White marks on clothes

allydowd

foxgloves wrote: »

Have just read about a product called 'Dolly washer balls' which Lakeland sell. They are a set of 9 ribbed plastic balls which you put in with your wash and the extra pounding action (supposed to mimic pounding your laundry with a dolly posser in the old days when everyone hand-washed in big tubs). You are supposed to be able to get away with using less detergent as well as gettin reduced residue left on clothes. Am going to buy some and give them a try.

I bought two spiky plastic balls for a pound in the pound shop. They are supposed to be for tumble drying to make your towels fluffy but I put them in the washing machine and use a lot less powder. I don't really have any delicate clothes so these are perfect.

grannytwice

Had the same problem, interesting comment about the bleach in powder, i now only use liqued and half the recommended amount seems to be helping dont use softener at all , think i will try adding those ball things will get them next time i am in a pound shop worth a try .

Penelope_Penguin

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the existing thread to give you more ideas

Penny. x

pigeonpie

I hope this is the right forum for this question. Recently, every time I do a dark wash, particularly jeans etc, there are white soap stains on them when they dry so I have to rewash them. I don't overfill the drum (although do only wash with a full load) and I use persil powder bio gel tablets detergent. I use 1 detergent tablet in a bag in the drum with the clothes and wash at 30 degs (wash is normal, just over 1 hour wash). I put liquid fabric conditioner in the drawer section. The water is a hardish water area. Is it my old washing machine or the type of detergent or is there anything I can do? It didn't used to happen, now happens every wash :mad: Before I used to use 2 tabs, but it got too soapy. I've also noticed that some underarms of T shirts that were a bit 'fruity' still don't smell too clean when I iron them too.
It leaves white streaks on the legs of jeans etc, which I only notice once they are dry and plonked on the ironing board.
many thanks for any help

beemuzed

Sounds like you've already ruled out my two ideas - too much detergent, too big a load. It does sound as if the rinse cycle may be faulty maybe? Good luck anyway, hope someone more clued up than me replies soon!

smeeinnit

Hi there, this problem has several potential causes, namely overloading, under/overdosing of detergent - check the weight of the load before putting in the machine, its surprising how much stuff weighs! Different programmes also have different maximum loads, synthetics are lower load sizes than cottons for example.

Also make sure you are using the right amoung of detergent, under is as bad as overdosing, underdosing means there is not enough detergent to remove grime and will redeposit on clothes with the appearance of white powder or lint, overdosing is well, pretty much self explanatory as there is too much detergent for the rinse to remove fully.

The underarm stains will probably need a hotter wash to shift, whilst 30 degrees is very eco, its best really for lightly soiled items, heavy or long standing soils benefit from higher wash temperatures and a more intensive wash cycle.

It could also be a built up of detergent and/or limescale.To help with this you could do a boil wash occasionally - without clothes but with the recommended dose of powder detergent for a normal load, this will help to break down any build up, if you have a limescale remover, use that as recommended too.

HTH

seraphina

Do your tablets specifically say they're okay to use in a cool wash? Most detergents won't dissolve properly at this temperature.

I use bog standard persil non-bio and if it's a particularly big load I put the wash through an extra rinse cycle otherwise I do get white marks.

I find that 30 degrees is nowhere near hot enough to get clothes "fresh" without either doing a prewash or using loads of detergent, which defeats the purpose really!

pigeonpie

it may be the rinse cycle. The machine's creaking already. It tends not to spin dry clothes at all without the filter being declogged weekly.
Should I boil wash with the persil or with something like vinegar (am worried about the smell of vinegar: it's a small flat) or try a different brand of detergent or liquid detergent? I will up to 40 or 50 degrees and see what happens. It seems to be just cotton clothes that it likes marking btw.

When I used 2 tabs there was soap everywhere so downed it to 1. That was a year ago. All was well until about 2 months ago when it started the white streaking I suppose I could try 1 1/2 but a bit messy to cut!

janb5

pigeonpie wrote: »

it may be the rinse cycle. The machine's creaking already. It tends not to spin dry clothes at all without the filter being declogged weekly.
Should I boil wash with the persil or with something like vinegar (am worried about the smell of vinegar: it's a small flat) or try a different brand of detergent or liquid detergent? I will up to 40 or 50 degrees and see what happens. It seems to be just cotton clothes that it likes marking btw.

Believe me, vinegar doesnt `linger` but I have found washing soda...aka soda crystals - to be just as effective for cleaning out the machine on a boil wash. Then rewash the offending items and see what happens. It might be an idea to give an item to a friend to wash for you because then if the stain comes out you know it is your machine not your washing strategy! HTH

anguk

I would try doing an empty boil wash using some soda crystals, I normally do this about once a month to keep the pipes clean and so the machine doesn't smell.

I find that powder sometimes doesn't dissolve properly on a cooler wash so if I'm doing a quick wash or anything less than 30 degrees I'll use liquid.

I'm not a great lover of cool or eco washes, I know it uses less electricity etc but I found it just doesn't get things really clean. I only use a cool wash to freshen things up that aren't really dirty.