My brand new poly-cotton-spandex shirt went up against grill grease and lost. I just sent it on its second run through the washer, so I’ll see what happens.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Boiling water poured through the stain. Hot laundry water won’t do anything for beef fat.
It’s 6% Spandex…will hot/boiling water ruin it more?
Try rubbing some grease cutting dish soap into the spots that are dirty.
Ivory has worked extremely well for me.
I’ve had great success with Shout stain treatement in the bottle with a little brush on top. The plastic bristles really get the stuff into the weave of the cloth. I have gotten out several old grease stains with this approach.
Carbone has a little bottle of stuff specifically made for greasy/oily stains (they also have other little bottles of stuff made for catsup, blood, ink, etc.). Soak your shirt in a pail of water with the contents of the bottle (follow the directions for how long).
Shout, Spray and Wash also works well, but for nasty stains like this, go for the specialized product.
Three times through the wash, once after soaking with dish soap. No joy. Thanks for the Carbona suggestion, Brachy, will give that a try.
Naphtha cuts grease and doesn’t stain. Pour from the front of the fabric, and have paper towels behind, touching the fabric to wick the grease away.
Test a seam first for colorfastness.
Work outside. It doesn’t smell bad, but is unsafe to breath a lot of. Evaporates fast. I love it to cut grease on cloths when I work on my car. Cheap, too, I buy it by the gallon at Ace Hardware to clean tools and parts.
Simple Green is often quite effective against oily stains. Dilute it with approximately 10 parts water, spray on the stain, and wait 20 min before you wash.
Caveat: I use this on cottons, mostly. I don’t believe I actually own a cotton/poly/spandex blend anything. But I don’t think it would hurt the spandex.
Dial Soap.
Really. Plain, regular Dial bar soap.
I keep a bar by the washing machine for this very purpose. Wet the clothes, and rub the Dial into it really well, and wash as usual. I use the little scruby top from the Shout bottle to rub it in.
Also, for grimy, oily stains or ring-around-the-collar, use shampoo for oily hair. Nothing fancy or frou-frou, just some plain old cheap store-brand shampoo for oily hair. Works great.
For other stains, especially food stains, put 1 cup Cascade dishwashing detergent and 1 cup Clorox II in the machine, fill the washer with HOT water, let it agitate for a minute or two with the soaps and dirty clothes, then turn the washer off and let the whole mess soak overnight. Then turn it on again and let it run through the cycle.
Guaranteed clean clothes!