How do I get gasoline out of my clothes?

January 29, 2006 11:20 AM

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?

posted by luneray to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (8 answers total)

Just let it sit out for a couple of days and the gas should evaporate on it's own. In my Experiance.
posted by delmoi at 11:27 AM on January 29, 2006

Best answer: 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.
posted by caddis at 11:30 AM on January 29, 2006

Fels Naptha Soap, is made from petroleum, does a good job washing aromatics.
posted by hortense at 11:30 AM on January 29, 2006

Objection: Asked and answered.
posted by ChasFile at 11:53 AM on January 29, 2006

Response by poster: 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.
posted by luneray at 11:56 AM on January 29, 2006

Response by poster: ChasFile, you didn't mark a best answer to your question. What worked for you?
posted by luneray at 11:59 AM on January 29, 2006

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.
posted by nekton at 1:33 PM on January 29, 2006

throw them out
posted by cvoixjames at 3:47 PM on January 29, 2006