washing clothes with hard water

[mommy4ever]

We're in the city, and we have hard water. I don't know but some people have brilliant whites here, and others don't. I'm in the section. I'm going to ask a friend what she's using.

BTW, the iron isn't doesn't necessarily make the HARD water! We had all the orange you describe here. All the horrible stained toilets, dishwasher, etc. But we had extremely SOFT water. Tasted like baking soda. Add vinegar and it foamed up. So that is a different challenge. We used a product for cleaning the orange called Red Slave. It worked like a charm! For the laundry I used a product called Yellow out, and/or rust out. Tooked the yellow out of the clothes. Hard water turns stuff grey here. That I"m not sure how to deal with. I don't like bleaching, had no success with oxyclean, washing soda or borax.

to help get rid of the greys and stubborn stains, boil whites in a big pot with color safe bleach powder and 1/2 cup of dishwasher powder. This will make things brilliant white again. I know lots of people used ivory snow and had wonderfully white clothes.

[userlove]

I use "Iron Out". It comes in a plastic jug, its a powder and you use very little. I got it at the grocery store on the cleaning isle. I noticed a HUGE difference the first time I used it and now I only use about once a month or so.

[frugalfranny]

I don't have iron but have very hard water.........

Will use the 20 Mule Team, like another poster said, or
Snowy Bleach for colored clothes.......just use the clorox on
my whites.

Not all of our stores carry the Snowy Bleach.........it can be hard to find, but I like it. (my mom used it)

[greekislandgirl]

We have very hard water but I hand wash everything and have never had a problem with discoloration of either whites or darks - I usually use cold or lukewarm water, and whatever hand-wash laundry detergent I have - I also line dry everything. (We don't have machines.) I've been doing it this way for a year and almost all of our clothes are either white or black, and they are still white or black - no gray!

[miss_cas]

I never noticed bad fading or yellowing and I have hard water too.

I did notice clothing lasts much longer washed in cold on gentle and hung up to dry.

Using a liquid laundry detergent leaves the least residue on clothing as the powdered detergents don't always dissolve.

Washing bright colors inside out keeps the white crud off the outside. I can always whip the white residue off with a damp wash cloth but it can be avoided by washing the bright clothing inside out.

[lisaflex]

first, check the salt and softener. are they filled and working properly?

run an empty load of rust out or iron out. and do this wkly to help.

[TinaL39]

I have found that the oxi and bleach will only make the stains worse. I use iron out on what's and light greys and this works wonderfully. Also can use this to clean the orange color out of your dishwasher. Also found when doing research that white vinegar with a little lemon juice will clean it out of tubs and sinks if need you could add some baking powder and make it into a paste and use that to clean.