Removing blood stains?

[iej]

Sorry to hear you were hurt. Take it easy and get well soon!

 

As for cleaning it: Enzymes, enzymes and more enzymes - a hand-hot temperature and plenty of soaking time. Don't wash blood stains at high temperatures as it can 'cook' and become even more difficult to remove, while very cold water (especially winter tap water) will not encourage enzyme activity. So it ideally does need just enough heat to take the chill off, without getting anywhere near hand hot - around 86º - 104ºF anything above that is too hot to deal with blood/protein stains.

 

Blood coagulates when exposed to air, and enzymes like protease will break that down quite effectively. Most high end detergents have a cocktail of high tech enzymes that are usually pretty competent with stains like these.

 

A good detergent should remove this, on its own without much difficulty if you run it through an appropriately long cycle. If you're using a front loader, set a long cycle with a gentle action. If it's a top loader, let it fill, agitate for a while, then turn it off and let it soak for about 2 hours, or if that's not possible - put them in a basin and soak in an enzyme laden detergent solution - at at most hand hot temperature. Very cold water isn't a great idea, nor is anything too warm - you're basically looking for close to body temp.

 

If you're still having issues, maybe consider adding a peroxide based wash booster - although I wouldn't suggest soaking fabric in that, unless it's white or very light colours as it will almost certainly bleach it a little.

 

[paulg]

Clorox For Colors - in the blue bottle.

Great for blood stains

 

[launderess]

If it is of any consolation to some commercial/industrial laundries also can have issues getting blood out of textiles.

Maybe a small drop off laundromat service might pre-treat, but that just isn't possible when processing hundreds or thousands of pounds of wash per hour.

Things that don't come acceptably clean first time are often pulled aside. Then either go back and are rewashed, or left in a pile until there is enough to run a reclaim cycle.

Reclaim wash treatments are almost certain to shorten life of textiles and or washing machine if done too often, but they are sort of the last hope for certain things. If stains cannot be removed the item is consigned to rag bin.

For things stained by blood reclaim involves using quite strong bleaches such as high concentration of chlorine, or oxalic acid. These chemicals are used at quite elevated temperatures as well. Then of course all those chemicals must be washed out and neutralized.. Reclaim is also used for white things that have become yellowed.

 

[askolover]

Is ERA available anymore?  I really haven't noticed because I never used it.  I just remember it being advertised that it breaks down proteins and removes stains.  Whether or not that is true, I do not know.

 

[launderess]

Think Era detergent is still around, it's P&G's bargain brand detergent and still is listed on P&G's website as an active brand.

P&G introduced ERA in early 1970's as their first liquid detergent, Tide liquid wouldn't come along until 1984.





In early 1980's P&G upped Era's gain by introducing "Era Plus". This new product contained enzyme to deal with protein stains and soils. Because "protein gets out protein...".







You can see where this was going.... As with Biz and Oxydol both of which became redundant when P&G added their advanced oxygen bleaching system to Tide powder, ERA would suffer in sales once Tide liquid was introduced. P&G also poured more technology (enzyme cocktails, etc....) into Tide liquid format detergents.

So where does ERA fit in? Good question, and one that P&G has been grappling with past few years. IIRC ERA has lost some of enzymes and may be more diluted than previously. It certainly is not on same level as Tide liquid/gel/pod detergents. But you get what you pay for...

 

[askolover]

I remember Era and Wisk would suds quite a bit in Mother's FF washer in moderately hard water.

 

[good-shepherd]

Got a another blood stain on a comforter, don't know how it happened, I noticed a scrape on my hand last night then saw the stain this morning, (no I'm not a hemophiliac).

Anyway, this time I hit the stain with hydrogen peroxide and it immediately bubbled up, turn white and disappeared after some wiping and two more applications.

 

[launderess]

Good for you...

Anytime you pour out pharmacy store peroxide say onto a blood stain or even onto a surface and it doesn't fizz, it usually means stuff has started to go or is off.

 

[askolover]

What she ^ said!  It breaks down to plain old water....H2O2 becomes H20

I swear by peroxide on blood stains...or even concentrated oxyclean.

 

The Maytag Encyclopedia of Home Laundry says, "Soak in cold water for 30 minutes or longer.  If the stain persists, soak in lukewarm ammonia water (3Tbsp per gallon) for 30 minutes or longer.  If even this does not work, rub detergent into the stain and launder, using a bleach safe for the fabric."

 

 

[gelaundry4ever]

tide heavy duty

I recommend tide hygienic clean power pods. I use the original scent and it worked well for my blue jeans that I got blood on when I accidentally cut myself when making mac and cheese cups when trying to open the cheese pack.

 

[iej]

Hmm, not sure if this works, but might be worth a try. A friend of mine earlier today mentioned that she got rid of a blood stains on a white embroidered sheet that she loved by washing it with two Fairy Dishwasher pods. These are the same as Cascade pods.

I’m not sure if it’s particularly good for cotton, but it’s possible the cocktail of chemicals and enzymes might be more geared towards removing organic materials.

She just put the pods straight into the back of the drum and washed at 60°C (hot)

 

[launderess]

Automatic dishwasher detergents in all forms are far more alkaline than laundry products. Higher pH alone would account for shifting blood (again that ammonia or other base substance thing..). Piled on would be fact automatic dishwasher detergent normally contains good amount of oxygen bleach, and perhaps activator. Again you can see why such a thing would shift blood stains.

This being said due to high pH laundering textiles with automatic dishwasher detergents isn't highly recommended.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

My go to is H2O2 and I've found that adding salt helps tremendously.

1. Splash on the hydrogen peroxide.
2. Add enough salt to make a paste.
3. Scrub with an old toothbrush to work the paste into the fabric.
4. Wait until the fizzing stops, rinse, and repeat until stain is gone.

 

[iej]

No I wouldn’t suggest dishwashing detergent on a regular basis.

Apart from the chemicals and enzymes there are three factors to consider

Time
Turbulence
Temperature

With modern enzyme detergents you’re probably aiming for a lot of time, a moderate temperature and not too much turbulence - but enough to keep the wash liquor circulating and mixed.

If you’re not getting results vary the ratio of the above.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

tide heavy duty power pods

I recommend she try using tide heavy duty power pods and cold water. I used the normal/casual cycle on cold water with auto soak and turbo wash. The normal/casual cycle is the equivalent to the normal cottons cycle. Workout wear is permanent press equivalent which I rarely use. I mostly use normal/casual.

 

[draperwhitney]

Ice Cubes Do the Trick

Per the folks at Spray and Wash......Ice Cubes!

Works like a charm!! Ice breaks down the proteins in blood.

Place an old towel or washcloth underneath the spot to catch absorption, then place an ice cube, or ice cubes, directly on the spot of blood and allow the ice to simply melt. Then, launder as usual.

If the spot is larger, soak the entire garment in a bowl of cold water to which you add ice cubes or else fill the washer with enough cold water to cover the garment and toss in a sauce pan of ice cubes. Allow the ice to melt.

This trick is a Godsend!

 

[good-shepherd]

Back when we nurses wore the white uniforms

They should bring white nurse uniforms back.

Why dd they switch to dark uniforms, was it because the nurses got too fat and needed colors that were more slimming?

 

[askolover]

Here in the States, quite possibly.  I was told that hospitals were changing because the white was so cold and sterile and patients were nervous enough...white coat hypertension. They felt a little color might lighten the moods a little.  My new department wears gray.  So I have black, navy, royal, light blue, and green scrubs I don't wear anymore.  And I still have the whites...never know when we might need them.  We used to be so proud to wear the whites....This was 24 years ago......funny how dark my hair was then...now it's dark ash blonde and getting white.

[this post was last edited: 3/5/2022-05:45]

 

[iej]

It depends on the hospital here, but just looking though the dress code for my local major public teaching hospital and basically every role seems to have a different colour coded uniform, ranging from scrubs to tunic with different trims and so on for quick identification.

Huge range of colours: white, blue, purple, pink, lilac, orange, wine, green, yellow … some departments, particularly anything to do with kids, wear cartoon prints and stuff.

Doctors don’t necessarily wear white coats but are usually either in scrubs or just smart casual type clothes if they’re not in an area that needs PPE. Same seems to apply to a lot of other non medical consultants like dieticians, psychologists, etc etc but hands on roles like physical therapy, radiology, radiotherapy etc all seem to have uniforms.

But the days of white coats and white tunics seem to be long gone in most places.

Their specification for uniforms was that they must be capable of being washed at 60°C (140°F) and be able to handle normal biological detergents - special care fabrics are not used.

Other thing they note is that ties or neck ware of any type are banned for hygiene and safety reasons and most jewellery too.

 

[sudsmaster]

I second the suggestion to try STPP to get out blood stains. Providing you're in an area where its use is allowed.

STPP chelates metal ions and facilitates their removal from fabrics, and since a main component of blood is iron, I figure it should work on blood stains. I find STPP to be a good laundry additive for any kind of stain removal.