How to Wash Clothes With Bleach (2023)

FAQs

Is it safe to wash clothes with bleach? ›

If there is no color change, you can safely launder the item with bleach. Solution-dyed fibers, including acrylic, nylon, polyethylene, polypropylene and high-energy polyester, exhibit strong colorfastness when exposed to bleach. Almost all cotton whites and most synthetic whites are safe to wash in liquid bleach.

How to Use Bleach in Laundry to Clean, Whiten, Remove Stains and Sanitize. You can add bleach to every load of bleach-safe laundry along with your regular detergent to clean, whiten, remove stains and sanitize your clothes.

There are several ways to add bleach to your washload. Our standard directions are to add bleach WITH the detergent as the wash water is filling and BEFORE the clothes are added. The reason is you want to dilute the bleach concentration before you add the clothes.

How you use bleach is the key to either making or breaking its cleaning power. By using hot water instead of cold/tepid water to create a solution, you can render the active ingredients in bleach ineffective. So for bleach that works, always make sure you dilute it in cold/tepid water.

Let it soak for an hour to remove all traces of mould, soap scum and dirt, before running a hot wash cycle to disinfect the hoses. Run a final rinse cycle to remove all traces of bleach from the drum (you don't want it to stain your clothing).

The liquid bleach is usually dispensed at the beginning of a rinse cycle rather than added with detergent, as with top loaders.

For best results, add 5 minutes after the wash cycle has begun to agitate in order to avoid destroying enzymes and fluorescent whiteners in the detergent. For Oxygen Bleach, add directly to the wash water before the clothes are added. Do not pour powdered bleach directly on wet clothes.

Depending on how bad the buildup is, one cycle to clean your washer using bleach may be enough. In fact, you may need to run several for the problem to be brought completely under control. After that, run a cleanout cycle at least once a month, and at most once a week.

(And yes, it's safe to mix bleach and powdered Tide — that's what happens in your laundry sometimes!

In general, you'll add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of regular liquid bleach to a load. If you have a bleach dispenser, you can add the bleach directly to it by filling up to the provided line. If you don't have a dispenser, add the bleach directly to the water 5 minutes after the wash cycle has started.

Can you use bleach on colored clothes? ›

You can safely bleach cotton, polyester, nylon, acrylic and rayon. Always avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather or spandex, even a small percentage. Once you confirm that the clothes you want to wash are made of a bleach-safe fiber, then you check if the color is colorfast to bleach.

Rinse the area with cold water to remove any excess bleach. Create a thick paste by mixing together some baking soda and water. Spread this over the stain evenly. Leave to dry and then brush off gently – you may want to use an old toothbrush.

When you bleach fabric that's wet/damp, you get more of watercolor look. It's not as concentrated, so you can see here that it made some really pretty textures in the fabric.

Wet your clothes. Many people find sun bleaching is more effective when the clothes are wet rather than dry (although even dry items will still be sun-bleached to some degree). The easiest way to prepare clothes is to wash them as you normally would, and instead of putting them in the dryer, put them out in the sun.

It should always be diluted because it is so strong and concentrated. Used like this, it can actually cause yellowing by either breaking down the fibers or destroying the florescent whitening agents on the fabric of the garment.

Procedures of Preparing/Using Diluted Bleach

Cold water should be used for dilution as hot water decomposes the active ingredient of bleach and renders it ineffective.

A bleach bath contains bleaching powder and peroxide diluted with shampoo. It is a milder alternative to the bleaching process. Bleaching is an aggressive agent that can harm your hair strands, leaving them weak and brittle. But a bleach bath does not damage your hair as badly and is suitable for all hair types.

Don't mix bleach with ammonia, acids, or other cleaners.

Mixing bleach with common cleaning products can cause serious injuries. Be sure to always read the product label before using a cleaning product.

The same no-mixing rules also apply to products containing "caustic" chemicals like lye or sodium hydroxide, which you'll find in drain cleaners, oven cleaners and degreasers. There is one exception. "Laundry detergent is formulated to be safely mixed with bleach," Sachleben says.

Mixing chlorine bleach and cleaners like dish soap can be harmful to your health. Mixing bleach with other cleaners can release toxic gases. Bleach can irritate your skin and eyes. Washing dishes in warm, soapy water already removes germs.

What clothes should not be bleach? ›

"Any item that includes wool, silk, mohair, leather, or spandex is not safe for chlorine bleach, regardless of the color of the item," she says. Even items with a mix of materials (for example, 97% cotton and 3% spandex) are still a no-go, says Gagliardi.

Some colors will be removed when you bleach them, leaving a natural white fabric that's perfect for dyeing a new color. Some colors will shift to an entirely different color, like black to orange or blue to pink. Some colors will only lighten slightly.

There's a misconception that bleach will work better the longer you leave it on. The maximum amount of time you should leave bleach on your hair is 30 minutes. Any longer than that and you run the risk of serious damage, including brittle strands.

Do not use that much chlorine bleach in any load of white garments. The right amount is closer to ¼ cup. Bleach is an effective product, but potentially dangerous if used incorrectly.

Use the right amount of bleach

That's ¾ cup for a regular load, and 1¼ cup for an extra-large or heavily soiled load. Does your washer limit bleach to 1/3 cup? Wash in smaller loads and fill the dispenser to the “max fill” line.

Avoid using chlorine bleach for colored clothing, since it lifts color from fabric and causes fading and white stains on your clothes.

Breathing high amounts of chlorine gas can lead to a build-up of fluid in the lungs and severe shortness of breath that could lead to death if untreated. Immediately or within a few hours after breathing chlorine gas, the lungs can become irritated, causing coughing and/or shortness of breath.