because, to be fair, the last time I did laundry in the states was in 1988 when I was 12 years old.

Nick :-)
 
If you've got any clothing that are particularly valuable or sentimental, go to the drycleaner. I had a black New Zealand Allblacks rugby shirt that I dearly loved that had a big splotch of oil on the front. I struggled and struggled to get the spot out and finally in desperation took it to the dry cleaner. Best $6 I ever spent!
 
I know you are looking for the one step cure all for a laundry detergent but I have found this pre-treater that I totally stand behind. Of all things it's Oxi-Clean MAX FORCE. I was getting tired of pulling shirts out of the dryer that had grease stain spots from foods that hit my shirt while eating which is a never ending problem for me unfortunately hard as I try on preventing that.

Anyhow, I gathered all my shirts that had spots, pre-treated them all with the Oxi, let them sit for about half an hour, threw them into the washer and washed them with hot water (dumbed down to tepid warm thanks to the built in ATC), stopped it to let them soak overnight, woke the next morning and turned the machine back on to complete the cycle. Took everything out of the dryer, (fingers crossed), SPOTS ALL GONE! WOOHOO & HOORAY!!!!! I did the soak routine overnight since the stains had been thru the washer and dryer numerous times with no luck. First time overnight with this stuff...SPOTS ALL GONE!!

Since then, just pre-treat with the OCMF, let them sit for about 30 min., then throw them into the washer, still on the dumb down HOT but no soaking....without fail SPOTS ALL GONE.

A pre-treater that actually works. YIPPEE!!!!!

washdaddy-2014102219454309597_1.jpg
 
Well...

My good friend Steve Solomon taught me a good trick for removing grease...Plain old AMMONIA....just dont stick your head in the washer unless you want your sinuses cleared out! It really does work wonders...If I have a question about anything laundry, Steve is my encyclopedia of knowledge.
 
Biz

Thanks for the tip, Angus! a Biz stock-up would be a good way to make the minimum purchase next time they have super cheap coupons in their ad!

I've tried the Tide Oxy booster, and I just find it so-so. Those Biz enzymes are a must--especially for white loads.
 
Well not quite all

Problem with any laundry with heavy oil/grease stains is as we all know from that 1970's television commercial; oil and vinegar don't mix. Well in this case substitute water (which vinegar is mainly composed of), and you have the same situation.

Historically you have two chemical options for dealing with oil soils if one wishes to use water for laundering. The first is to raise the pH level to high base levels where the alkaline will combine with oil to make a type of soap that can be flushed away, and or use surfactants in high enough ratios to water that oil will be removed. Both processes *can* work but are rather hit and miss. Often a stain will appear removed when the laundry is wet, only to reappear once item is dried and or ironed (exposed to heat).

Commercially things with more oil stains than anyone wants to be bothered pre-spotting are run through a dry cleaning process. The solvent nature of such laundering should and often does remove most if not all oil stains. Items are then either laundered in water or simply finished and returned. This is usually how laundries deal with table linens with numerous grease/fat/candle wax stains.

If you remember another famous television commercial for ring around the collar you'll recall liquid detergents are better for shifting oily type soils. However even Wisk recommended pre-treating stained areas with product before laundering.

Anyone whom has bathed with soap knows it too loves oil, man made surfactants are based upon the same properties just without the drawbacks of soap. Fels took things to the next level by adding petroleum distillates (naptha) which increased the oil removing power.
 
Laundress is "SPOT" on again!

I worked in dry cleaning (years back) and we had accounts with some of the local hotels, including their in house restaurants.
Aprons, Polo shirts (part of the uniforms) as well as black slacks and white shirts, black ties ect all came in with food and grease, you name it we saw it!
Since certain stains are water soluble, AKA..the food, blood, perspiration, and general dirt, they were fist washed and dried. The reason was because it was too hard to see what was what to even try to pre-treat.
Once washed and dried, the oil stains could be clearly seen. Usually that point, all stains were gone, except the oil! They then were run through the dry cleaning machine (solvent) which would pull out all remaining oil. Then sent down the line to the pressers and finishers. (Except the shirts, handled a little different)

Laundress:
Dear, I was waiting for someone to mention vintage Fel Naptha LOL
 
Biz?

Sandy,

Are you saying that I can add detergent plus Biz at the beginning of a load and avoid checking and pre-treating each shirt for stains???

In my book, this is a one-step solution. I don't mind soaking either although I have got to say that the thing I miss most about my Whirlpool washer is that it would run the wash cycle with the lid open and begin the drain, rinse and spin cycles after the lid was closed. Not a huge deal to fire up the SQ, let it fill and begin washing then stop it for soaking...

For the most part, I'm not talking about major grease--mostly olive oil and butter--I get splattered when I cook; my boys have issues getting food from their plate to their mouths.

Brib68, will you come train my messy eaters to pre-treat their own spots? That would take more time than sorting and pre-treating them myself especially since they generally don't acknowledge that their shirts have stains--especially if they want to wear them immediately.

Thanks all,
Sarah
 

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