How to Use Bleach for Clothes in Your Washing Machine Leave a comment
If you’re thinking of how to use bleach for clothes in your washing machine, then you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn how to do this.
Knowing how to use the washing machine is one thing. However, knowing how to use bleach for clothes in your washing machine is a different level entirely.
If you wear lots of white clothes, you’ll need to have them bleached occasionally to retain their bright whiteness.
Bear in mind that adding bleach to your washing machine at the wrong time or even failing to dilute it first can lead to a laundry disaster in terms of having bleach stains permanently ruining your garments.
That’s why you need to have sufficient knowledge of how to use bleach for clothes in your washing machine perfectly.
In this post, we will take you through the two main methods of using bleach in your washing machine to keep your garments bright, whiter, and free of stains.
How to Use Bleach for Clothes in Your Washing Machine
Basically, there are two major methods of using bleach for clothing items in a washing machine.
- Bleaching items in the washing machine
- Sanitizing your washing machine with bleach
The First Method – Bleaching items in the washing machine
1. Start by adjusting your washer to its highest heat setting.
Basically, high temperatures aid in activating the bleach to make it more effective.
Now, press the “hot cycle” button or turn the appliance’s dial to its max temperature. Be sure to take a look at the label of each garment before putting them into the washer.
If a garment cannot be exposed to hot water, consider setting the washing machine to a warm wash instead.
2. Pour a capful of laundry detergent into the washer.
This lets the dirt on clothes easily come off while also removing stains as well.
However, if you do not have a laundry detergent, regular washing laundry powders should suffice.
If your washer has a dispenser, pour the laundry detergent directly into it. If it doesn’t have a dispenser, you can pour the detergent directly into the washer’s barrel.
For white clothing items, we encourage you to use mostly detergents that are made specifically for whites as they actually contribute to enhancing their brightness.
3. For front-loader washing machines, pour the bleach into the appliance’s dispenser.
You’ll need to open the bleach dispenser slot on the front of the washer and pour in a capful of bleach.
The washing machine should release it into the water automatically once it fills up. This procedure ensures that no laundry items get exposed to undiluted bleach.
However, if you use a top-loader washing machine that has no bleach dispenser, then dilute the bleach in a litre of water and pour it directly into the washer’s barrel.
4. If you own a top-loader washer, sprinkle the bleach into the water.
Hit start or turn on the dial and wait for water to fill up the washer’s barrel. Next, open the lid and add a capful of bleach.
This protects your laundry items from getting stained by bleach. Usually, it takes around five minutes for the washing machine to fill up.
If the machine comes with a bleach compartment, then pour the bleach into the compartment before commencing the cycle.
5. Set the washing machine to regular wash.
Adjust the washer to its regular wash cycle to give the bleach enough time to be absorbed into every fibre of the clothing. However, if you’re washing delicate garments, be sure to select the delicate cycle instead.
6. Dry the laundry.
After the wash cycle, place the laundry in the dryer or hang them on a washing line. Ensure that the items do not drip on certain surfaces such as pieces of clothing, carpets, rugs, etc., as the residue of the bleach in the wet laundry can stain other fabric.
The Second Method- Sanitizing your washing machine with bleach
1. First, set the washer to a hot, long wash.
Press the hot wash button before selecting the long wash button. The heat of the hot wash helps activate the bleach thus, allowing it to deep-clean the washer. At this stage, do not put any garments into the appliance.
2. Pour 946 ml of bleach into the washer.
Aside from brightening white clothes, bleach also helps in sanitizing the washer and eliminating odours. We recommend using laundry bleach which is specific to washing machines rather than regular cleaning bleach.
The reason is that laundry bleach tends to be more gentle on garments, unlike the cleaning bleach variant that can destroy the fibre in fabrics.
3. Let the bleach soak for an hour.
Pause the wash cycle for a while to let the bleach soak for up to one hour. Wait for a minute to allow the washing machine to fill up with water.
After filling up, raise the washer’s lid or push the pause button to stop the cycle temporarily. Now, let the bleach solution stay in the washing machine to sanitize and cleanse the barrel.
For top-loader washing machines, open the lid and leave it in that position so the fumes can escape. If you own a front-loader washer, there’s no need to do this as the fumes will clear once the cycle is over.
4. Restart the washer to finish the cycle.
Hit the start button on the washer to restart the cycle. This action causes the water to be ejected from the barrel and emptied out via the pipes thus, allowing the bleach to clean the internal plumbing of the appliance.
Run a second rinse cycle to help clear out any bleach remnants in the barrel and the pipes or hose. You should do this routinely every month to keep the washing machine in top condition and make it last longer.
Final Words
Clothes, especially white fabrics, come out looking bright and attractive when bleached regularly. However, using bleach for clothes in a washing machine is something that needs to be learnt if you want to avoid staining or even damaging your precious whites.
There are two main methods of bleaching clothes in a washing machine and this post covers them well. Also, be sure you’re using a washing machine that works efficiently. Old or broken washers won’t give you the kind of quality wash you’ll get from newer washing machines.
