Pre-Treat Adjustments?

[ptcruiser51]

Never seen this addressed here. If you do a lot of pre-treating for a load, should you adjust the amount of detergent?

Sometimes my shirts from THD duty need a lot of attention. As do clothing/bedding that have experienced the heartbreak of psoriasis.

Is regular dosing overkill or waste? Rinsing issues? I always try to go for a 2nd rinse if I can. The Maytag TL's in my laundryroom give a semblance of a 2nd rinse if set on PermPress cycle.

I've tried pre-treating with just detergent I'm using in the cycle (Oxydol). Disappointing results. Usually I use Shout Gel or FelsNaptha soap for stubborn stuff.

 

[strongenough78]

Well, if everything in the load is pretreated with detergent then I would cut back the amount of detergent used. However if it's just one or 2 items, then no. The amount used to pretreat won't make much of a difference in the total wash load. If you use a pretreater like Shout, then I would use the same amount of detergent as always. But, when in doubt, check the rinse water. If it's very sudsy then you may need to cut back the detergent, or run an extra rinse cycle.

 

[launderess]

Been There Done That Once

Used Zout all over a huge load of badly stained table linen. It took DAYS of laundering to get it all out. So that was that.

If you have large amounts of stained items best to pre-soak or pre-wash first, then launder.

 

[ptcruiser51]

@Laundress

Do you find that Zout works well?  I used it when it first came out, but found its effectiveness diminshed later.  Have they come out with improvements in the past five years or so?

 

[launderess]

Cannot Speak To The New

Have had the same old Zout from Dial Corp. (in the white and purple bottle) for ages now.

Legend has it that the orginal formula of Zout was invented and marketed to nurses for removing stains from uniforms, especially the poly/cotton blend jobs.

My vintage stuff is only surfactants, and quite powerful at that. Over dosage will cause major froth in the Miele or any other front loader and as stated is hard to rinse away. Don't care for the scent much either, which probably is one reason it's not used often either. If the stuff isn't totally rinsed away the scent lingers.