Yellowing whites

[Iceni]

I love real white cotton bed linen but since we came to France it has slowly yellowed till even John cannot tell the difference between the cream and yellowed sheets.

We have well water (not our's, from the commune) and I don't use fabric conditioner as the water is so soft it is silly, never had such soft water and I don't use fabric conditioner either as I was told this could make it worse.

Now, I know ironing can make whites yellow, so that has stopped and yet they still are going a nasier and nastier colour. I use oxygen bleach to take out stains - and this works, I even use the sun to bleach out tomato stains on non cotton items (mainly childrens tops and poly tablecloths) and I really works.

So suggestions please as to what washing powder, addative etc I should use to get my whites back to their pre France pristine lack of colour. Pipework is new - washer and hot tank are only a year old etc etc.

I have washed at every temp from 30 to 95 as well - dispair dispair, so I really have to pretend it is all cream . I HATE polycotton sheets, I seem to be allergic to them so that is not a solution.

Fanx

 

[Val_2]

Would an old fashioned bluebag work I wonder if you can find some either here or in the UK? My mother regularly used them when we were little and the whites were wonderful even in an old boiler and with hard water and scale.

[Will]

You aren't using an ecological wash powder by any chance? Those available in France may be good for the septic tank but seem dreadful at keeping whites white and colours bright. I have no problems with French Persil (liquid seems to work better than powder in our machine) at 40°, maybe 60° for dirty whites.

[Iceni]

Having done a bit of research it seems it is probably the actual washing products themselves. I have tried various powders and liquids - eco and not, but it yellows away. The answer seems to be 'washing soda'. Now this could explain the problem in France as I used to be a knitwear designer and made a lot of samples - and all wool was first washed in soda to get rid of the oils - so I used to add some to the wash in the machine as it softened our horrible rock hard water and continued to do this in the UK as it became a habit after I stopped playing with wool.

Does anyone know the French for washing soda please?

I have also come across a very interesting downsizing site where people use washing soda, some grated plain soap and a little slurp of vinegar for rinsing - and bingo - just what my grandmother used to use in the 'copper'.

I assume that you can get washing soda here as you can get all sorts of chemicals in bulk that you would never be able to buy in a builders merchants let alone a supermarket.

On another site there was a washing machine manufacturer who stated that you should wash once a month with nothing - there will be enough buildup of product in the works to do the job for you and if you don't clear this buildup your machine will suffer - this is all starting to make me wonder just what is in these products that my whites are yellow. I have taken a bottle of the cheap white vinegar down to the sous sol, a tiny drip of this is my fabric conditioner from now on - the other stuff just makes me itch in any case.

[Russethouse]

Di - did you look at a site called e - how - they often have this sort of thing.

edit - http://www.ehow.com/how_13321_remove-yellow-tinge.html

My mother and I were talking about vinegar the other day - apparently its an old fashioned remedy for nits ! We also used to use it in the last rinse after shampooing our hair, to make our hair shine - dispels the soap 'debris' I suppose?

[sugarlady]

[quote]I love real white cotton bed linen but since we came to France it has slowly yellowed till even John cannot tell the difference between the cream and yellowed sheets. We have well water (not our's, f...[/quote]

Hello Di, I read somewhere that a couple of Steredent tablets added to your usual wash works wonders, haven`t tried it myself but it might be worth a try. I use Persil or Ariel liquid and find that both are very good. Maybe its more to do with the well water.

                       Kind regards Sugarlady

[Coco]

All of my B&B bed linen is white, each set gets washed at least 3 times a week in peak season and 3 seasons down the line is still brilliant white (thankfully)  I use Skip tablets on a 60 degree wash, with soupline fabric conditioner.

[PaysBasque]

[quote]Having done a bit of research it seems it is probably the actual washing products themselves. I have tried various powders and liquids - eco and not, but it yellows away. The answer seems to be 'washi...[/quote]

Hello Di,

the French for washing soda is 'Cristeaux de soude'. I tend to use it as a soak for really dirty things. I also use about 100ml vinegar everytime I wash towels at 60degrees, as someone has told me that it a) is good at taking smells away and b) very good against limescale build-up in your machine. I also tend to do a 90degree wash once a month in order to get rid of the residues inside the machine.

[Iceni]

Well as I think the problem is that our water is too soft (well water from the hills) it did not need softening and I never need to use fabric conditioner. Time for some testing...

I used to live in Nigeria and there we had cold washing powder called Elephant and the whites were really white, so on checking I found that washing soda works in cold water. I added washing soda to the wash, reduced the amount of washing liquid and added vinegar instead of conditioner - I tried this out first on some heavy items that were dry clean only (well I certainly can not afford to have them dry cleaned as they are very light coloured - the bed cover had cold wash on the display sample in a UK shop but when I got it back here it suddenly turned in to a dry clean job [sealed bags]). I know this was risky BUT I have a clean fresh bedcover and a clean Indian cotton printed rug which had a jar of Nivea spilt on it and then a set of dirty boots which forgot to remove themselves walked over the gooey mess - again I have a clean rug - well it is a darn site cleaner than it was before. It is the rug under my office chair and probably gets the most use of any rug in the room. I am amazed at the results.

So to the whites - first wash and there is a noticable difference. I hope that as I continue to wash the whites the yellow will go completely.

This has made me think - I drink that water in tea... so the Brita filter has come out and I am filtering my water for tea and veg. The well water on the land is a bit yellow also (the soil is red) so perhaps I will be a bit whiter inside as well .

Thanks for all your help