Q. Is it ok to use OxiClean® Laundry Stain Remover Spray with regular Clorox® Regular-Bleach?

A. For white cotton t-shirts, you can use Clorox® Oxi-Magic before using Clorox® Regular-Bleach in the wash. I assume you are pre-treating with the Clorox® Oxi-Magic. These are two different products and use different bleach chemistry. Clorox® Oxi-Magic is based on hydrogen peroxide which can react with the sodium hypochlorite active in Clorox® Regular-Bleach to create oxygen gas. If you have stains on the t-shirts, I would consider using Clorox® BleachPen Gel (apply; rub in with scrubber tip; wait 3-5 minutes) before adding to the washer. These products use the same chemistry/active so you won't reduce the liquid bleach efficacy by using the hydrogen peroxide product.

Q. Here is an issue I cannot seem to solve. My bathroom towels smell like body odor. They are washed regularly; towels are changed in the bathrooms every 3 days. They are washed straight away, not left to sit wet. They are dried in the sun and I have even tried finishing them in the dryer, just to be sure they are dry. I have tried soaking in nappy soak as well as adding vinegar to the wash. Nothing seems to work and I consider myself a very clean person. The towels are hung in the bathrooms on full length individual towel racks. Any ideas?

A. I'm not clear from your description whether the off-odor occurs after laundering or during usage.

I would suspect that it is one of the following:

• Mildew or odor-causing bacteria are in the towels. It's possible the washer has some residual water that allows these "critters" a warm place to live and grow. Each time you use the washer some of this residue is mixed with the water and contaminates the towels. This is especially true in the new HE washers. The solution is to do at least one white load per week using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach to eliminate the source of the off-odors. Then your towels should come out of the washer, even if you do not use liquid bleach on the towels, without the off-odors.


• Have you tried using liquid bleach on the towels? If they are white, you should be able to wash them in hot water with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach. Most colored cotton towels are NOT bleachable. However, y ou can always test the towel to see if it's safe to use liquid bleach. 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 could also do a quick liquid bleach soak (1/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in gallon of cool water for 5 minutes), then wash immediately in hot water using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.
  
  Check out the Laundry 101 video on my blog http://www.drlaundryblog.com) for a demonstration of the test.


• The towels do not get dried out between use and you have a mildew source in the bathroom which can create the problem. I have seen this in very humid locations like Florida in the summer. You will need to change the towels more frequently or find a way to dry them between uses.


• The vinegar is usually not strong enough to kill these types of problems. You might also consider a touch of fabric softener whose fragrance can help mask the odor. I would try a dryer sheet as it will have less impact on the absorbency of the towels.

Give these a try and let me know if it solved your problem or if you have any further questions.

Q. I have a ceramic crock pot. It’s pretty disgusting right now and I don’t feel comfortable slow cooking food along with whatever germs are living on the pot. Can I use bleach to clean the crock?

A. I'm not really clear about your "problem.” The ceramic crock pot is meant to be easy to clean. So by soaking in a warm soapy solution, this should loosen any residual material which can be easily scrubbed off before the next use.

The ceramic surface is a hard, non-porous surface so it should be safe to use a sanitizing liquid bleach solution to rinse or quick soak the surface AFTER it has been cleaned. To proceed, after thoroughly cleaning the crock pot, prepare a sanitizing solution of 1 teaspoon Clorox® Regular-Bleach in a gallon of water. Fill the crock pot with the bleach solution and allow it to sit for 2-3 minutes; then discard the solution, rinse and air-dry.

Hope this helps you continue to enjoy your crock pot and let me know if you have any further questions.

Q. Two questions please:

1. I always have a handkerchief with me. Over time these get stained. I want to use Clorox to soak them in hopes of removing the stains. The handkerchiefs are 100% cotton. What dilution should I use, and for how long? The stains are noticeable.




2. Is there any way to remove grease (from food) stains from my cotton shirts after they have gone through the dryer? My drycleaner says no.

A. Let's deal with your questions:

1. You definitely want to do a thorough job of cleaning and disinfecting frequently used handkerchiefs. You didn't indicate if they were white or colored, so I'm not sure if liquid bleach usage is appropriate for all of your items. You may be surprised to know that a large number of colored items can also be safely washed in Clorox® Regular-Bleach. 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 an inside seam, hemline, etc.; 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.
   

   Want to proceed? I would do a quick liquid bleach soak (1/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in a gallon of cool water for 5 minutes (with "bad" stains maybe a little longer) then wash immediately in the hot water using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach. Always check for success before dryer drying in case not everything was removed with the original treatment; you may need to repeat the procedure.




2. Removing a previously dried greasy/oily stain is always a crapshoot. The drycleaner is probably right, but there may be some hope since you indicated it was a cotton shirt. Synthetic or poly/cotton usually are the really bad actors. I would try a pretreat with either liquid dishwasher or laundry detergent (don't pre-wet the stain; apply, rub-in, wait 3-5 minutes) then wash in the warmest water recommended on the care label using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach, for whites or recommended amount of Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster for colors. Again check for success before drying, retreat the shirt if the stain remains. If this doesn't work after a couple of tries, it probably isn't coming out.

Hope this helps; let me know how it turns out or if you have any further questions.

Q. I have a problem. I used Clorox® Oxi-Magic™ on a white cotton blouse. Took the stain right out. Unfortunately, I did not read the small print on the OxiMagic until after I hand washed the blouse in hot water, Tide® and Clorox® Regular-Bleach, my blouse in now a lovely shade of pale green. Any suggestions to get it back to white?

A. You weren't clear about the exact way (application method, time exposure, fiber type, etc.) you used Clorox® Oxi-Magic™ in order to create the pale green.

I'm surprised if you sprayed the stain with Clorox® Oxi-Magic™, rubbed it in, waited 3-5 minutes before washing with detergent and Clorox® Regular-Bleach, that you had a reaction to produce the green hue. The Clorox® Oxi-Magic™ is hydrogen peroxide based--there should be no reaction with any metals or fiber types.

One possibility is the Clorox® Regular-Bleach, with its sodium hypochlorite active, may have reacted with some metals in the water supply/wash water to create the color. This usually occurs in well water rather than municipal supplies. If you have a water softener system, check if it needs to be recharged.

Your best chance for removal of this type of green is probably using a rust-remover product. Summit Instant Rust Out® and Whink Rust Remover® are two such products. These can usually be found in Home Depot/Lowes or hardware stores. A word of caution: ALWAYS read the label directions and pretest the products as they should only be used on whites/colorfast colors (check on hidden color area before using).

Q. I dried my son’s dark blue sleeveless polyester workout shirt with dark towels, and now it has lint all over it. I tried washing the shirt again, but no difference. How do I get the lint off?

A. One of the keys to good laundry practices is to sort not only by color but by lint producers and attractors (usually these are heavy items like towels and lighter synthetic garments). What has happened here is that the dark towels have lost a number of fibers, and the synthetic polyester has developed a static electric charge during drying which attracts and holds these loose fibers that usually wind up on the lint filter.

A couple of options to fix this;

• You can use a lint brush, which has a sticky surface to physically pull the lint off the shirt.


• Another option would be to rewash and add a small amount of fabric softener, either in the rinse or using a dryer sheet. This should eliminate the static charge and free the shirt of the lint pieces.

Q. What is the difference between non-chlorine and chlorine bleach?

A. This chlorine and non-chlorine terminology is very old, and I feel, misleading. It is an attempt to classify product actives and is then intended for product usage.

Our Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster has hydrogen peroxide as it's active ingredient and is in the class of oxygen, color-safe or non-chlorine bleach. Compare this to our Clorox® Regular-Bleach which uses sodium hypochlorite as its active ingredient and is in the class of chlorine bleach. It is wrong to call Clorox® Regular-Bleach chlorine bleach because it has entirely different chemistry. It is derived from table salt, sodium chloride, and after manufacturing it is converted to sodium hypochlorite, there is no free chlorine in any bottle of liquid bleach.

Finally, non-chlorine bleach products are to be used for colors, since it is a much weaker bleach unlike chlorine bleach products which are intended for whites.

Q. I know that you can use a bleach solution for cleaning the bathroom of someone with C. diff, but what about your Clorox® Clean-Up® Spray Cleaner. Does that work as well?

A. At the current time, only the bleach solution is EPA approved. Since the Clorox® Clean-Up® Spray Cleaner has at least the same bleach level when sprayed directly on surfaces as directed, though; I think you should get a similar result.

Q. I have a white satin blouse that ended up in my load of white & beige wash load. I had added bleach, and when I took the clothes out of the washer my white satin blouse had rusty-looking or scorched stains all over it. I think the bleach removed some of the color from the beige clothes and it was absorbed by the satin blouse. Is there anything I can do to remove the stains?

A. You didn't indicate what the fiber type was, as satin can be silk, acetate, nylon or polyester. Washing any satin can be a real roll-of-the-dice. One consistent warning is to avoid any bleach. My guess is the reaction probably is not reversible. I would take the item to a local drycleaner to see if anything can be done professionally to remove the new stains.

Q. I put a permanent marker in my pocket and the top came off. It bled into the pocket of my pink cotton lab jacket. How can I remove the stain?

A. The key to success is being able to dissolve/solubilize the marker, and preventing it from spreading and bleaching out any other portions of the fabric. So here's my recommended approach:

1. A little detective work may be needed to find the right solvent. I recommend that you always use gloves to protect your hands, and have adequate ventilation whenever solvents are in use. Among my usual candidates are ethanol, paint thinner, Goo Gone or TarGo. Use a QTip dipped in the solvent to see which works best; also use this as an opportunity to insure the solvent won't remove the color(place a dot on a seam; wait a minute; then blot/dry and check for no color change). Then, place a clean cloth on a counter under the stained area. Use either a pipette or saturated cloth/absorbent pad, and apply the selected solvent onto the back of the spot trying to encourage it to leave and transfer to the other cloth. You might want to start outside and work toward the darker middle to help prevent bleeding/expanding. Keep an eye on the lower cloth as it must frequently be moved to a clean spot/replaced as the marker is transferred to prevent it from being reabsorbed onto the lab coat.
   
2. Keep applying the solvent and changing the lower pad until there is little/no more color transferred. Look around the spot to make sure it hasn't expanded and won’t require additional treatment in other areas.
   
3. It is likely that the spot will still need to be bleached. I find that a lot of colored items can be bleached. To find out if the labcoat 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. Check out the Laundry 101 video on my blog (http://www.drlaundryblog.com) for a demonstration of the test.
   
4. Want to proceed? I would also consider either Clorox® BleachPen Gel (apply; rub in with scrubber tip; wait 3-5 minutes), or doing a quick liquid bleach soak (1/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in gallon of cool water for 5 minutes) then wash immediately in hot water using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

Check for success after the wash as another treatment might be needed. Consider air drying as dryer may set any remaining stain.