Bleaching whites

[BeerBaby]

How? My kids socks, towels and sheets could do with a boost. Ive seen on YouTube the Americans bleach whites.

What works? How can I do it?

Not done it yet, but I’ve got a stain on a completely white pillow case and apparently you just stick the same bleach you would use to clean to your toilet (neat bleach, not toilet cleaner) on it according to instructions on the bottle?

If you have any Milton just soak them in that and cold water before washing. If using tablets let them fully dissolve first or you get patches.

Dilute bleach works. However beach will eventually rot clothes, so use sparingly.

I've just bleached a full. White load...stupidly my sons primary school has the kids in white polo shirts...utter madness.i had a weeks worth of filthy dried hard white shirts...used some vanish liquid,and coated the worst bits in bleach.hot 60 wash and bingo ...90%+ ok ..can be worn again.

Don't put bleach in your washing machine regularly as it will perish your rubber seals.

Like pp said, soak in Milton for stains.

I wash whites at 60 with non-bio powder. The non-bio has some sort of bleaching agent in it and keeps everything properly white at that temp.

Oh really can it do that may?? I've only bleached for the first time in utter desperation to save me buying 5 new white shirts...they've not even done a full term yet..

I noticed it on my door seal and I think I googled or asked here as others said yes.

I think once every so often is probably ok but I haven't wanted to risk it again myself!

I bleach my sons polo shirts and white shirts for School.

Others said yes- the bleach rots the rubber,

.. is what I meant to say.

I do a half soda crystal/bio powder mix with a sachet of Glo White stuff for net curtains every other wash. All my bedding and towels are white and are still dazzling.

I just put on a white load, just squirt a bit of bleach into the prewash drawer. It was someone who had lived in America that showed me that now u mention it...

If you’re at all interested. The reason the USA bleach whites and Europe in the main doesn’t, is all down to the washing machines.

For a long time through history (although rapidly changing now) the washers in the US are the great big top loaders with the agitator in the middle. These don’t have heaters in them like the U.K. front loaders do, so the water only gets as hot as what comes from the boiler (which in the US the heaters don’t heat the water as hot as U.K.) So in order to sanitise and whiten, you had to use Bleach. Even though the washers are now changing to like what is over here, it’s a really hard habit to break, even though as stated by PP, bleach may rot the rubber seal around the door (toploaders don’t have these)

We don’t have chlorine bleach sold as “laundry” bleach over here, however, you’ll be glad to know there is an identical product sold over here - THIN bleach (the one in the white bottle with red lid usually, costs about 30p). Half a cup to a cup (125-200ml) and you’re good to go.

However, chlorine kills the enzymes that is in detergent, so what you’d normally do is allow 5 or so mins for the wash without bleach to allow the enzymes to work to break down stains, then chuck the bleach in (easy with TL you just open the lid). But with a front loader, best option is to set your cycle with a prewash, put the detergent in the prewash bit of drawer so the detergent works in the prewash cycle, then when the main cycle kicks in, pour the bleach in the drawer as the machine is taking in water.

Final note, POWDER (not liquid/gel etc) and things like vanish, contains a non chlorine bleach (known as oxygen bleach), these 2 cancel each other out. So if you’re going to use chlorine bleach, you’ll be best using a liquid detergent and no vanish type products.

Jeez that was long, sorry if bored you to death, just hope I explained how to best use bleach in a washer if you’re going to.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t boring at all e1y1 - that makes so much sense. Have you ever had a top loader? Do they work any better than ‘normal’ machines?

:) Yes Namedy had a Top loader, but no I’d say front loader is better.

Top loader definitely has advantages, they’re much much faster for a “full” wash - about 35/40 mins. Stuff also gets rinsed so much better due to the amount of water the machine uses.

The cons are of course the water use, but also the agitator in the middle could be extremely harsh on some types of clothing; they do have a “permanent press” cycle on them which slows the agitation down, but even still, caution had to be used.

Front loaders are of course more economic, they do also clean better and a far more gentler on clothing. Only downside is due to the economy of water and electric use, they take forever to do a load , but now that newer machines are taking ever bigger loads, it’s not too bad.