Will a 90 degree wash get rid of piss!!!!

[revelsandrose]

Just that really, I've just gone upstairs and balked at the rancid stench of piss, wondering where it was coming from, it was the wash basket.

Turns out when Dh took ds2 swimming yesterday he took the best two bath sheets in the house, then put them on the (piss soaked) changing room floor to dry their feet

Then to make matters worse left them in a carrier bag in the boot of the car overnight and all day, and has just tipped the bag out into the wash basket.

I've thrown them (and everything they've touched) into the machine with bio washing powder on a 90 cycle. Will this be ok or shall I just burn them????

I'm sure it will be fine. You could add a slug of disinfectant if you are really worried but the high temperature will work.

60 woukd have done tbh. A dash of zoflora in the fabric softener bit would help too

It'll be fine. Hospital sheets see far worse and come out fine. 90'C will be plenty to kill any bugs, and at least it was only carrier bag they were in. And the telling off will no doubt ensure they'll never do similar again (DH really should have known better). Can you buy some specific towels for swimming so that you don't have to worry about decent towels? Aldi/lidl/home bargains often have cheap beach towels which are great for swimming.
Fwiw, I can't imagine putting anything except shoes on the floor in our local swimming pool changing rooms, leave alone good towels , luckily DH feels the same way!

Of course it will be fine.

I used to wash reusable nappies at 40 degrees. They were fine

Lower temps are better for smelly stuff. There's a risk high temps can "set" the smell. Hopefully you'l be fine, but next time I'd wash at a lower temp first.

We do our bedwetter's bedding on 40.

I know our changing room floors are manky but I'm surprised they've got that much piss on them!

Surely that is a massive over reaction? It's only a swimming towel.

Not to say he shouldn't have washed them himself.

Honestly I am not over reacting, I could smell piss as soon as I went upstairs, dh tried to say it was the baby's nappy but my child does not smell like that! It was pure ammonia!!!

Oh no! I didn't know you could 'set' a smell!!! Hopefully not! I have some odour neutralising liquid I bought when I was puppy training so I threw that in the softener draw as well.

They've both been told to never put a towel on a changing room floor, and dh has been instructed to use one of the many threadbare towels at the bottom of the pile for swimming in future!!!

Why was the changing room floor piss-soaked? Who pisses on the floor of a swimming pool changing room? I'd certainly never be taking my children swimming there again. Are you sure the towels aren't just musty from being left screwed up damp and smelling of chlorine? Anyway, 40 degrees would be fine, 60 degrees if you are neurotic.

Of course they'll be fine! And I've never known higher temperatures set smells, that doesn't sound right

What sunset said. It does sound a bit OTT about never putting a towel on the floor again. It's just wee or pool water or whatever.. I guess with 3 young kids, who have all also been cloth nappied, I am immune. I clean up this sort of stuff everyday.

I think you might be over reacting (sorry). I wash cloth nappies which are designed to be saturated in piss at 60. I use a longer wash cycle and they come out fine.

I think it's a kind of 'don't mind my own muck' attitude. If it was baby wee or either of the other ds or even mine or dh's it wouldn't be so bad, I mean it would get washed immediately. But this.... was a whole new level of ammonia.... I thought my cat had pissed in the bedroom at first (which she has never ever done) but that's how bad the smell was. I can only assume lingering in a sealed up plastic bag for 24 hours does something to wet piss 🤢

I think your slight over reaction to the pissis possibly a teensy bit of a displacement/distraction from your rage at DH for not having his act together about bringing right towels, unpacking etc

(And I speak as someone with a similar DP so I do get it)

If the hot wash doesn't get rid (unlikely) try leaving it hung out on a rainy day then rewashing. Not sure why but the prolonged 'rinsing' and airing seems to shift most smells. Even worked on a cloth nappy DH forgot was in a bag in the car.

Ordinary biological tablets at 60 degrees will do the trick.

If the smell does 'set', soak them in white vinegar, then re-wash them - vinegar will kill the smell.

I think it will be fine, though - I used to be a nurse, and as a previous poster has said, our sheets got soaked in urine, faeces, pus etc, and were fine - clean and odour-free - after a single hot wash.

rain I do have the rage with dh but honestly the smell was vile (I do have a very sensitive nose I'll admit).

Anyway, update is they came out of machine smelling only of the horrible perfumey smell of the odour neutraliser I put in!

So I've just put them back in on a quick rinse with some fabric softener and hopefully they'll be good as new and I'll try to erase the memory when I wrap myself up after a nice bath

It will be fine, my dc wet the bed sometimes and would wake up take off the wet underwear and pj bottoms and stuff it into a corner of the bedroom,
I would smell it the next day and hunt it out, washed on a 60 with washing powder and a dash of fabric softener and it always smelt fine afterwards.

Why was the changing room floor covered in piss?

piece I have no idea, it was an aquapark place and I can only assume small children had pissed on the floor? Either that or ds2/dh are hiding an incontinence problem?

I work with people who wet themselves, or their beds, or the floor... fairly regularly - non family adults. 60% wash with regular washing powder and without any special additives gets rid of smells and bacteria.

Thank you all, I'm aware how deranged I sound! I think it was just the shock that the whole room stunk!

I'm happy that if nappies, hospital sheets etc are safe and clean at 60 then my towels will be saved with the 90 wash! Phew, thank goodness for washing machines!!!!

The smell will not set in. That would only happen if you put said piss soaked towel straight into boiling water. It used to happen a lot back when we had twin tubs which you heated the water in first and then put the clothes in. Modern washers are all cold fill and heat up slowly, which is also what modern detergents are designed to do. So the soil and smell is washed out as the water heats up and then the hot water at full temp is for sanitising.

The NHS standard for washing anything with bodily fluids on it is 75 degrees. Probably not essential in a household setting, 60 degrees would be ok, 90 degrees for good measure