Please help me find a washing powder/ liquid that works!

[confusednortherner]

Can anyone recommend a washing powder that actually works on tough ground in dirt? My daughter helps at the riding stables and her T-shirt's are filthy! The dark ones must hide the stains as the light coloured ones are just disgusting. We wash at 40 with a good dose of surf/ bold etc usually whatever is on offer and I've tried adding vanish but not any better. I'm reluctant to wash hotter as worried they will shrink...

How long is your 40 wash? A quick 40 won't cut it. Persil and Ariel are the best.

Surf/ bold are fairly 'light' washing powders.

Maybe try something like Daz, With dettol laundry cleanser.

With a prewash and an extra rinse.

Lidl own brand bio powder (Formal) is excellent (& cheap) but for that kind of filth I would give them a good soak before washing them.

I generally use a concentrated bio liquid for that - big things in the bath, small things in a bucket. It makes a massive difference

Persal Power Gems work a treat for me. No other stand-alone detergent does what they do, and I only use the Non-bio.

I’d tell her to wear the dark t shirts only to riding.

It’s too much of a pain to be continually getting brown stains out of light clothing. I’d soak stains in neat Ariel liquid, then scrub, then wash. Pain in bum!

*Formil (damn you autocorrect)

Do you give it a good old soak in vanish or just put it into the washing machine? When my DC were little and covered everything in food and mud, I had to soak stuff in vanish for an hour and then wash it.

Also, I only ever use Ariel or persil now. Surf and bold aren't as good IMO. DH has started going through a phase of buying Fairy and wondering why his work uniform is still filthy.

I would soak before washing.

Our 40 wash is 1hr 15 , unfortunately not got a Lidl close but I'll get some when I can in there and will go get one of the others to try now. She's got mostly dark tops but the few that have pale bits show the dust in particular everything is covered in at minute and her favourite is pale blue.
I've not been soaking but will try that too.
Thanks everyone I'll hit shops 🤞

I soak badly stained clothes in washing soda for a couple of hours. It still works better than anything else I’ve found.

You'll notice that few people working in a dirty environment (construction, farming, fishing etc) wears light coloured clothing, for the reason you have discovered. She'll just have to use designated work-clothes, including those that are now stained.

I’d definitely soak in vanish, probably overnight, for that kind of dirt, before washing with Daz and some more vanish in the wash for good measure.

I have a cold rinse cycle on my machine. Everything horsey or car mechanicy especially gets a cold rinse with a helping of washing up liquid (which I also dollop on grass strains and works beautifully) and a scoop of vanish. Then I was in normal load with whichever powder is on offer and another helping of vanish. Does the trick for me. My nan always used to cold rinse, she told me the cold stops the stain 'setting'

I think soaking ASAP helps. Equal amounts of bio washing powder and soda crystals.

I would try white T shirts for work just so that you can put them on a really hot wash. Like others have said, she'll need to wear clothes than can be washed at a hotter temperature. You can always buy a size up if you think they'll shrink. Just try one and test.

Soak in a vanish solution and then wash with Ariel powder with an additional scoop of vanish in the machine.

You need to bung in some stain remover I use astonish powder do a prewash and your washing powder you use is fine. Dh can have filthy overalls and they clean with whatever washing powder I have .

Unfortunately the ones they supply are pale coloured! Will stock her up with some darker ones which the can wear if the want and I'm going to try soaking current ones before washing . Currently have one trialing that I've scrubbed with vanish bar and soaking in fairy liquid before a Persil wash....

Does your daughter wear beige jodhpurs ? They're fairly good at shrugging off stains . But when I used to go horse riding ( many moons ago) most people wore navy/black jodhpurs .

A bright coloured top rather than a very dark for safety . Its easier to spot someone who has fallen if they have an orange top than a black or brown.
I wore back jodhs , black long boots , black hat an an emerald green polo top

I don’t think your wash is long enough OP. I have a 60 min 40 degree wash but the full wash is 141 mins and goes up to 3.5 hrs if needed (you select the level of grubbiness). I would looking at at least 2 hrs for stable clothes and Ariel is the best I’ve found (I too have a horse mad child).

I would say you need to wash hotter for longer. It's proven that bodily fluids etc only ever get really properly cleaned at above 60c.

Eesh. No luck with any of them but I did buy that vanish oxy spray (bright pink bottle) and it has been fantastic on blood. Best thing so far I've found. They do a huge tub of powder which isn't as good on stains but could be great in a wash.

Costco’s Kirkland powder. You can buy it online & it isn’t tested on animals.

It gets vape juice out of dhs t shirts.

I use Surf a lot and it gets everything out. In fact my adult kids very often bring their clothes home that they've stained, and can't get out, for me to try and I always succeed. DS1 only ever uses Ariel and I think it's utterly crap.

When you treat a stain you have to treat the back and the front of the clothing. I find that Elbow Grease, you can buy it in Tesco, Wilco etc, is excellent as a stain treatment. A good soak in Vanish with the gold lid and a scoop of Vanish in with the wash and it should come out. The sooner you treat the stain, the better.

I have some Costco liquid pouches - huge tub of 152 .
They do clean well but the smell is like surgical spirits (which smells clean but not something I want to smell of TBH)

I'm using them up on my work scrubs ( they need washed each wearing at 60c) and my DS workclothes (again washed each wearing as per Covid)
Not sure if I' buy them again , but it was so long ago I cannot remember how much I paid for them (now retails at £19.99 but not sure if thats with VAT)