Q: My white coat has a pink hue on it – can I safely bleach it?

A:  It is important to know the material of your coat – if it's wool, silk, leather, mohair or spandex, then you don't want to bleach it, and should take it to a dry cleaner.  Cotton, poly-cotton, and polyester can be bleached, and you could try a bleach soaking solution to remove the pink hue.  Fully submerge the coat in 1/4 cup Clorox Regular-Bleach per gallon of water for 5 minutes.  Drain the soaking solution and then wash in warm water with detergent + 3/4 cup Clorox Regular-Bleach.  Air dry and check for success.  Hopefully the pink color will be gone, but if any remains then I would try RIT® Color Remover; just be sure to follow the package instructions.

Something else to watch out for is if the coat is down-filled.  In that case, it also shouldn't be bleached.

Q: Does regular use of bleach damage the fabric?

A:  Fabrics naturally deteriorate just from wearing, washing, and drying; using bleach doesn’t accelerate this effect.  We have examined this extensively, evaluating a wide variety of white items commonly bleached:  socks, underwear, t-shirts, towels, bed sheets, dress shirts, and even baseball pants.  Items were washed and dried 50 times, and we found no significant difference in fabric strength between items washed with detergent and those washed in detergent and bleach.  So as long as your whites are safe for bleach (always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather and spandex, even if they are white) you can use Clorox® Regular-Bleach in every load for the cleanest, whitest whites.

Q:  My son's white 100 percent polyester soccer uniform is dirt-stained.  How can I safely bleach it?

A:  I have good news for you: polyester fibers can be safely bleached with Clorox® Regular-Bleach.  Chances are the shirt also has a player number and maybe even a name.  If those components are screen prints, then they should also be bleachable.  If they are sewn on, then as long as the shirt’s care label says “100 % polyester” and not “100% polyester exclusive of trim” then the shirt should still be bleachable and you can proceed as follows:

• Start by rinsing away loose soil and ground-in dirt. 


• If the shirt is really dirty, then you could use a bleach soaking solution to really jump start cleaning.  For this, use ¼ cup bleach per gallon of water and fully submerge the shirt for 5 minutes. 


• Drain the soaking solution and then wash the shirt in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent + ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach. 


• If you have localized dirt stains, you could skip the bleach soak and instead pretreat the stains directly using Clorox® Bleach Pen Gel—rub a little of the gel into the stains and then immediately wash the shirt using detergent + ¾ bleach. 

Q:  How do I bleach out all the color from a blue jumpsuit?  I need a white costume?

A:  This sounds like a great project--I would love to know what the final costume will be.  You might be able to use Clorox® Regular Bleach to strip the blue color from your jumpsuit if the dye is not color fast.  You can test first by applying a drop of a solution of 2 teaspoons bleach added to 1/4 cup water.  Wait 1 minute and then blot dry.  Normally at this point I advise that "no color change means the item can be safely bleached" but in your case, a loss of color indicates that a bleach soak should remove the color.  In this case, you would proceed by soaking the jumpsuit, fully submerged, in a solution of 1/4 cup bleach per gallon of water.  Rinse thoroughly, and let the jumpsuit air dry.  At this point, you can assess your progress, and if necessary, repeat the treatment.  You could also try RIT Color Remover, and may be effective if the blue dye cannot be extracted with Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

Here are some additional tips:

• If the jumpsuit is made of polyester or a poly/cotton blend, you probably cannot strip the color since polyester is most commonly colored before it is made into fibers.


• If the jumpsuit is constructed with polyester thread, you may get the fabric white but any thread that shows will remain blue.


• If the jumpsuit contains any spandex (Lycra) the bleach soak will damage it, so if this is the case a bleach soak is not an option.


• The jumpsuit may change color instead of losing color with the bleach treatment.  For example, blue can shift to yellow or even pink after bleaching.


• Repeating bleach treatments to achieve a desired result is more effective than working with a stronger-than-recommended concentration that is not safe for fabric in the long run.


• If you end up with a "cream" colored jumpsuit you might be able to get it to white with an overnight pre-soak in Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster.

Q: I have a knitted shirt that has some stains, how long should I let it soak with out damage?

A:  Here’s a quick guide to help:

A pre-soak with Clorox® Regular Bleach:  Use 1/4 cup bleach per gallon of water; fully submerge for 5 minutes, then rinse thoroughly.  (Note: never use Clorox Regular-Bleach full strength—it should always be diluted first).

Pre-Treat with Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel: apply the gel directly to stains on white bleachable items, and then wash immediately with detergent + ¾ cup bleach.

Pre-Treat with Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster (for non-bleachable items): apply a little of the liquid directly to the stain and wait 3-5 minutes before washing.

Pre-Soak with Clorox2®: use either 1 scoop or 1 cap added per 2 gallons of warm water.  Submerge colored items for up to 1 hour, and white items for up to 8 hours.

As a general rule, the sooner you wash something, the easier it will be to get the stain out!

Q:  How do you whiten cotton/polyester blends?

A:  Cotton/polyester blend white fabrics can be safely washed with Clorox® Regular-Bleach on an on-going basis.  Always wash whites in hot water - or the hottest water recommended on a care label.  It's also important to use enough bleach:  3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach for normal size loads, and up to 1 1/4 cups for extra-large or heavily soiled loads.  In a standard washer, delay bleach addition for best results by diluting 3/4 cup bleach in 1 quart of water and adding it to the clothes washer 5 minutes after the wash cycle has begun.  If you have a HE washer, with a small-capacity bleach dispenser, consider washing two smaller loads if you have heavily soiled laundry.

For extra whitening or heavily stained items, use a bleach soaking solution of 1/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.  Fully submerge the item for 5 minutes, then rinse.  Finish by washing the item in hot water, using detergent + 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

Readers, have you bleached anything recently?

Q:  How can I fix white bleach stains on my white NBA jersey?

A:  It’s good news that your stains and jersey are both white—it sounds like the stains are actually places on the jersey that ended up cleaner than the surrounding fabric.  This often happens when someone has a white item that is not bleached regularly, and then gets a stain that is pretreated with Clorox® Bleach Pen® Gel.  The problem is the “white” shirt actually has a level of soil that has built up over time that the gel removes, in addition to the stain, producing a “white” stain.  Luckily, you should be able to catch the rest of the shirt up to the cleaner spots by using a bleach soaking solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.  Fully submerge the shirt for 5 minutes, and then wash the jersey in the hottest water recommended on the care label using detergent + ¾ cup bleach.

Something else to consider is if the jersey includes a team logo of some sort.  If it's a screen print, then the bleach soak and follow-up wash should still be OK, but if it's embroidered or appliqued, then you should use Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster (1 scoop or capful per 2 gallons warm water for your bleach soaking solution and let it soak overnight.  Follow up with a hot water wash using detergent + more Clorox2®).  Hopefully this is helpful!

How do you clean your favorite jersey?

Q:  Is your Clorox® Scented Bleach, Clean Linen, color safe?

A:  All of the Clorox® Scented Bleaches contain sodium hypochlorite, the same active that’s in the regular bleach. Therefore, they are not considered “color safe for all washable fabrics.”  However, many colored items actually can be safely bleached with sodium hypochlorite, and you can quickly check with a simple bleachability test: add 2 teaspoons Clorox® Regular-Bleach (or the Clean Linen scented bleach) to ¼ cup water; apply a drop to a hidden part of the garment like a hem or inside seam; wait 1 minute then blot with a towel. No color change means it is safe to bleach the item.  What passes the bleachability test is primarily dependent on what type of dye was used and how it was applied.  Also, with regular and scented bleaches, you should always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather and spandex. 

Does anyone have a favorite scented bleach?

Q:  How would I go about whitening washcloths that were grayed by liquid body wash soap?  I have washed these cloths several times in my (HE) washer using normal laundry detergent and have had no success in getting the washcloths back to white.

A:  There are some factors that affect cleaning, and changing your laundering habits may yield better results.  Here are some suggestions;

Detergent choice:  Make sure you are using an HE detergent — better ones contain brighteners and enzymes in addition to surfactants and builders — that is specially formulated for your washer.  Review the ingredient list, since better detergents often list the purpose of the ingredients.  A good detergent will also help bleach perform better!

Use the correct amount of detergent:  Underusing detergent will result in poor performance, especially if you wash heavily soiled items or extra-large loads.

Choose a “hot” wash temperature:  The higher the wash temperature, the better the cleaning.

Don’t overload the washer:  Clothes need to circulate/tumble freely through the wash water for optimum cleaning.  It’s better to divide up a large, heavily soiled load into two smaller loads.

Use the correct amount of bleach:  That’s ¾ cup for a regular load, and 1 ¼ cup for an extra-large or heavily soiled load.  If your clothes washer has a bleach dispenser that limits the amount of bleach you can add, experiment with smaller loads, and fill the dispenser to the “max fill” line.

All this will help your results over time so you don’t have a buildup of incomplete soil removal.  For the washcloths you have now, pre-soaking them in a solution of ¼ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water will help whiten them.  Fully submerge the washcloths for 5 minutes, and then drain the soaking solution.  Follow up with a hot water wash using detergent and ¾ cup bleach (or fill the dispenser to the max fill line).

How many readers have HE washers versus a standard washer?

Q:  Will Clorox® Regular-Bleach damage the elastic in my cotton briefs?  After several washes the white cotton starts turning yellow.  How much Clorox should be used in an average white wash?

A:  We’ve looked into the effects of bleach usage on fabric over time and found that even after 50 wash/dry cycles, Clorox® Regular-Bleach does not wear down fabric any more than using detergent alone, when used as directed.  As for the amount of bleach to use, we recommend three addition methods for normally soiled loads in standard washers:

1)       Add ¾ cup bleach (or fill the dispenser to the max fill line if you have a HE washer) using the washer’s bleach dispenser.

2)       Add ¾ cup bleach along with the detergent to the wash water as the machine is filling, before the clothes are added.

3)       Dilute ¾ cup bleach in 1 quart water and add to the wash 5 minutes after the wash cycle has begun.

If the fabric is yellowing, then you are probably using too much bleach.  If it’s just the elastic, then it might have a chlorine retentive component that is yellowing (most elastics can be safely bleached).   Underwear, especially white underwear, should be bleachable to ensure good cleaning and disinfecting.  As long as the yellowing on your briefs is not a permanent shift in the color of the cotton (typical with undiluted or too concentrated bleach contact) you might be able to reverse it with RIT Color Remover, which you can find at drug stores.