My towels stay super clean and fresh with Tide powder. Keep it simple and just use Tide with Bleach powder so no other additives would be necessary.

What would you be doing with those towels that they would need regular bleaching?

Chlorine bleach will sanitize and get out any stains but will shorten the life of your towels. Biz is an emzyme cleaner designed to remove organic soil....blood, gravy etc. Some products contain optical brightners,w hich are essentially "White dyes"....they will flouresce under black light.

Unless you are using your towels to mop the floor in the mud room, plain old Tide should do a fine job.

linda92, I wouldn't bleach my towels on a regular basis. As I know that will break down the fibers prematurely. However, I was wondering if I were to bleach them, what benefit besides disinfecting does Chlorine Bleach have over regular detergent or other additives.

Thank you for the advice, very helpful :-)

MWJ we have some white towels as well. I routinely wash them in hot water, and use Clorox (Or HEB brand) bleach maybe once a month. That seems to brighten them up quite a bit. If a set of towels lasts about 5 years I think I have gotten my money's worth. Even longer is a bonus. These towels were supposedly high quality we ordered from Saks Fifth just before we moved into our present house. They have loose threads and borders everywhere, while the sets of colored towels which are even older are still completely intact. They all came from Home Goods or a similar store.

We have tons of white towels also. I only use screaming hot water, STPP, and Tide powder. Usually an extra rinse. Biz liquid to spot treat. Bleach only when someone is sick. The new OxiClean Sanitizing powder is loaded with Sodium Percarbonate and activator. Might be worth having on hand.

Dorian, Oxiclean has a Sanitizing powder now?!? Say what!?? Now that's awesome. Gotta look that up.

Thank you for the advice.

Armjim, it's good to see you again. I always appreciate your input :) I'm currently using Gain Powder and Borax, but before I wash my washcloths and hand towels I let them soak in hot water with Oxiclean for at least a day or two.

When they go in the wash I do Hot wash with 2 rinses and with no FS. As of now I have a traditional Whirlpool top loader with the agitator, so unfortunately my "Hot" wash isn't on the level as a machine that has an on board water heater. But so far so good. The towels have come out pretty white and fluffy. But grant it they are only a few weeks old at this point. But time will tell.

I wash everything in cold water, no bleach ever. I use Nellie's, and also add Borax with my white towels. We have treated (neutralizer & softener) well water. The white towels stay bright white.

The tags on my towels say non-chlorine bleach as needed, but I've never needed it.

I always use chlorine bleach on white bath towels (and some colorfast) and bath wash cloths because I wash them with all the other similar white items ... socks, kitchen dish cloths and towels, and general cleaning cloths. Hot* water, STPP ... and I recently got a supply of borax.

*The wash may be 1) full-fill hot or 2) saturation hot fill pretreatment, HE-level hot fill, then added cold for a deeper level .... depends on which washer I use.

I use two tablespoons of powdered Oxi White Revive plus liquid Tide on my towels though I am switching to Persil. Never use chlorine bleach. I have twenty year old white cotton towels from Lands End that are still soft, absorbant and really white after hundreds of washes.

Most detergents contain an optical brightener.....and clorox neutralizes that brightener. So while clorox saznitizes and is good for stains, it in not good for that "screaming white" look.

My towels are green and lavendar....so I don't use clorox.

Back when i had diaper wearers, in the times when most used cloth diapers, people would remark on how white my babies diapers were. I used Snowy bleach, the old style equivalant of Oxyclean as a soak in the diaper pail. A few days soak in an oxygen bleach really does as much as clorox and is kinder to your things.

All my whites (towels, socks, underwear, kitchen towels) get a dose of liquid bleach.

All my bedding is white (top/bottom sheets, duvet/duvet cover, pillow cases/protectors, mattress pad) so they get bleach too.

Currently using Tide with Bleach powder. Always use Borax in every load regardless.

If kitchen towels get bad stains I'll add Biz or Clorox 2 powder.

To be honest I just finished my box of Biz and didn't think it helped with removing stains. I'm now using Clorox 2 powder, I'll see how that does.

I will not soak items. I just don't have the desire or time. My laundry is done on Monday, my moms on Friday and sheets on Thursday. Stains have to be removed when I do laundry. I'll pretreat up to a week in advance with Shout or whatever pretreat product I buy but not always.

My front load Electrolux wants to dispense bleach into the first rinse (which I think is unacceptable) so I force the bleach to dispense during the last 5-10 minutes of the wash cycle.

I find Oxi (Oxi Clean) does absolutely NOTHING, even the White Revive.

Liquid bleach keeps machine clean, takes out most stains and disinfects and deodorizes.

I've never had an issue with towels or clothing falling apart or weakening.

georgect I looked for powdered Clorox 2 at our local grocery store Saturday and the store did not even have liquid. I find the Oxi to be expensive and ineffective, so I quit using it years ago. I use 20 Mule Team in every load now; I like the properties but I don't think it necessarily removes stains other than maybe light ones not set in. I once queried here the possibility of it dulling the fragrance of Gain powder, but I feel like our laundry is getting clean and properly sanitized as needed.

I could get away with soaking things in the LR sink, but I use Shout or similar for stains and usually get good results. MJW, where do you soak the things for a couple of days? Do you fill your washer or do it in a sink?

My SQ uses true Hot water, and I have the WH that services the LR set pretty high, so I am pleased with the ability to get a pretty hot wash.

A poster upthread mentioned always using cold water and a detergent that is vegan based. That would not suffice for me. Good shirts in cold water is one thing, but undergarments, towels, kitchen linens need warm water at the very least in my experience.

I want to try Clorox 2 powder but I can't find it anywhere

MJW,

Can't add much to what has been posted above. I did want to send congrats on your new white towels. I hope they are pleasing to you and your wife. You'll do well with them and they'll stay nice and white using what you know.

As to Clorox 2 powder mentioned above. I can't find most anything good in these parts, but it's been on our store shelves. here. I've bought a couple boxes so far as back up, knowing full well it will go the way of the dinosaurs soon enough. I passed it by when at the store the other day. Wish I hadn't, but couldn't figure out where I'd store it. I'll have to get two boxes next time I go. It's a pretty small box folks. Don't look for something the size of a detergent box. I'm finding it next to the Shout and Spray n Wash type products. I really like this product.

I use it mainly on nice shirts that are colored. I give them a soak in the Clorox 2 powder and liquid unscented detergent. Then I give fresh clean water to a 2nd cycle with half a dose of detergent. I can omit the use of Borax doing this, which in some ways I am glad for (regarding nice dress shirts) in that Borax for all of it's benefits in our laundry room, it does have a slight/mild bleaching effect over time. I am finding any odors or stains are vanished with this process and the fabrics and colors are holding up well too, as long as I shorten the agitation time on my SQ TL. ymmv, of course.

Armjim, currently I'm using a spare mop bucket to soak my hand towels and wash clothes. Unfortunately my machine won't allow for a full tub of water to remain in the tub for more than 30 minutes...which is so STUPID!!! THAT REALLY UPSETS ME. So for now I'm limited to a mop bucket and a larger sterlite container for my towels.

Personally I don't like using the bath tub for soaking as that has always makes me queezy just thinking of it (I admit, I'm odd lol) However one day when we sell our current home and purchase a home with a stand alone bathtub I plan to use that as a dedicated spot for soaking my towels and clothing since personally I only use the shower.

SEA SEA! As always it's good hearing from you. Thank for the well wishes. I hope all is well with you and the family and everyone is staying safe. Are you affected in anyway by the current wildfires? I pray not 🙏🏿

@MWJ '90

You can disconnect the power cord on the machine to soak as long as you wish ... but the facility of that depends somewhat on how it reacts when power is reconnected with water in the tub. Some machines may immediately trigger a drain, although that may be what you want to do.

Hi again MWJ,

Yes, we are affected by the wildfires. We are back from a mandatory evacuation. Zero out of ten stars. It's good to be home once again. It's taking time for our town to reopen and life to return to normal. We went out to dinner last night, which we don't do since the pandemic, to celebrate an occassion and to try and support our struggling local businesses. The firefighters worked valliantly to save our town. Forever grateful to these heros. Thank you for the well wishes.

To keep my post relavant to The Laundry Forum, this is a photo of bath rugs that I had washed clean a few days before evac. The soot and ash was so prevalant that this dark soak water seen is what accumulated in our absence. An example of why a soak/prewash is useful some times. You don't want to wash in filty water like this. You want to have dirty soak/prewash water drained and spun out, then restart with fresh water and an appropriate amount of detergent afterwards. I used ALL Free & Clear powder for both soak cycle and main wash. Rugs came out nice and clean using this method. : )

SEA SEA, I'm happy to hear you guys are safe and back home and was able to celebrate (Breathing a huge sigh of relief) that's good news!

Regarding your rugs, I'm glad it came out sparkling White for you :)

MWJ'90, I don't get it. I have an old Whirlpool toploader and i can soak forever.

@Pat, electronic controls (which majority of washers have nowadays, even if rotary knobs are on the panel) tend to have an auto-cancel or safety function that drains the water if left paused for too long. It can't drain if there's no power ...

Yeah Pat, it's such a stupid and nonsensical route that many of these machines have chosen to go. I hate that with a passion! Don't get me wrong, I haven't had any issues with my machine, it's been a good one. It's just some of the design choices just leaves me scratching my head. It's REALLY annoying.

Forgot to mention, that I boil my water to a scorching heat first before I pour it in my bucket. I now also have a bigger container now to soak my towels in, so this works out well for now.