Washing question

I have pillowcases with unknown stains on, they look like maybe oil, with j ust slight darkening, but standard washing doesn't touch them. There's no w ay to find out what's on them. Any ideas as to how to proceed? It'll be at least a day before I can rewash them.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr
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Our pillowcases, well, mine actually, get stained by a mixture of hair grease and dribble (I tend to sleep on my side with my mouth open!), and a good really hot wash normally shifts it.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

Are the pillowcases plain white? Are they cotton, or synthetic? Are you going to throw them away if you can't get rid of the stain? :-)

I usually try methanol, acetone, or bleach. Or sometimes, a sort of chromatography - dripping water or solvent to make a stain sort of migrate until it's too faint to see. One of them will usually work, but it depends very much on what you're working with - you could end up destroying them.

Reply to
Dan S. MacAbre

bio detergent, heat and time by whatever method you choose.

Reply to
TimW

New pillow cases? Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Straight to Dunelm?

Reply to
Andy Burns

+1, and definitely not an eco washing powder.

If cotton, a 60C or 90C wash, otherwise hottest the label allows.

Sometimes, I'll rub a wet bar of soap on any stubburn stains before re-washing.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Was the first wash a hot or cold wash? A hot wash may have cooked the stains in.

If it's oil try pouring some dish washing liquid on them and leave for a few hours before re-washing.

Reply to
alan_m

fill bath with hot water: add bleach. leave to soak.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I thought biological detergents worked best at low temperatures?

I would tend to soak overnight in lukewarm biological detergent then give it a hot wash the next day. I could be entirely wrong.

Reply to
Scott

If unknown start with a soak in a bio washing powder at low temp, maybe overnight. If that doesn;t work a hotter wash with a non bio powder. if that doesn;t work try bleach. Dye it buy a new one

Oh no dave has moved my ' key!!!!! or its a virus affecting my alcohol intake like TNP has.

Reply to
dennis

The enzymes only work up to about 40C, after which they're destroyed. The detergent in the powder will work hotter. So, a modern machine (last 35 years) should fill at no more than 40C anyway, and for a hot wash, it will crank the temperature up in stages. There are other reasons too not to dunk clothes directly in 60 or 90 degree washes, but to work up to that in stages - some dirt which is removable at lower temps will cook on at higher temps and be more difficult to remove.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

We had a hot-and-cold-fill machine until about 10 or 15 years ago. Would it have filled with a mixture of hot and cold water even for the

60° or 90° programmes?
Reply to
Adam Funk

I think those always filled with hot water if available. I had one which took ages - about 30 minutes as the hot water pressure was so bad [1] - so I filled it on a cold setting and then reset it to the hot to heat up with the immersion element.

[1] Actually the next one I had, which was also hot-and-cold, took only 10 minutes to fill with hot, so maybe there was something else wrong with it.
Reply to
Max Demian

My Hotpoint did. Initial fill was always 35C in that machine. It went up in a few steps at perhaps 10 min intervals to 60C, and then straight to 90C (which I only ever used a couple of times in 25 years).

It started with cold first, and only switched on the hot when there was some cold in there, presumably to ensure it didn't damage the washing enzymes before they could be used. Worked well when it was about 2 feet from a multipoint heater, but not so well after moving it somewhere where the hot wouldn't run through the pipework before it finished filling. That's why machines tend not to have hot fill anymore.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Quite a few are allergic to bio detergent.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Was the restrictor for mains pressure hot water removed I wonder?

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

No, the hot water tank was fed from a cold water tank above it.

Reply to
Max Demian

No, I meant that washing machines were usually supplied with a restrictor fitted to the hot inlet to restrict the flow if they were plumbed to a mains pressure supply (such as from a combi) and that restrictor needed to be removed to give reasonable flow if the hot water was fed from the lower pressure of a header tank.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

I see. It's quite likely that the first one hadn't been installed properly. One that was installed when I was home took them a total of 10 minutes including removing the old one - the new one was cold fill so there wouldn't be a restrictor. (These were washer/driers - the middle one lasted eight years which was considered a good lifespan.)

One repair job was because the belt driving the drier fan had worn out. To check that was all that was wrong he fitted a couple of rubber bands (of the kind that postmen used to drop all over the place) that I had. He said I could use the drier until the proper part came, but I didn't risk it.

Reply to
Max Demian

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