livebetter,

I feel that cold water washes do not help clothes, or the machine get & stay clean.

I wash ALL darks and coloured items on warm.

I find Persil Color Gel the absolute best for oily stains. Actually I find Persil gel great for just about everything.

I am currently using up a BIG box of Persil Color Megaperls powder. I do not like it. My clothes do not seem as clean, and they look dull. Most stains and spills seem be removed ok with the Persil powder. If the box did not cost me $50, I would just throw it away...but I feel way to guilty.

I have a 3 year old boy, that brings home every stain, spill and disaster from Preschool imaginable. I recently bought a box of Sears Ultra Plus with Stain Fighters Powder he detergent...and I LOVE it. It cleans as well as Persil Gel, and A LOT better than Persil Powder. The HUGE box was about $12 too!!

I say try the Sears detergent, or stick with Persil Color Gel.

Do you by any chance use dryer sheets (Bounce, Cling Free, etc.) when drying clothes? If so, you may find the problem lies there.

I do not use dryer sheets. I think the stains are there before hand just not as noticable as after the heat of the dryer. I just did a load with the Persil Color Gel and am going to dry it. Hopefully all will look clean.

Same problems here with oil-on-cotton stains from little fingers. Two things that I've found to work:

1) Original BLUE Dawn, the plain kind *without* any bleach, antibacterial, etc. This will usually even get out stains that have been missed and dried in the dryer, but you really have to leave it a long, long time to get the tough ones out (overnight++).

2) Persil Color (not Universal) gel, as mentioned above. Not only does it have a ton of surfactants but it also contains enzymes which seem to work better & faster than plain Dawn at getting stains out. I can get out virtually everything after 1-2 hours of pre-treating instead of overnight.

I've never seen any detergent that would get out really big oil-on-cotton stains without pretreating unless you used an absolutely ridiculous sized dose (IMO, at least compared to what you'd normally use), which is not so good in an FL.

Have you tried spraying Shout on them? This is especially effective if you spray them ASAP, but I've had good success even when I didn't spray them right away, then let them soak in the washer for a while before finishing out the cycle.

Also, washing in the hottest water suitable for the fabric.

Instead of adding further detergent (Shout is a plain spray detergent, usually you'll need extra rinses with it) put detergent where is mostly required.
Try this : fill the Persil cap with the amount of liquid your load needs, then pretreat those stains with this Persil and throw garments into the washer. Then pour the liquid left in the cap over the load and start the machine *** without prewash option***

Anyway Persil Color is colorsafe even @ 140°F with colorfast fabrics. I have many Ikea Baven black, cherry red, green towels (so not world best quality) that don't fade at all despite of many years of 140°F water

I highly recommend purchasing "De-Solv-It" spray. It is similar to Goo-gone, but it seems to work A LOT better. I'm an inveterate spiller and know all about shirt stains.

It will take out any oily stains on polo shirts, T-shirts, and any washable items. I also use it to remove price stickers and other sticky residues. I was introduced to it many years ago when the silky track suits were popular. It's non toxic too.

WalMart used to carry it, but I've found it at our nearby True Value hardware store recently. You can google it to find out more about it and where to get it. It's well worth the price!!!

Dawn dish detergent (I use the yellow one) works pretty much everytime for me even if the garment has been through the dryer. Just pour it on the stain, rub it in gently with your fingertip & let sit for a few minutes then wash in warm or hot water on normal cycle with regular detergent (I use Cheer powder). If Dawn is not available, I've also found that Spray n Wash Stain Stick applied right before washing works better than the spray pretreaters. I've even used the stain stick in conjunction with Dawn on some of the heavier greasy stains.

Those new Tide Stain Release Duo Pacs work really well for stain removal too. Just pop 1 in with your laundry & regular detergent & you're good to go. With 2 boys (age 15 & 5) + a husband who thinks he should get twice as dirty as the kids, these are now standard with pretty much every load. I have seen a decrease in the number of items I have to rewash because I didn't remember to pretreat : )

Blue Dawn works pretty well for me, but the product that just about always works is Spray 'N Wash Stain Stick. You rub it into the stain and then can wait up to a week to wash. When my children were small (they are now 21 and 26), we kept a stick near every laundry basket and I just treated each evening when they took their clothes off and dressed for bed. Pretty soon, they would tell me when they needed "Sticky Stain" for a spot. You do have to look for spots; it doesn't just go into the washer, but for oily stains, I've never found anything better.

For oily stains on colored cotton, I first pretreat it with a liquid detergent that contains enzymes. I rub it in well and let it sit at least 5 minutes, sometimes up to 10 minutes. Then I wash it in warm, setting the washer to the longest wash time.

For oily stains on colorfast colors or whites, I use the stain treat option on my washer. It starts the wash with warm water, and the heater heats it to hot while extending the wash time. The stain treat option gets out all stains I have ever had, so I have found no need to pretreat when I used it. I have used it heavy soiled jeans and other colored clothing with success, but I am leery of using hot water too often on colored clothing that can fade.

Joe

Before I started using STPP I would find those stains all the time after I took the clothes out of the dryer. I have two boys and adding STPP to my detergent is the only thing that helps get their clothes clean. If I see a stain when I'm sorting laundry, I spray it with Shout Advanced in the blue bottle.

Tracey