My clothes get beyond dirty whether I'm cutting wood or at work. A LOT worse in the hot weather as sweat is like a dirt magnet. I work on the roof/home improvement so once it gets dirty then washed it usually is NEVER "like new" clean. I've been wearing Dickies 65% polyester/35% cotton blend pants for many years now even in cold weather and love them. I wear cotton t shirts basically Wal-Mart specials so I'm mot out a lot of money if ruined. To answer your question, in hot weather I will run my filthy clothes thru an entire cycle with some bleach diluted in water before I load. I then wash them normally using a generic detergent...All, Arm n Hammer. I've used fragrance free and sometimes my clothes still smell after washing hence the pre wash in bleach. I'll dilute some detergent and rub on ground in dirt if bad. Gets most, but not all of the ground in dirt out. For the most part once dirty, they stay "dirty looking". An old neighbor commented once saying she would never put my work clothes in her washer. Funny,you posted this Yawner as i took a pic of how dirty my shirt got after scrounging some wood a couple weeks ago. Didn't realize until I took it off in the laundry room. Dry dirty roadside, it was very humid and I was completely saturated with sweat. I'll post pic when my PC is back from shop.
Simplest answer as others have said-dedicated clothes for work! I have a dozen t shirts, a few sweatshirts, an old pair of Carhartt bibs, a old Carhartt jacket( 34 years old!)and a few pair of jeans that I wear when working. They are grease stained from greasing and hooking up 3'point implements, grass stained from trimming, oil stiNed from chainsaw oil, blood stained from deer butchering, etc. I find it liberating to wear them- I'm in a short and tie at work!
buzzsawbrad, yes, sweat is a key, I have been working about 2 hours many mornings. I poop out and it gets too hot. I am not a big sweater but I sure am working in the woods in this heat. And now, we are going to have the hottest weather or the summer. In SEPTEMBER. Will be 101 and 102 degrees this week. Low temp at 77. Nice. Not.
I use All and borax on my septic and my clothes come clean. Never user bleach. can't use tide in my septic system either. But I also have work clothes so I am not looking them over that close and don't wear white when I'm working.
Dunno...let the uniform company figure it out. I pay half of the rental so I can use for personal too...and its what I wear about 75% of the time.
I have dedicated shirts and pants for doing woodcutting. I don't worry about them getting stained or not looking like new. I like wearing the same ballcap to cut in also, after 8 cords of pitchy softwoods like Doug fir the hat is pretty much waterproof! The rain will just head right off of it. I'm a fan of KEY outerwear pants, just as tough as Carhartt and about 30 percent cheaper.
Some fishermen I know have separate machines just for their clothes...in the garage and they use Lestoil.
Ahhh, you got roped into that huge hole. Look at all the room inside. This will make washing so much easier. Me too. Doesn’t help they connected it to computer controlled electronics that just don’t care if you wash your clothes or not. Did you get one with the glass top? They’re the best. I once watched a T-shirt got through the whole clean process without getting wet. Nice you were smart enough to return yours. Yawner if the missus is having trouble with the machine,,,,,and she may not want to admit it yet,,,,,,,read the reviews online for your particular model. Helped me a lot. Many people have found certain ways of doing things these machines will allow to be done. For,instance mine only works on Heavy Duty mode with the drum 3/4 full. You have to make a hole in the center of the load for balance. Also unplug the machine whenever possible when not in use. Any slight variations in the electric grid makes the computer throw strange codes. You won’t know it’s happening. It just tells the internals there’s a problem. Think power outages and electrical storms. It messes mine up big time. Unplugging them for some time allows the computer to reboot and reset to original parameters. In the past it’s taken 12 hours to wash a load of clothes. I’ve learned to live with my expensive mistake. If I had a family and it was getting more use I’m sure I would have dynamited it by now. Next time I’m buying the cheapest, biggest, thirstiest, most power hungry piece of junk on the market. Give me some good ol 1950’s technology. I want chrome fins not neon lights.
This. I found out the hard way on our Maytag Neptune...it needed a $200 control board...found a DIY repair website that showed the individual component that is usually bad, ordered parts (less than $20) and then started following the recommended procedure of only plugging it in when in use. Very susceptible to voltage spikes/surges they are...
Bleach and anti-bacterial cleaners compromise TitleV septic systems that depend on bacterias to function properly. As long as you keep adding human waste solids to the system you should be re-introducing enough to keep your septic's tank "healthy."
I thought getting clean wet laundry out while standing would help my back, had to practically crawl into the old front loader to get clothes from the very back (it was a deep drum and I am not tall). I too pulled washed clothes out that had dry spots on them, didn't even get wet. Had a discussion with the Pelletheads here, they warned me against it, so glad for the long return policy. Pretty much worthless, the spiffy glass lid was sloped so it couldn't even serve as an expensive shelf.
Yawner here is the pic of my dirty shirt. Very humid that day and it was dry and dusty roadside. Second pic is of same shirt after washing. Cant remember if i pretreated or not...dont think so. I just noticed that my belly button must sweat pretty good too!
