POD October 7, 2011

[westyslantfront]

I noticed that on today's POD with original Bendix front loader, it states that bluing should be used. As many of you know, that is my secret ingredient to making my whites white. It is currently available at my local supermarket. Many people stopped using it years ago. Bluing counters the yellowing and graying action of bleach.

Ross

 

[tomturbomatic]

Back then, clothes were washed in soap which could leave them sort of yellow. The bluing overcame that yellow cast. Worse, if the soap was not completely rinsed from the clothes, ironing, especially the high temperature ironing of cottons and linens, could put severe yellowing in the fabrics. Modern detergents contain optical brighteners to take the place of bluing and some detergents of the past included bluing, like Blue Cheer. Others had oxygen bleach like Oxydol. At one time Fab had bleach borax and brighteners.

I wish they made an air freshener or scented oil or aroma therapy device with the perfume of Oxydol. I remember how good a neighbor's basement smelled from the big, open 20 lb. box of DASH.

 

[bajaespuma]

...ah yes, the fabled "Home Laundry Size" box. Complete with handle for that trip home from the store.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Exactly!

This neighbor had originally lived in a house where there was only room in the kitchen for a washer so the only way she could have a wash and a dryer for the family which included three boys was to have Spacemates. She was not sure that she was going to like them, but like many others who have had experience with a front loader, she came to love them. When they moved into a house near us, they brought them and put them in the basement then later replaced them with an early 60s slant front pair.

 

[laundromat]

I wonder where Mrs Bertha Nielsen is today??? I wonder if her hands are as unwrinkles as they were in 1938?

 

[supersuds]

Ross, do you dilute bluing and add it as the washer fills, or wait until it starts agitating?

Does adding the bluing to the wash work better than adding it to the rinse?

 

[mrb627]

Bluing

I use bluing as well. Add 2 drops, diluted, to the final rinse in the frontloader. Always seems to do the trick.

Malcolm

 

[abcomatic]

bluing

My mom used Rinso Blue to do the laundry. It had a great scent and always cleaned real well. We had salt water in our house,(on the farm)so the water ate many washers into a pile of junk. Dad bought used wringer machines and it when they stopped working, just got another. I remember we had a Maytag grey ghost, Thor,(not a good machine) Montgomery Wards,(not a good machine at all)and a Speed Queen. Mom also used Little Boy Blue bluing too. Happy washing. Gary