How do I get the smell of sweat out of clothes!

bhz-2

I've got some shirts and tops which still look good, but I cannot get rid of the smell of sweat. The materials are: silk, cotton, viscose and polyester.

Any suggestions please?

suki1964

Vinegar in the rinse water instead of conditioner.

Egg cupful of white vinegar

freejunkie

Liquid VANISH is good, leave it on for about 10 mins and then wash.

MrsTinks

I'll move your thread over to the OS board - you'll get inundated with suggestions!

Chris25

I've found a problem with this on coloured shirts on a cool wash. I found pre-treating with Ace bleach works a treat; if not you're not familiar with it, it's a non chlorine bleach.

It's safe for use with wool as it has the woolmark but you might need to check about the silk.

OrangeProse

I had this problem with a load of t-shirts that I bought from a charity shop. I've found that not using fabric conditioner helps my clothes to stay fresher - apparently fabric conditioner can 'seal' fibres and stops them from breathing.

To treat the charity shop t-shirts (all cotton, by the way), I soaked them overnight in a sink full of warm water with 4 soluble aspirin tablets dissolved in it. This not only got rid of the faint smell, but also dissolved that sort of hard greasy deposit (grossing myself out before lunch here) that some deodorants leave on clothing.

The other thing that works is citric acid. Same sink full of warm water, two tablespoons of citric acid dissolved in. This worked a treat too (although you should be careful with citric acid - wear rubber gloves when using it). You can buy citric acid fairly cheaply online; I get mine from Ebay. People use it to make bath bombs, and I also use mine to clean limescale off kettles, taps, shower heads and the veg steamer!

Not sure how these would work on silks, wools or synthetic fibres however.

bhz-2

Thanks for all your replies. I'll definitely try some of your suggestions.

Suki1964, I've never used white vinegar before. Do you manage to get rid of the smell of vinegar completely?

suki1964

bhz-2 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies. I'll definitely try some of your suggestions.

Suki1964, I've never used white vinegar before. Do you manage to get rid of the smell of vinegar completely?

There may be a faint smell when straight out of the machine but it goes as the clothes dry - honest

There is/used to be a thread here somewhere about white vinegar, its a great anti bacterial and funnily enough its a great clothes softener as well

bhz-2

Does it make any difference if I use white wine vinegar or malt vinegar?

Can I use it on silk blouses?

Thanks.

brighthair

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I really wish some of the question-askers on this thread would come back and let us know how they go on.

Just want to say thanks for the product recommendations: I have a chum who suffers from very excessive perspiration ONLY UNDER ONE ARM (how weird is that?) and shall be buying all of them and shipping them out to Canada for her to try. Many thanks!

right I did it on some of my horsey polo shirts. Basically tipped bicarb over the under arm bit then poured over distilled vinegar. Left to sit for 10 mins or so then washed with Persil and no fabric conditioner
Result - NO SMELL, ALL GONE! :T:T