Shared laundry room- white residue problem

April 1, 2017 4:31 PM

Lately when I wash dark clothes in my complex laundromat, I notice little spots where white residue ends up. I use clear liquid laundry detergent but I'm 99% sure its because the other people in our complex who share the laundry room are using powdered detergents that don't dissolve very well in the water, leaving old soap in the machine that ends up on my clothes. I can't get everyone to change what detergent they buy or clean the machine everytime before I do a load. Is there any other way I can solve this problem for myself?
posted by long haired child to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Up the size. Make every load a big load. More water, less residue left.

Powdered detergents generally dissolve incredibly easily, that's their job. It'd be hard to imagine how much detergent you could put in that it wouldn't dissolve in a normal wash. Like a half a box or more.

Also look at your laundry practices, It's possible you are the culprit.

These spots are on the final product? It's possible that the dryer is doing that. I washed and dried my daughters sparkly skirt ONE TIME and everything that went through that dryer for WEEKS was sparkly. Weeks.
posted by sanka at 4:39 PM on April 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'd take a wet paper towel and wipe out the machine prior to use. Especially the top of the agitator. If it's left over powdered soap you will know right away. Otherwise, I'd run the washer through a cycle with no clothes in it once, before use, to see if it makes any difference.
posted by marimeko at 4:47 PM on April 1, 2017

I once had a washer that left spots on the clothes - it turned out to be a busted bleach dispenser dribbling bleach out over the course of several loads instead of dispensing the bleach onto the load for which it was intended. Not using the bleach dispenser caused the problem to go away. You might speak to your landlord or just put an "out of order" label on the bleach dispenser.
posted by Hatashran at 4:49 PM on April 1, 2017

I use liquid detergent only and don't share a machine, and this happens to clothes I don't even put in the dryer, so it might not be the powdered soap. I have had some luck with running small loads with much more water and running extra rinse cycles.
posted by FencingGal at 5:19 PM on April 1, 2017

Is your water very hard? Hard water does not dissolve powdered detergent well. If it's hard, you may have some luck adding a bit of water softener to your loads.

Try using warmer water. If your cold water wash is below 65 F (18 C), that is too cold to dissolve detergent, according to washing machine and detergent manufacturers.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:13 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just wanted to clarify, I know it's not you that's using the powdered detergent--it's just that if there's some left from the previous person's laundry, changing to warmer water or softening it may help rinse the residue away.

As a side note, I was surprised to learn how warm the "cold water" setting is supposed to be. Our pipes get very cold in winter and I have to change to the warm setting when it's very cold out in order to get the wash really clean.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:29 PM on April 1, 2017

How about doing a couple of loads in the machine to purge the powder residue before washing darks? I would start with a load of towels, then lights, and finally darks.
posted by defreckled at 7:10 PM on April 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

I found I had this problem when washing my black trousers in my smallish non-shared washing machine. For me the solution was using about 3/4 of the amount of liquid detergent recommended on the cap - after all, the manufacturers don't know how big my machine is and they'd like to sell more detergent.

I haven't had the spots again since I cut down, and my washing still comes out clean and smelling fresh.
posted by escapepod at 7:26 PM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

I get these specks or spots usually on dark clothing. They come out of the washer and don't disappear in the dryer. It seems to happen more with washing machines that have water saver or low water rinse cycles and/or no center agitator (to slosh the wash around). When I specify Extra Rinse or the "Bulky" cycle the spots don't appear as often.
posted by Zedcaster at 10:50 PM on April 2, 2017