Boiling water, eh? I'll give that a try. Thanks.

I would be extra careful with the boiling water. If the fruit stain contains any sugars, the heat will carmelize the sugar and set the stain making it very difficult if not impossible to remove. A good enzyme pre-soak product should easily remove watermelon.

Interesting for me to read because pomegranites and pretty much all fresh fruit juices have plenty of sugar.

That is interesting especially with pomegranite. Stranger things have happened, but generally introducing heat initially to many food or protien stains will in fact set the stain. Perhaps you can explain your procedure and the products you are using, because it defies the law of laundry chemistry.

Nothing special. Boiled distilled water and poured directly on the stain. That's it. Quite literally nothing more. No "products" of any kind. Just the boiling water. The stains faded instantly. Were totally gone in less than a minute. I learned from my mother. She did it throughout her life.

I'm not talking about something I think or read. This is something I've done many times -- most recently a couple of days ago.

I'm not a chemist. All I'm saying is it works.

Well I'll be!! Sometimes you just can't beat moms advise. :) Must be the mineral free distilled water and free ions. And better yet, it works. Thats good advise to keep in the arensal of stain removal.

Where can I buy distilled water?

Señorita

You really do not need distilled water. I use this trick often, and I just boil tap water and pour it through the stain. It's worked on every berry/fruit stain I've tried it on.

Jean Marie

I included a link to this forum in my watermelon posting at askdrmanny.com. Thanks for the tips.

Lawrence

Here is a link that might be useful: Watermelon Days

DON'T USE BOILING WATER! IT SETS THE STAIN!!!

I have used my mother's advice as the previous person stated to pour boiling water over other fruit juice stains and had great results, but it TOTALLY DID NOT WORK WITH WATERMELON JUICE. I used the boiling water on a fresh, rinsed out, stain I got on a white cotton skirt and now I'll have to resort to using bleach! :-(

I just used boiled spring water on a horrid watermelon stain out on my daughters new top and it literally made the giant stain vanish! How bizarre that we all had had different experiences with the same problem!! :)

Maybe it depends upon the fabric. megs and mell, what fabrics?

I use boiling water on red wine stains and it works like magic. I've been doing that for a couple of years now. Before, my tablecloths were never entirely stain free (the stains would fade over time but not disappear), now no more red wine stains! I haven't tried it on other stains but I would think that other fruit juice stains would react the same as red wine.

I have never had problems getting watermelon out of our clothes. I never even had to pretreat. It just comes out in the wash. That must have been some super duper watermelon.

My problem stains are tomato sauce, some chocolate, and mustard. Those three make me crazy.

Now watch... I just posted this and we have watermelon waiting for consumption in our fridge and I will end up with melons stains that don't come out. LOL

A couple of clarifications would help here:

-contrary to what someone stated above, boiling water cannot caramelize sugar. Sugar can only be caramelized by heat that is substantially higher in temperature than boiling water (at least at sea level). In fact, when you make caramel on your stovetop, you will not begin to get that brownish color until all moisture is gone from the pot.

-typically, it is protein based stains that will "set" when treated with hot water. WHat happens here is not unlike what happens when you boil an egg. Tangly proteins coagulate to form a network. I do not know if watermelon contains protein, but a typical example of this is a blood stain. And everybody knows the best way to get rid of a blood stain is an immediate soaking in cold water.

HTH

I stumbled upon this web site and am so glad! My $100 jacket is stain-free now with the boiling distilled water that removed all trace of the stain. Thanks!

My sister told me to try this recipe for some blackberry stains on a new shirt and the stains came right out, even before the machine wash. Works on most fruit stains I've found, even old ones I thought were set in! Not as simple as boiling water, but if one doesn't work, try the other! This is from thebestmethaticanbe.blogspot.com.

1. Hand wash garment with dish soap (like Dawn). This removes the sugars.

2. Lay garment on flat surface and pour a small amount of hydrogen peroxide on the stains. Let soak for 5-10 minutes.

3. Rub vinegar over the peroxide and let stand a few minutes.

4. Wash garment in washing machine as you normally would.