If you bleach a cotton T-shirt, will holes appear?
Yes. If you pour undiluted bleach solution directly onto a shirt and let it sit a few minutes, it will eat holes through it.
so, what’s a good dilution concentration? Like 1 cup of bleach in a gallon of water?
For normal clothes washing, here are the recommendations from Clorox.
oh definitely it can eat holes in cotton, but it takes time. I’ve seen it practically dissolve a washcloth to shreds if you leave in on there for an hour. If you accidentally get a spot of bleach on your clothes, immediately but some baking soda on the spot and wash it; that might save it.
There are two kinds of bleach, full strength and diluted. The instructions on the side of the bottle will be different. One might say a cup of bleach in a gallon of water, the other might say two cups. Full strength is more dangerous. Either way, you put the bleach into the water in the washer and mix it up before you bring in the clothes to be washed. Water, then bleach, then clothes. Do NOT put in clothes, then bleach, then water; you’ll get spots. Even WORSE would be clothes, then bleach, then wait an hour, then water; you’ll get holes.
For the record, all bleach is diluted. Your typical laundry or cleaning bleach is about 5.25% concentration, while your “concentrated” sits around 8.25%. If the label does not say, or is labeled “cleaning”, expect 3%or lower. Concentrations of 10-12% are marketed as liquid shock for pools and hot tubs. You’ll be hard pressed to find higher concentrations because as the strength increases, so does the rate the bleach looses strength. That’s why it is important to seek out fresh bleach, especially if using for pool care.
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I ruin clothes on a regular bases working with bleach. Most stores in my area only carry bleach concentrate now. It’s 8.25%. Any drops of concentrate on my cotton clothing usually results in holes. I’m bleaching wells to 200ppm so the water itself will stain clothes at that concentration but doesn’t readily eat holes. We used to use 15% but it became too costly to have 50 gallon drums shipped due to heightened chemical security.
If anyone knows a retailer that still carries Chlorox without Chloromax, I’m interested. Costco recently switched over and has screwed up my supply.
My mother in law lived with us for a while. She managed to put holes in a pair of my jeans with bleach. Why she was adding bleach to a load of dark laundry in the first place is a question that has remained unanswered.
I used to make art drawing with bleach on dyed cotton. Undiluted household bleach will eat through cotton right well. How fast depends on the thickness of the fabric. Faster than you imagine, generally.
In my experience, not in soft water. I had white items that were a couple to several years old that were in fine shape that disintegrated in months in hard water.