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Orange stains, NOT rust

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Posted by mayart (My Page) on
Sun, May 24, 09 at 12:02

In my ongoing saga with trying to get my family's clothes clean, I am now focusing on mysterious orange stains that almost seem to be a "tang" color. These spots are not responding to treatment with "Iron Out". They don't come out with bleach. Some seem to have a "pattern" - as if something spotted the clothing thru the holes of the washer and some have no pattern at all - they're blotchy.
These spots are on colored clothes and they are on white clothes. I wash similar clothes separately: underwear alone, socks alone, jeans alone, grays alone, blacks alone, pinks alone, blues alone, white t-shirts alone, etc.

So far I've gotten a kinetico whole house water softener system.
I use Charlie's Soap and various rinses of white vinegar and non-sudsy ammonia (not together!) and I do not use fabric softener or dryer sheets. I haven't been line drying because of all the pollen in the air so everything goes thru the dryer or is put thru the dryer for a couple minutes to get the lint off and hung to dry inside.
I'm washing/soaking in a brand new Speed Queen TL, then running the clothes thru a "wash" cycle (I use this cycle to run my ammonia or vinegar rinses) in my 2003 Whirlpool Duet FL to thoroughly get out all the old soap/optical brighteners/accumulated minerals from the hard water we used to have. (adjusted the water in the Duet so that there is actually enough to get the clothes wet)
I ran several cycles on both washers with Whirl Out to clean out any build up.
I have flushed out my 2003 hot water heater and used Iron Out on some rust stains on various towels/clothing.
On the midsection of the drum of my dryer there were several areas that I had thought were rust, but when I examined them with a flashlight, I saw that they weren't rust, but almost looked like dried on paint (???). I got a paper towel and rubbing alcohol and they came off and were the tang color. I don't understand how the clothing could be getting them from the dryer because the dryer doesn't have little holes that could cause the pattern that is on some of the clothes.

Does anyone have any ideas on what these spots could be and where they would be coming from??? I would appreciate if anyone has any ideas!! Thanks so much!!

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RE: Orange stains, NOT rust

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Some possibilities:

1. Sun screen
2. Hard water
3. Old fabric softener sloughing off your machine
4. Transmission grease from your washing machine (note: Fisher & Paykel washing machines do not have a transmission to cause this problem.)

-Grainlady

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RE: Orange stains, NOT rust

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If it's not rust, the only thing I can think of is some kind of crayon, marker, ink or tomato sauce of some kind.

I would try soaking the clothes in the warmest water they can stand in a bucket with an 1/8 of a cup of oxi clean and a full tablespoon of charlies overnight. Usually gets everything out if the pretreatment isn't working.

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RE: Orange stains, NOT rust

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I think it's something to do with aftershave. My husband gets this all the time, only on his clothes so it's nothing to do with the washing machine or water. Also, have had 2 washing machines. I'm convinced it's aftershave bleaching the clothes. I'm going to do a test.

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