Ariel detergent - turning clothes blue

[Petrine]

Recently I've noticed that my white cottons are coming out tinged very slightly blue. Synthetics aren't affected. I never put other colours in with whites and haven't experienced this before.

I wonder if it's the detergent I use. I use Ariel whch is slightly blue in colour. I know optical brighteners are used and blue to keep things white... I wonder if they've overdone it a bit.

Has anyone else experienced this?

have you re washed with another detergent?

more likely your washing machine needs a service

@notjustthecandle My washing machine is only a year old.

I don't think it would turn clothes blue even if it did need a service would it?

very very unlikely to be ariel
how blue are we talking here?!

and if you re wash with different detergent - does the colour come out?

It’s a very, very slight hue. At first I thought I was imagining it but in a wash with cottons and synthetic it was obvious that the cotton had a blue tinge.

I have used Method detergent - it’s purple so I hope I don’t get colour transfer from that too 😂. It hasn’t removed the blue unfortunately.

I’ve never had issues before and all my towels and bedding is white cotton so I’m sure I would have noticed it.

Is it pods or liquid?
Maybe try powder instead

Are you using too much?

Doing a quick wash for a full load?

Using a blue fabric softener?

Googling throws up quite a few instances of pods turning clothes blue. I'd stop using them and use powder instead. Powder is better for white clothes anyway

I don’t use pods, just the liquid and I measure it into the little cup thing you get with it. I don’t use fabric softener.

I will try the powder.

That’s interesting, Petrine. My experience may not be the same as yours but a few years ago we replaced our washing machine and all our cotton sheets and towels started turning blue. We were still using the same cleaning powders etc as before. It was a faint tinge but it drove me crazy, trying to work out what was causing it. After eliminating all other causes (we even washed one of those colour run sheets on its own and that went blue) the drum of the washing machine was replaced (under warranty) and the problem went away. Sadly those linens never recovered. Hope that helps.

white powderywill mean you don’t get clothing turning blue

but i’d wager a bet that it’s your washing machine not behaving fully as it should

@notjustthecandle I wonder what could be wrong with the machine to turn whites blue. If the bearing had gone I assume oil staining would be the result. I just can’t think of anything in the mechanics of the machine which would result in this problem. Do you have any idea of what may be the cause?

My hypothesis was that it was something to do with the actual lining or metal of the drum. The stain was so uniform across all cottons, no streaks etc, that I assumed that something was being released into the water. We need a chemist to tell us!

Yes, it really is a mystery. Mine is the same as yours in that it's totally uniform colouration and only on cotton.

I've had the washing machine for a year and never had this happen before, nor have I had it happen with any other washing machine. I'm going to use powder and see if it stops.

I only buy white/clear liquid. I heard someone saying “coloured” detergent was the reason for the grey tinge on clothing.

Is it a Bosch, Petrine? I was fortunate to have a second old machine right next to my new one and I was able to show that two colour catchers washed alone in same powder and same water supply came out white in the old machine and blue in the new. Hence the drum change. Still can’t quite get my head round it, but hope that helps because it ruined a lot of linens before a year or more of experimenting got to a solution.

Yes, it is a Bosch.

That’s really interesting Sambucus. I think I’ll give them a call. The issue will be that I’ve had the machine a year with no issues. It’s only very recently developed the blue issue so I think they’ll say it’s something I’ve done.