bathtub stain from clothes dye

[Kelly]

How can I remove black stains on a porcelain bathtub caused by clothes dye? I washed a pair of black jeans and hung them to try over the tub and the drips caused stains that I've been unable to remove.

So far, I've tried bleach, ammonia, comet and ajax powder cleansers and TSP, but none have removed or lightened the stains.

Thanks for any help.

Kelly

[Joseph Meehan]

I seem to recall they make a product just for removing the color and it is available in the same areas as they sell the dye.

[Italian]

[Dottie]

You might try peroxide. I would pour it on a cloth and let it sit on the stain if possible. If you have Oxy Clean, you might fill the tub with water to cover the stain and put in Oxy Clean and let it sit overnight.

[Jamie Dolan]

Try a solvent.

denatured acholl laquer thinner etc...

j

[Norminn]

It is hard to imagine a porcelain tub staining to that extent unless the glaze is worn away - old tub? What kind of dye? Is there soap scum or mineral deposits in the tuc that are actually stained, and not the glaze? Hate to ask dumb questions, but glaze should not stain at all. Could try CLR in case it is actually mineral deposits that are stained. If RIT dye, they make a color remover but bleach should do as well.

[Kelly]

Thanks everyone for these great tips. I'll try them (not all at once of course) and report back.

To answer norminn's questions, which are not at all dumb: - yes, it's an old tub, so probably the glaze is worn, certainly there are scratches on it - i don't know what kind of dye. the jeans that ran were made by lee, and perhaps a call to them will be instructive - i don't think there's soap scum or mineral deposits on the tub as i've washed and rinsed it too much to leave any soap scum and the water in my area (nyc) is pretty soft.

Kelly

Kelly wrote:

[Kelly]

Thank you for your excellent suggestions. The first thing I tried was filling up my bathtub till there was about 2-3 inches of water over the stain and adding about 1/3 of a bottle of OxiClean Laundry detergent. In about an hour the stain began to fade. I let it soak until the stain stopped getting lighter, about 18 hours. Then I added some borax (found out about that on a web site) and it seemed to get lighter still.

I emptied the tub and thought I'd try Clorex's version of OxiClean's paste (OxiMagic) as it was cheaper and sold in a smaller container. I left the paste on the stain for about 45 minutes and more came off, both by contact and scrubbing.

Then I thought I'd see how Zud would handle what was left. This was the most amazing to me. Directions said leave on a paste for a mintue or two, then rinse and scrub if necesary. Quite a bit of the stain was gone with gentle rinsing. When I applied more pressure it all came off, even the areas where the dye had colored fairly deep scratches. Not only that, but unlike the Oxi products, the Zud made my tub shine.

The Zud also picked up the soap scum that the other products missed.

Thanks again for all your help.

Kelly

Kelly wrote:

[Cynthia]

replying to Kelly, Cynthia wrote: This comment was a lifesaver! I use Zud to get out a nasty brown fabric stain from my tub. It came off easily after nothing else would work. Thanks Kelly!