I hope someone can help me figure out this mystery!
Random articals of clothing are becoming faded in the laundry. The faded spots are irregular, almost with a tie-dye type of pattern. It sometimes fades to a "pinkish" or tangerine hue and eventually to white after continued wash. (Maybe the fading color differences is due to the color of the material.) I noticed it happens mostly to light weight cottons like t-shirts, sheets, but even towels. But it doesn't target everything in the same load of laundry. The fading tends to be more prevelant on collars or where the water sits longer (around the hoods of sweatshirts). Even the rug at next to the shower has faded to white where the water soaks it!
I have tried to figure out this problem for the past 5 years, here is what I know so far.
- I have a shared well, tested the water it is 26 grain of hardwater. Even though our water softener was only 7yrs old we purchased a new heavy duty system=no change.
- No iron in the water (tested)
- Only use cold, softened water for laundry
- Same fading with or WITHOUT using laundry soap.
- Carpet cleaned (yes, how stupid, I forgot about the water) it was fine until I used a spray foam carpet cleaner several months later. Now my carpet is faded throughout the house in patterns where the spray was used. (Tested foam on new carpet piece-it must be the combination of something left by the water because the foam alone didn't fade the carpet.)
- No smell, color, or solids visible in tap water. It tastes good, doesn't seem to have any problems.
- Called for further water testing at a lab=they said 0.00 to start testing. They said never heard of this and may not come up with a reason after spending thousands! Not much help and they didn't seem to care.
It is an expensive mystery that I hope someone can help me with. All my kids new school clothes have been ruined! It just makes me sick to even think of!
Tammy from Wisconsin