Q. I work in a nursery where we soak our bottles in a bleach/water solution after washing them with soap, as per the instructions on the bleach container. What I would like to know is how long can this bleach solution continue to be used before it's too degraded?

A. Always a great idea to sanitize baby bottles between uses. Here's the recommended procedure from our EPA Master Label for Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

As for the "how long" question, it depends, and to be sure one would need to analyze the solution which is more difficult than you want. If the bottle are clean, and the water is warm/cool, then the sodium hypochlorite active degradation should be relatively slow.

If you are doing a large number, I would replace the solution twice daily. If not, then at least daily. Since it's only 1 tspn/gallon, that shouldn't be too hard or expensive to do.

Q. I have an HE frontloading washer that I really love. I bought gorgeous, dark brown, hotel-quality towels for my bath. As time goes by the towels and bath mat are getting more and more "sour" and I am afraid of using bleach in my washer with the dark brown color. I never have had this problem before and thought I had fixed it by adding soda and white vinegar to the laundry but that did not work! How can I clean these in an HE without bleaching out my color?

A. I'm intrigued by your description of "sour smell". A unique problem for HE washers is that they don't discharge all the water at the end of the wash/rinse cycles. Some residual water actually "pools" in the bottom below the door. This becomes a great breeding ground for odor-causing bacteria and something we call biofilm, which becomes their home. In addition, if the interior is not dried out, it's possible that mold/mildew can also take hold inside the machine and around seals on the door.

So here's something to try. I agree that you can't add Clorox® Regular-Bleach or our CloroxPlus® HE Bleach to the brown towels for fear of bleaching them. However, you can use these products on all of your white loads. This will help control/eliminate the biofilm, odor-causing bacteria and mold/mildew while getting out the extra stains and leaving everything whiter. As you use this process, the sour smell should decrease.

You can jumpstart the process by either adding Clorox® Regular-Bleach to the Clean cycle (if your HE washer has one) or doing a liquid bleach load with or without clothes. Initially, I would do this weekly and then decrease the frequency. Or by doing the bleached white loads each week, you may not need the special cycle/treatment. As you use this process, the sour smell on the towels should decrease or disappear.

A couple of other tips:

• You might want to check the seal around the door for traces of mold/mildew. Again, wipe the area weekly with a bleach solution (3/4 cup liquid bleach in gallon of cool water).


• To help reduce the moisture in the inside, leave the door cracked/open after you finish the load to encourage it to dry out.

Finally, your soda and vinegar treatment is not powerful enough to control the bacteria. Thus the reason the smell returns.

Q. I have a light gray silk outfit and the washing instructions for the top shell say wash by hand. (It is 100 % silk).The instruction on the pants, however, say to dry clean. (Pants are 97%silk, 3 % spandex.) The fabric in both seems to be the same. I am confused as to why I cannot also hand wash the pants. What risk would I be taking?

A. I am always very cautious when laundering silk anything. Even if it says handwash, it is so easy to end up with wrinkles and distortions that I believe it may be worth taking the items to the drycleaners. If you want to go ahead, make sure you follow the care label instructions for washing and drying carefully.

The added Spandex in the pants may be the reason that they changed the care instructions. This could change the way the silk will dry, making shrinkage or shape change a bigger issue. Hope this helps and let me know if you have any further questions.

Q. My husband sweats at night and has ruined many sheets and pillow cases, and even pillows with protectors.

The sheets are stained with a yellowness that I just can't get out. Of course, these sheets are white with a taupe pattern and metallic gold stripe, so cleaning them is difficult at best. The stain is not little- it encompasses almost the whole fitted sheet and every pillow case is entirely discolored. Of course mine are just like new and show the contrast. Is there any way to get these stains out?

A. Body soil is something I have written about several times in the past on my blog. If you do a search, you will find close-up pictures of sheets showing the difference between washing in detergent alone and detergent plus 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular- Bleach.

Some general tips: use hot water and at least the recommended amount of detergent. You definitely will want to add the appropriate bleach to help finish the process, and the earlier you start this process, the less build-up of unremoved body oils/sweat will occur and the less yellowing problem you will have to deal with during laundering.

A lot of colored sheets can safely be bleached. But first you want to be sure the colors can safely be bleached. I recommend consumers do the quick Bleachability Test (2 tspn Clorox® Regular-Bleach in 1/4 cup water; apply a drop on a hidden colored area like inside seam, hemline or cuff; wait 1 minute and then blot with towel); no color change means it is safe to use bleach on the item. Any color change could also show you the amount of change in color that likely will occur if you proceed with the liquid bleach usage. You can see a demo on my blog (http://www.drlaundryblog.com) in the video Laundry 101. If you can bleach them, consider a short presoak ( 1/4 cup liquid bleach/gallon of water for 5-10 minutes before laundering) before washing in hot water with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular- Bleach. For a little more fire power, use detergent plus Clorox® Bleach Pen Gel. It is a thickened bleach formula that has a scrubber tip that you could use to apply the bleach, rub it into the stained area, and wait 3-5 minutes before immediately washing with detergent and liquid Clorox.

If you can't bleach the items, wash in the hottest water recommended on the care labels using detergent and an oxygen bleach like our Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster, and I would include a 1/2 to 1 hour presoak in the oxygen bleach before the wash. Check for success before drying as you may need to do more than one treatment.

If the build-up is substantial, you may need several washes to see the yellowing diminish. You can also improve this removal by pre-treating with your liquid detergent (apply, rub into stained area, wait 3-5 minutes) before immediately washing in hot water with detergent and liquid Clorox.

Q. My husband sweats at night and has ruined many sheets and pillow cases and even pillows with protectors. The sheets are stained with a yellowness that I just can't get out. Of course these sheets are white with a taupe pattern and metallic gold stripe, so cleaning them is difficult at best. The stain is not little- it encompasses almost the whole fitted sheet and every pillow case is entirely discolored- mine are just like new and show the contrast. Is there any way to get these stains out?

A. Body soil is something I have written about several times in the past on my blog. If you do a search, you will find close-up pictures of sheets showing the difference between washing in detergent alone and detergent plus 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular- Bleach.

Some general tips: use hot water and at least the recommended amount of detergent. You definitely will want to add the appropriate bleach to help finish the process; the earlier you start this process, the less build-up of unremoved body oils/sweat will occur and the less yellowing problem you will have to deal with during laundering.

A lot of colored sheets can safely be bleached. I recommend consumers do the quick Bleachability Test (2 tspn Clorox® Regular-Bleach in 1/4 cup water; apply a drop on a hidden colored area like inside seam, hemline or cuff; wait 1 minute and then blot with towel); no color change means it is safe to use bleach on the item. Any color change could also show you the amount of change in color that likely will occur if you proceed with the liquid bleach usage. You can see a demo on my blog in the video Laundry 101.
If you can bleach them, consider a short presoak ( 1/4 cup liquid bleach/gallon for 5-10 minutes before laundering) before washing in hot water with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular- Bleach. For a little more fire power, use our detergent plus Clorox® Bleach Pen Gel. It is a thickened bleach formula that has a scrubber tip that you can use to apply the bleach. Apply it, rub it into the stained area, and wait 3-5 minutes before immediately washing with detergent and liquid Clorox.

If you can't bleach the items, wash in the hottest water recommended on the care labels using detergent and an oxygen bleach like our Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster, and I would include a 1/2 to 1 hour presoak in the oxygen bleach before the wash. Check for success before drying as you may require more than one treatment.

If the build-up is substantial, you may need several washes to see most of the yellowing diminish. You can also improve this removal by pre-treating with your liquid detergent (apply, rub into stained area, wait 3-5 minutes) before immediately washing in hot water with detergent and liquid Clorox.

Q. I have a few white cotton shirts which turned very pale yellowish in color. I soaked them in bleach and water for several hours. It made a little bit of difference, but did not completely solve the problem. What can I do to make them white again?

A. I'm not clear whether the yellowing was from storage or the soaking practice you described. First, I NEVER recommend using Clorox® Regular-Bleach full-strength, or in very concentrated amounts on any item or surface as very concentrated bleach can damage them. Soaking is OK, but normally I recommend 1/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of cool water and only 5-10 minutes of soaking followed by a hot water wash in detergent + 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach wash. The liquid bleach should always be diluted because it is so strong and concentrated. Used like this, it can actually cause yellowing by either breaking down the fibers or destroying the florescent whitening agents on the garment used by manufacturers to help improve the white appearance. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do for this type of yellowing problem, but repeated washing may lessen the yellow appearance. If the yellowing is from aging, a couple of regular washes should help whiten them up.

If the yellowing continues, you might have a water quality problem. Incoming water from wells and springs often have metals that can discolor from reaction with bleach. This type of problem would require further treatment with a rust remover product like IronOut, etc.

Q. When I use Wisk directly on stains and let it sit for a while before going into the laundry, often it bleaches my colors where I put the Wisk. What is the cause of this?

A. I suspect that a couple of things may have happened here. A common mistake that consumers make when pre-treating is to leave the product on until it dries. Then the original problem can be made worse in two ways: the original stain is dissolved and now spreads out, and/or the detergent contains brighteners that are now concentrated in that spot you just pretreated. This may appear to lighten the color. Unfortunately, once these brighteners have dried, they are pretty "permanent.”
In the future, to pretreat any stain, apply the product, rub it in, wait 3-5 minutes, and then wash immediately in the warmest water recommended on the care label with detergent.

Q. I live a small town and have been looking for Chlorine Free Clorox Bleach® and I cannot find any in liquid form. I only have located ONE box of powder. I guess my question is, do you still manufacture chlorine free or is it advertised in a different way?

A. You should be able to find our Liquid Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster, as it has very broad distribution.

I have a search tool for where the product would be available in your area if you provide me your city and zipcode.

Q. My son has nylon white baseball pants with red and blue stripes on the legs – NOTHING gets the Texas clay stains out. What can I do?

A. Baseball pants always seem to get those ground-in stains from sliding and just wiping the hands between swings. Key to possible success here is to get started quickly, especially if they are muddy, and use the right product/process. It's the very fine dirt/clay particles that get ground into the pant fibers that are the problem. Brush/shake/scrape away as much as possible before starting the process; the more removed here means less to be removed in the subsequent laundering. So I recommend a good presoak in powdered detergent (1 use in a gallon of warm water) for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight. Make sure the detergent is fully dissolved before soaking. After soaking, wash in hot water using the recommended amount of detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular- Bleach. Also, a lot of colors on these items can be bleached. I recommend consumers do the quick Bleachability Test (2 tspn Clorox® Regular-Bleach in 1/4 cup water; apply a drop on a hidden colored area like inside seam, hemline or cuff; wait 1 minute and then blot with towel); no color change means it is safe to use bleach on the item. Any color change could also show you the amount of change in color that likely will occur if you proceed with the liquid bleach usage. You can see a demo on my blog in the video Laundry 101. If you can't bleach the items, wash in the hottest water recommended on the care labels using detergent and an oxygen bleach like our Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster. And, I would include a 1/2 to 1 hour presoak in the oxygen bleach before the wash. Check for success before drying as you may more than one treatment.

However, if you have red clay, the stains may never fully come out since its iron content makes cleaning and bleaching them nearly impossible.

Q. I am trying to find out if the color safe bleach removes body soil like the regular bleach is supposed to do.

A. I've done a lot of research on body soil removal, and can tell you nothing cleans it better than detergent and Clorox® Regular-Bleach. While the Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster does have some benefits, it pales in comparison to Clorox Bleach.

If this is on poly/cotton, I do find that a lot of colored items can be bleached. To find out whether these items can safely be bleached, I recommend consumers do the quick Bleachability Test (2 tspn Clorox® Regular-Bleach in 1/4 cup water; apply a drop on a hidden area like inside seam, hemline or cuff; wait 1 minute and then blot with towel); no color change means it is safe to use bleach on the item. You can see a demo in the video section of my blog in the Laundry 101 video.

Want to proceed? I would do a quick liquid bleach soak (1/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in gallon of cool water for 5 minutes), then wash immediately in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach. It might require multiple treatments to get the desired result.

If you can't bleach them, then washing in the hottest water recommended on the care labels using detergent and an oxygen bleach like our Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster (or even a short 1/2 hour presoak in the oxygen bleach before the wash) is your best bet. Don't skimp on the detergent and consider using a powdered one as they have extra ingredients which can boost cleaning (make sure it's all dissolved before adding the clothes to prevent residue later, though).