I love Quick N Brite for any stains. It is a non bleach and biodegradable cleaner. It takes out all stains and safely! I have had a large tub of this for years. Lasts forever.

Generally it's not recommended to use bleach on polyester. I would try something like a soak in oxyclean or Biz.

I would use Tide w/Bleach powder in at least warm water. The accent trim might fade a little over time, but isn't it better than scrubs washed in cold water? I'd say warm, at the very least.

Wishing you luck in your nursing program.

I had white scrubs with blue trim. I washed them in hot (40C in my machine, so not true hot) and universal powder Persil. I think powder Tide with bleach or oxi would be fine too, but I can not tolerate the Tide ”aroma”. Once a while I would do an oxyclean soak and sometimes I would treat the armpits with baking soda and peroxide before washing. For small stains I would use a variety of stain removers localy making sure it does not go to the blue trim. Overall, the blue held really well. Not much fading for washing in 40C. In my experience if you get a protein based stain or other kind of stain you should treat localy anyway. You can rinse with cold and then treat with the appropriate chemical (depends on the stain). Once the stain is taken care of washing with hot will only help keep the scrubs bright. Also again in my experience during the school appointed clinicals you will not get as many stains as you think. Good luck!

Thank you all for your responses!

kclubers - I think I've used that before. I'll definitely pick some up!

clt3 - I love Biz powder. I use it for soaking tenacious stains all the time, so it's definitely something I'll do with my scrubs :)

SEA SEA - my instinct is to wash them in warm water too. I'm a little worried about shrinkage (with the bottoms especially - they are all synthetic fiber), but I'm willing to give it a try.

Alex Mars - did you have a lot of shrinkage with using hot water? That's my biggest concern with hot water because everything I wash on hot is either pure cotton or linen so I know it can take the heat without damaging the fabric. And I currently work in the OR, so I think my expectation that I'll be dealing with a lot of stains is shaped by that, lol. Thankfully my work scrubs are not white (and not my problem! linen service washes them!).

Biz can be difficult to find. The local Walmart no longer stocks it (can be ordered, both liquid and powder). The local/regional grocery chain has the liquid version but no longer powder.

Borax is useful as a detergent booster but doesn't function as a bleach.

Joan Doe, do you machine-dry your cold-wash items? Dryer thermostats typically target (exhaust air temperature) of 125°F for ex low, 135°F for low, 145°F for medium, 155°F for high.

@Joan Doe I had no shrinkage at all and the scrubs were a poly/cotton blend. My machine’s hot wash is set to 104F (40C) which I think it is not too hot. I mostly hang them to dry.

dadoes - yes, I machine dry my clothes. Unfortunately I have to use the laundromat so I can't really say what "low" means to them. Thankfully, I haven't had any trouble finding Biz powder or liquid where I live.

Laundromat dryers may run higher temps than home units.

Alex Mars, 104°F is traditionally in the range of warm. I don't consider hot to be less than 120°F. Hot in the "olden days" (1960 and earlier) was 140°F to 160°F. The ATC sensor on one of my toploaders (a 2004 model) mixes 116°F (46°C) for warm. Another different model (circa 2009) of the same brand targets 122°F (50°C) for warm. Both of them normally fill with the selected temp only to saturate the load for a pretreatment process, then top-off with cold for rest of the wash, although they both will fill completely with the ATC temp on some specialty cycles.

Thank you MDLN!