What's a good laundry detergent for work-clothes?

[GarageWarrior]

My shop clothes are always getting dirty and I've been just using regular laundry detergent and running them through household washer. The clothes gets clean, but stains never really go away. When I worked in an auto-shop years ago, we've outsourced the laundry, and I was always surprised how clean it came back.

Any advice on where to find, or how to make that secret laundry detergent that gets all the heavy stains out?

 

[Daniel Dudley]

Pre treat stains with mechanics hand cleaner before washing.

 

[NHBandit]

When I was working on heavy equipment I got really dirty. The wife used to soak the really nasty clothes in a bucket of Lestoil for a day and then run them through the wash normally. These days I just talk **** on the garage journal and drink coffee...

 

[GRX]

Employ the power of a 20-Mule team and add some Borax to your wash. If you really want to get nasty on those stains try some Fels-Naptha. Rub it on the stains, or hit the bar with an old cheese grater and add that to the wash as well. The flakes not the grater

 

[NHBandit]

Employ the power of a 20-Mule team and add some Borax to your wash.

"may be harmful if swallowed"... WTF did they have to put that on there because people were eating it or what ? Makes ya wonder.

 

[The Boss]

Go-Jo!

 

[koditten]

I use my pressure washer for the real bad stains. Works real good.

 

[Tims Arrow]

sa-8 just read the instructions as a little goes a long way. also good on whites etc

 

[crewchief888]

I use my pressure washer for the real bad stains. Works real good.

hot water, 3500psi and some industrial strength degreaser.

and the exercise you get from chasing them across the shop

 

[frankush]

The pretreating usually always works. Sometimes a second pretreat and rewash is required.

 

[brownbagg]

the best soap for oil and grease is 'dawn" that basically the same stuff use on the bp oil spill

 

[NUTTSGT]

When I get something greasy, It'' get a coat of Dawn dish liquid rubbed in and followed with a spray of Simple Green.

 

[Ray-CA]

I pre-soak in a 50/50 mix of Simple Green and water for a few hours. Then run them through the washer with what ever laundry soap is near the washing machine.

Ray

 

[justanengineer]

Ajax....aka powdered bleach.

 

[Zeke]

Lye, but it's bad for the environment. You could keep a soak in a small plastic trash can and toss it every few months. You'd only have to add for what stayed in the clothes and a little bit of evaporation.

 

[kfainf]

sa-8 just read the instructions as a little goes a long way. also good on whites etc

+1 on Amway SA8. Really great detergent.

 

[rbgearz]

I come home from work everday with oil, diesel fuel, trans. fluid, glycol, pipe dope etc. on my clothes. Wife makes her own laundry soap that works really well and it's cheaper. It's reg. baking soda, super washing soda, Fels Naptha soap and Borax. She adds Purex crystals for the smell and softening.

 

[CC1221]

Stanley home products degreaser concentrate. Once had an old pair of carhart bibs that got soaked in about a half gallon of 2 stroke oil which had sat all winter in rubbermaid tote. Washed them three times with the concentrate following the directions. Came out stain free, and are now the most comfortable pair of bibs I own!!

 

[rbgearz]

Wife says the above formula costs about $20 for a years supply.

 

[DougMN]

"may be harmful if swallowed"... WTF did they have to put that on there because people were eating it or what ? Makes ya wonder.

You need to take a step back and take another look. Some might think it contains the meat from 20 mules.

 

[GRX]

I come home from work everday with oil, diesel fuel, trans. fluid, glycol, pipe dope etc. on my clothes. Wife makes her own laundry soap that works really well and it's cheaper. It's reg. baking soda, super washing soda, Fels Naptha soap and Borax. She adds Purex crystals for the smell and softening.

Wife says the above formula costs about $20 for a years supply.

Great job! Home remedies are the best.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I use Tide liquid and if the clothes seem unusually dirty, I add Trisodium Phosphate to the load. Used to be marketed as a laundry booster, but the greenies got ahold of it and now manufacturers cannot put it in detergent. Don't get the TSP substitute, get the real thing. Found in the paint department of Home Depot in a Red and White cardboard box about the size of a cereal box, produced by Savogran, its a white powder. Don't look in the cleaning supplies section, its in the paint section, as a cleaner used to prep for painting. My store has 1 lb and 4.5 lb boxes. The substitute TSP's are billed as "phosphate free" and are usually liquid, and contain Sodium Metasilicate, the ingredient used in Westley's Blech White, white wall and rubber floor mat cleaner.

Charles

 

[brownbagg]

kinda related, when ever we test soil for gradation, we used a substance called sodium hydroxrate. ( my spelling off) but anyway it breaks up the clay particle. its pretty high dollar from the supplier so we buy it at the grocery store, you might know of it by its trade name, "Calgon" add some of that to your wash for heavy clay stains

 

[bams50]

Amway SA8. Really great detergent.

What is a non-Amway equivalent? I avoid Amway people like the plague.

 

[theoldwizard1]

For oil/grease stains, pre-treat with land cleaner, like Go-Jo.

Slightly different. When My son played high school football, his socks were FILTHY ! The only thing that would get them clean (short of a heavy does of bleach) Fels-Naptha and a hand brush. Yep, Dad got the job !

 

[84944Redline]

Has anyone used that detergent for baby clothes - Dreft? My cousin's wife says it works great to take out grease and oil and all the other junk that gets on her husband's Carhartt coveralls.

I've yet to try it, but have some garage clothes that could use a good cleaning!

 

[djjsr]

Advice from someone who has been doing it for decades (not me).

Liquid Era or Tide, pretreat stains and let them sit for 20 minutes before washing. Then hot water and some stuff called Disolvol.

 

[AMCguy]

You should also use cotton rags and coveralls only. Synthetics like nylon and polyester actually attract oil and form a molecular bond.

 

[spotco2]

http://www.amway.com/DougCorley/Shop/Product/Category.aspx/Laundry-Apparel-Care

SA8

 

[GarageWarrior]

I use Tide liquid and if the clothes seem unusually dirty, I add Trisodium Phosphate to the load. Used to be marketed as a laundry booster, but the greenies got ahold of it and now manufacturers cannot put it in detergent. Don't get the TSP substitute, get the real thing. Found in the paint department of Home Depot in a Red and White cardboard box about the size of a cereal box, produced by Savogran, its a white powder. Don't look in the cleaning supplies section, its in the paint section, as a cleaner used to prep for painting. My store has 1 lb and 4.5 lb boxes. The substitute TSP's are billed as "phosphate free" and are usually liquid, and contain Sodium Metasilicate, the ingredient used in Westley's Blech White, white wall and rubber floor mat cleaner.

Charles

Thanks for heads up on TSP, used it before on other things, but never as laundry booster. Good to know it works for that!!!

 

[AV tinker er]

I used to wash my BDUs with a can of coke then wash again with soap. Worked great with hydraulic fluid.

 

[SGKent]

kinda related, when ever we test soil for gradation, we used a substance called sodium hydroxrate. ( my spelling off) but anyway it breaks up the clay particle. its pretty high dollar from the supplier so we buy it at the grocery store, you might know of it by its trade name, "Calgon" add some of that to your wash for heavy clay stains

sodium hydroxide is lye. sodium hydroxrate does not come up in a search. The MSDS for Calgon is totally different.

http://www.rbnainfo.com/MSDS/US/CALGON-WATER-SOFTENER-POWDER-US-English.pdf

 

[GarageWarrior]

http://www.amway.com/DougCorley/Shop/Product/Category.aspx/Laundry-Apparel-Care

SA8

I'm weary of Amway ever since a very odd encounter with one of their reps that tried to recruit me in to their sales team ...while I was checking out rentals at Hollywood Videos with my girlfriend at a time, that must have been 5-7 years back.

From what I can piece back he used some sound making device to make a weird sound in an isle next to where my girlfriend and I were shopping, he than came around and asked as us if we I heard some weird sound. He than used that opener as an excuse to launch in to a lame recruitment pitch.

 

[GarageWarrior]

I come home fronm work everday with oil, diesel fuel, trans. fluid, glycol, pipe dope etc. on my clothes. Wife makes her own laundry soap that works really well and it's cheaper. It's reg. baking soda, super washing soda, Fels Naptha soap and Borax. She adds Purex crystals for the smell and softening.

Sounds good, now can we get the proportions/ratios?

 

[GarageWarrior]

Advice from someone who has been doing it for decades (not me).

Liquid Era or Tide, pretreat stains and let them sit for 20 minutes before washing. Then hot water and some stuff called Disolvol.

Got Disolvol bookmarked. Thanks! Looks like it's available from amazon for not a lot of $$$

 

[rbgearz]

Formula for soap is--grate 2 bars Fels Naptha (wife uses her food processor), 2 cups of borax, 2 cups washing soda, 2 cups baking soda, and 1 cup purex crystals. Just need about a tablespoon per load. This makes approx. 3-4 months worth.

 

[cheechi]

Other day I changed my rear brakes, while I was at it I cleaned off one of my wheels that had been on the front when a CV boot failed. So I had this puddle of grease, degreaser, whatever other junk was on the ground on a damp day (I'm at the bottom of a hill where other garages are, everything collects here) and gravel to get it good and mushy for me. So what did I do? Planted a knee right in it when I put the wheel back on.

I have the hand cleaner that I would have used if I thought of it at the time. I grabbed the green bottle (I think its spray n wash or resolve, forget which) and the usual mix of costco powder (still not halfway through the box after 3 years, so far its cost us well under $5/year) and a small amount of oxy clean in the basin (I think its going on $6/year for same length of time). I don't care what you say, oxy clean is good for me. Those pants came out at least as clean as before I kneeled in the grease. Clean enough to wear to the office, It's on dark jeans but they're clean enough wife & i couldn't find any stains afterward.

One thing, if you don't get a stain out the first washing, DO NOT PUT IT IN THE DRYER. That's basically the worst mistake I've ever made. I'm sure pretty much any of the solutions above would work as well as mine, but the dryer will ruin your chances if you have to do it a second time.

 

[Norcal]

I soak nasty stuff in Oxyclean then wash normally, works for me.

 

[slowtwitch]

Wife makes her own laundry soap that works really well and it's cheaper.

My wife does the same thing. I'm amazed it works so well

 

[spongerich]

Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda works pretty well. I always have some on hand for my electrolysis tank.