What is the best laundry detergent for stinky clothes?

Answer 1

Any laundry detergent. All detergents, soaps etc. use a simple ingredient. It is something called a surfactant. A surfactant is a subastance that is soluble in both oil and water. This is what allows for cleaning. What traps dirt in clothes is oil. when you get grime, dead skin, sweat, etc. etc. etc. in clothing it creates a place for bacteria, mold, other organisms to flourish, and this, along with the dirt itself is the reason for the odors and the stiffness and general grunginess of the fabrics.

You can washe clothes to some extent with water, but the oils that get into the fibers will never rinse out with just water, and anyway, just water will add moisture that will contribute to more growth of mold and bacteria.

When you add the detergent, that is the surfactant, it binds with both the oils in the clothes and the water in which you wash the clothes, so that the oil and the grime and everything wash free.

Have you ever put plain ol' dirt on a mug or the side of a car or something like that. Just ordinary dirt will wash free quite easily with water.

On the other hand, have you ever tried to wash a greasy cooking pan with just water. No chance.

The detergent's solubility with that oil allows it to break the oil and all the dirt it holds free so that the water can wash it away.

Many detergents add antibacterial elements, deodorizers, etc. etc. but these only falsely increase the impression of cleanness without actually doing much if anything more to clean the garment.

Even the so called antibacterial agents are more of a gimmick than anything.

When that detergent washes out all of the oil and trapped dirt, it will take with it, bacteria, mold, etc. etc. Also, when you dry clothes, if you dry them well enough, the extremely arid environment of the dryer will not permit bacteria to live.

So save your money and just go with any old detergent. The length of time for which you wash your clothes, the violence of the agitation of your washing machine, how thoroughly you rinse the clothes, etc. etc. have more to do with how clean they get than does some special detergent with a lot of gimmicky additives.

The next time you are in the grocery store, look at the ingredients to the various detergents and I garauntee you that they will all list some kind of surfactants or differents kinds of surfactants, and then the more expensive ones will have all of these deodorants and other gimmicky crap.

Answer 2

I use liquid detergent and feel there is little to no difference in most common brands. I get detergent without perfumes because they don't eliminate the smell but rather make it less noticeable. It seems to me that using hot water or (if you are concerned about the effect of hot water on delicate clothes) washing twice would be helpful. As for detergent, less common brands are probably not be as good as the more common ones.

On a separate note, the clothes get sticky because they get wet and are not allowed to dry out for many hours or even days.

Answer 3

Gain is the best, because it comes in heavily perfumed detergent, which deodorizes the laundry. I also dry the laundry in the Gain fabric softeners.

Answer 4

GAIN laundry detergent smells really good. Fabric softener with Febreeze in it has a good, strong smell too.

Answer 5

We add some boraxo with whatever detergent.
We have sensitive skin and can't use products with fragrance and don't like bad smells. Boraxo cleans and kills odors. You can also add vinegar to the rinse cycle, just a quarter cup or so. Your clothes won't smell like vinegar, unless you add too much, and it also kills odors

Answer 6

Tide

Answer 7

Gain

Answer 8

Aerial

Answer 9

borax works good or you could try to add some baking powder to the water and mix it in before you put in the clothes. just make sure of you use powder you mix it well so you dont get clumps

Answer 10

My husband works at Goodyear, SO he his work clothing smells like HOT RUBBER!! YECK!! I just TIDE---and Fabuloso--(is blue or purple) and it takes the smell away