Comments on: How do I get gasoline out of my clothes?

Question: How do I get gasoline out of my clothes?

luneray — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:20:47 -0800

How do I get gasoline out of my clothes?

While I was filling my gas tank last night, I ended up spraying gas all over my jeans and shoes (the pump didn't shut off properly). I used towels to soak up as much gas from my clothes as I could, and when I got home I washed the jeans in the washing machine. But washing didn't seem to make much difference. The jeans still reek nearly as much as they did before I washed them.

Any suggestions?
Hand washing with a lot of detergent?
Air drying until most of the volatiles have evaporated, and then washing again? Hot water? Cold? Something in between?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:27:15 -0800

Just let it sit out for a couple of days and the gas should evaporate on it's own. In my Experiance.

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:30:06 -0800

Dry clean them. Solvents work better than detergent on gasoline. If you want to go with detergent use one with grease cutters like d-limonene. Lots of them with "Orange" in the brand name include this.

By: hortense

hortense — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:30:20 -0800

Fels Napt ha Soap, is made from petroleum, does a good job washing aromatics.

By: ChasFile

ChasFile — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:53:17 -0800

Objection: Asked and answered.

By: luneray

luneray — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:56:40 -0800

In my defense, I did an AskMe search with "gasoline" and none of the results that came up had anything to do with clothing.

But thank you for the link to the earlier question.

By: luneray

luneray — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:59:47 -0800

ChasFile, you didn't mark a best answer to your question. What worked for you?

By: nekton

nekton — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 13:33:11 -0800

Can I just warn that if there's any gasoline in your clothes, you shouldn't put them in the dryer until you're sure they're clean...it could ignite.

By: cvoixjames

cvoixjames — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 15:47:55 -0800

throw them out