What is this stain? How can we stop it?

[Bishalisha]

Hey all

Hopefully someone can help.

We have had two washing machines (both brand new) over the years and have constantly come across these stains- once they’re there, they don’t go either.

For background- 2 x toddlers at nursery who mainly wear eBay second hand bundles and hand me downs. School age child with uniform, DH and I.

We’ve not been too worried as most of our clothes are on their last legs anyway, the toddlers especially ruin everything at nursery regardless. We’ve had a few tight few years financially, which we are starting to come out of (yippee!).

I don’t want our clothes to continue to get ruined- especially as we are starting to update our wardrobes gradually and one of the toddlers is going to actually be in reception from November.

What can we do? What is this stain from? We don’t overfil the machine, but it does get used A LOT.

I have previously bought stain removed for this type of stain but it doesn’t touch it. Once it’s there the item is stained for good

Help!

Looks like a grease stain. Have you tried rubbing washing up liquid into it before washing in bio powder

No I haven’t tried anything apart from some shop bought anti stain. I’ll give that a go- there’s no many clothes with the stain I’d have to fill the bath to do it all!

Generally once stains have been “set” in by washing in hot water then you can’t remove them afterwards.

I’ve a bag in my washing basket for stained clothes that need pre treating before washing - that way they don’t get accidentally chucked in the machine with everything else because the stain can’t be removed afterwards

If anything will get them out it’s the vanish stair removal bar (like a bar of soap). The only stain it won’t remove is curry! I’d scrub with that and a little bit on washing up liquid and see if it helps

Have you tried cleaning the washing machine drum?

@GookledyGobb in going to try that, as well as the fairy liquid and non bio. I chuck everything in together (no one wears white- but in September two children will be in white shirts/polos)

@knittedfairies no I haven’t for a while- unless you mean run a wet cloth along it!

Bio is better for stains as the enzymes break them down

Ooo I love the challenge of a good stain!

Not all stains are set by hot water. Blood is the worse one for this but I have even got that out after accidental washing so it's not necessarily the end of the battle if accidentally exposed to heat. (plain soap and cold water is best for blood, or hydrogen peroxide, if you are interested).

As earlier poster has suggested it looks like it may be grease from pic. I second undiluted washing up liquid being best for all grease stains.

Vanish Oxy is good for generally stain removal if you don't mind the chemicals.

I do mind them so tend to use a handmade spray or hydrogen peroxide mixed with washing up liquid (1:2). Or a great dual is bio-d washing powder mixed with a good slug of hydrogen peroxide.

Do you use pods?

I believe the use of those pods and a cooler cycle (or economy short cycle) can do this.

I use Elbow grease for difficult stains like this . I get it in home bargains

When i used to use pods/ gel detergent it did this, I got fed up of ruining decent clothes and went over to powder, haven't had this problem since

Check the water feed pipes. We had grease stains on clothes which I know weren't stained. We think the pipes had been fitted badly as on occasion when the machine wasn't being used, we would end up with water in it. I noticed it was happening after we were doing a large sink of dishes. Once we checked and adjusted the pipes we didn't have the same problem.

We've also had an engineer out for a clogged filter (none of us could undo the filter release). Seperate to the above incident. He squeezed out a huge sausage of washing products which had got clogged in the pipe. We no longer use lenor unstoppables or pods. They just don't dissolve properly in cool washes.

Do a hot wash in your machine - chuck a ton of vinegar in the drum and put it on it’s hottest longest wash empty.

I’d rub ace bleach on the stains and wash as hot as the label will allow.

Hi
My washing machine fixer guy told me that gels for washing or softening are very bad for the machine, cause mould to grow etc

I'd be interested if you use pods too. I've seen that happen with them.

Oh yeah, and definitely a hot wash with some kind of machine cleaner. I have sachets from hotpoint and run them through every couple of months on a 90° wash.

On a more regular basis I just chuck white vinegar and zoflora in.

Make sure you're not using too much detergent, excess amounts can cause residue and staining.

Have you contacted the manufacturer and asked them what could be causing it?

Here's my stain removal tip. It takes a while, but gets rid of virtually anything: all you do is pre-soak the clothes in a mixture of Napisan and bio detergent in as hot water as the clothes can stand. Leave for a day or two (or even longer if it's a particularly bad stain), then just put in the machine and wash without rinsing. On the odd occasion it doesn't quite remove it, I just return it to the soaking solution for another couple of days.

Hey all!

I gave the washing machine a clean on 90 degrees with a machine wash powder.

However I have to say that the fairy liquid trick worked a treat- I’ve removed all of the grease stains from the clothes.

I do use pods. I think my issue was that I was chucking everything in the washing machine drum (including softener) and sometimes leaving it over night With the timer set so the clothes would be ready for the dryer in the morning.

As soon as I’m out of pods, I’ll be switching completely to powder but just wanted to report back in the mean time that the fairy liquid trick worked a treat!

Fairy liquid is great! I got foundation out of a white duvet cover doing the same.