Hive - what say you to the best way to wash or detergent to use on greasy work clothes - I mean like garage-specific stuff like jumpsuits, work pants, etc.
Whatever the stuff my wife buys hardly seems like it makes a dent (it's all anti-allergy, natural, no smell, trendy crap). I need something with some actual cleaning power :)
Clothes in a bucket, add detergent, add half cup of ammonia for every gallon of water that goes into the bucket. Soak minimum of 12 hours, agitating/stirring whenever you walk past.
Ammonia acts as a surfectant and breaks down the chemical bonds in oily clothes.
From my son's karting days, I bought something called molecule. It was expensive, but lasted a long time and works well on my greasy garage clothes.
I was already planning on buying another bottle of their wash in the next couple of days.
-Rob
I've never found anything that restored the garment completely.
Toothbrush and a squirt of hand cleaner gets it off to a good start.
Then I will run it through a wash cycle, treat it with a spot type stain remover like Shout or Spray and Wash, then run it through again.
I save shop clothes and dump the whole filthy mess at the full serve laundromat, and ask them to make sure they are clean. I pick them up later that day and they are 10 shades of cleaner for about ten dollars.
Goop (the hand cleaner). Work it into grease stains then wash normally.
Simple green. I put laundry detergent and simple green in the detergent fill then a splash of simple green in the bleach fill and it does a good job of both cleaning the clothes and keeping the grease from staying in the washer.
Lestoil works really well, the clothes will always smell like that though. Also, if your washer doesn't have a center beater ive found that they will not get shop/garage clothes clean.
bgkast said:Goop (the hand cleaner). Work it into grease stains then wash normally.
I've had pretty good luck with this approach too. Use a soft bristle scrub brush
Any good dish soap that breaks down grease should work as well. If they're really bad, rub some dish soap (or really any other water soluble degreaser that won't hurt the fabric) into the stains, let it sit for a bit. Then wash in degreaser and water.
In some cases with really thick, heavy, dirty grease, it may make sense to do the same trick I use on greasy hands. Use WD-40 or other light oil to break down the grease and get it out. Then you only have to wash away oil, not thick grease.
In reply to rslifkin :
One big issue with dish soap is the suds. You need something low foam or else you're likely to end up with a mess on your hands. Like the time my new wife put regular dawn dish soap in the dishwasher and ruined my brand new hardwood floors I'd just put down in the kitchen. Same would likely happen with a washing machine. Tons of agitation results in tons of foam with dish soap.
Plain blue Dawn dish soap. Works good for pre-treating grease spots. Also suprisingly good at getting oilstains off of concrete.
dculberson said:In reply to rslifkin :
One big issue with dish soap is the suds. You need something low foam or else you're likely to end up with a mess on your hands. Like the time my new wife put regular dawn dish soap in the dishwasher and ruined my brand new hardwood floors I'd just put down in the kitchen. Same would likely happen with a washing machine. Tons of agitation results in tons of foam with dish soap.
Yeah, if you're using any significant quantity of the stuff you'd have to hand wash first as a washing machine will foam it up too much.
My mother, who would have been 106 on January second used to work lard into the grease stains, then use Sunlight soap on the washboard before putting the clothes in the wringer washer.
I use spray'n'wash, myself.
Dish soap-not a lot, or it will foam up a lot.
Fast Orange makes a laundry detergent that works pretty decently.
It does get the smell out nicely. Doesn't seem to leave a mess in the washing machine. Worked wonders on smoke damaged clothes.
All of the clothes I wear in the garage are permanently stained. I don't care, that's what they're for; getting dirty. I just wash them in warm water with regular detergent like anything else. Whatever doesn't come out of the fabric in the washing machine isn't going to come out on anything else, so they're ready to wear in the garage again.
STM317 said:bgkast said:Goop (the hand cleaner). Work it into grease stains then wash normally.
I've had pretty good luck with this approach too. Use a soft bristle scrub brush
Another vote for this.
DjGreggieP said:Fast Orange makes a laundry detergent that works pretty decently.
It does get the smell out nicely. Doesn't seem to leave a mess in the washing machine. Worked wonders on smoke damaged clothes.
Never seen that before. I'm willing to give it a try.
obsolete said:All of the clothes I wear in the garage are permanently stained. I don't care, that's what they're for; getting dirty. I just wash them in warm water with regular detergent like anything else. Whatever doesn't come out of the fabric in the washing machine isn't going to come out on anything else, so they're ready to wear in the garage again.
I'm not trying to get them un-stained, that's not the issue. Just would like something that can better neutralize gasoline and oil smells better than regular detergent. I also was wire-wheeling a greasy engine the other day so I have a fine grease-splatter coating the entire front of my overalls. Not that I care how that looks, but I'd prefer it not be actually *greasy* lol
I'm gonna try the Fast Orange stuff just because it's on Amazon and it's too cold to be scrubbing my own clothes in my garage sink at the moment :)
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