My washing machine, being an older, cheaper model, lacks the fabric softener dispenser that its modern peers have. Mrs. Homie is quite insistent that I wait until the water in the machine is up past the clothes before I pour in the fabric softener, lest some terrible (but unknown) fate befall our clothes. I maintain that if I shouldn’t pour it on a garment, it shouldn’t be in the washing machine to begin with.
What’s the Straight Dope?
According to Downy, it runs a “small risk” of staining the fabric if poured directly on clothes. Also goes on to say it can make towels somewhat less absorbent as the softener is “infused into fabrics.”
I think the takeaway is that fabric softener is designed to absorb/infuse into the fabric to provide the desired effect. If it’s poured on directly rather than diluted into the water, it may infuse unevenly causing some sort of discoloration.
Yes, fabric softener is a greasy substance that will spot on your clean clothes. Most things that go in the washing machine: that thick liquid detergent, chlorine bleach, soap powder do better when they’re mixed with the water, not dumped onto the topmost bit of clothes. Yes, with agitation the detergents disperse through all the water, so its not the end of the world. But the fabric softener isn’t a detergent, and there isn’t any detergent left in the rinse cycle to help.
Somewhat related, I never use liquid fabric softener when washing towels. it really does significantly reduce the absorption ability of a towel. Drier sheets only with the towel!
I was going to continue with the anecdote that I have a few pieces of clothes with spots that actually look like grease stains, that I’ve been unable to remove, and I know those clothes never came into contact with a hamburger patty or french fries or whatever. Just that one day, putting on a shirt, and “what the hell is that?” It wasn’t there before. We’ve got a small child now, and haven’t used fabric softener in a while, let alone liquid…and I haven’t had any mystery spots in a long time…
In response to this sentiment specifically: there are a lot of substances that work differently depending on their concentrations.
Bleach is another good example for laundry purposes. Diluted in gallons of water, it helps kill bacteria and remove stains. But if you poured industrial-strength bleach straight onto your clothes, it would probably dissolve them. (In fact, even at normal laundry concentrations, bleach tends to reduce the lifespan of fabrics.)
When it comes to fabric softeners, the “softness” comes from some kind of oil or wax. (Same for dryer sheets). As others have noted, if this isn’t applied evenly to the clothes at a proper concentration (by premixing with water), you can get greasy spots.
Incidentally, if you use fabric softener on clothes designed to wick away sweat, such as bike clothes, jogging clothes, and other sports clothes they will lose their ability to ‘wick’ due to the oils used. So don’t use them with those kinds of clothing.
people attempted DIY stone washed jeans, and other alterations, using bleach. if it was too strong, the store bought jug concentration or some inadequate dilution of, you could get a hole or what would wear to a hole quickly.
Tale.
Old wives’ tails are something else altogether.
If your washer does not have a fabric softener dispenser and you don’t want to wait around for the right time to pour it in, use a Downy Ball. They really work. You can find them in the detergent section of some supermarkets. You can also buy them online, but they are much cheaper in the store. You can fill them up with any brand of fabric softener and just toss them into the machine at the beginning of the wash cycle.
I’ve recently noticed my partner using fabric softener again, after a ~6month period of not bothering, and immediately I’ve noticed the filter bag (down middle of agitator stem) became a lot less effective, and almost hydrophobic. I recently pulled this machine down to pieces, and relieved the outer wash drum of it’s slimy build-up. Fabric softener has been removed from our laundry again.
One other thing nobody has mentioned: Fabric softener doesn’t go in at the beginning of the wash. It goes in during the rinse cycle. The detergent will wash out the fabric softener.
Yes to the points that have been brought up since the OP - if he’s putting fabric softener in the beginning of the load it’s not working because it needs to be added during the rinse cycle - and bleach added to laundry in the same manner the OP insists, it would also ruin the clothes.
As much as most laundry stuff is dump, add, run machine - some is not and needs some extra attention and/or care. Like bras and spandex-type materials and woolens should not go in the dryer at all.
I prefer to use the dryer sheets, and cut them all in half. I bought a box of 90 sheets and get 180 loads that way. I’m not just being frugal, I read it as advice from somewhere a bunch of years ago, as a measure to reduce that oily staining that sometimes happens, it can happen from either the liquid in the wash (which you won’t see until after the garment is dry) or from too large or too many (yes, apparently people use multiple sheets per load) dryer sheets.
Yeah, I can attest to that note re straight bleach. Years back I had a pair of navy cotton gym shorts with Mesa College silk-screened in white letters. I was somehow convinced that I simply had to have a pair of white gym shorts. Being young and dumb I soaked them in some straight bleach before I put them through the wash cycle. I was amazed that the shorts were simply gone after the machine shut down. What was still present, however, were the silk-screened letters, unharmed and pinned to the washer’s spin cage. I learned something there.