What Causes Spots On Clean Laundry?

I recently experienced this very situation. When I pulled my freshly laundered, brand new polo shirt out of the washer only to find it spotted worse than when it went into the washer.

Now you must know that I rarely use bleach in my washing machine, and I now only use Tide pods for detergent. So you can imagine my frustration when after the third wash, my shirt was still coming out with blue spots all over it.

And on other occasions, I’ve washed my dark clothes only to find them with white bleach spots on them. Not a big deal except I hadn’t used bleach in my washer in a long time.

So, what causes these strange UFS (Unidentified Foreign Spots) appearances on my freshly laundered clothes? I’ve asked the Spot experts, and there can be several culprits so you’ll have to use the process of elimination to find yours.

Powdered Laundry Detergent

Undissolved powdered laundry detergent can leave behind powdery white spots on clean laundry. Spot suggests that you use liquid detergent in the detergent dispenser for a front-load washer or that you add your powdered detergent to the top-load washer before you add the laundry.

Too Much Laundry Detergent

We can’t say this enough, too much laundry detergent is not a good thing. Spot recommends that you follow the detergent’s guidelines to avoid stains, bleach spots, and other damage to your precious laundry. I was using Oxi-Clean to help remove stains from my laundry, and it was working really well. But by not allowing it to mix and dissolve before adding the laundry, and by using too much, it actually caused bleached spots on my black jeans and dark towels.

I now only use Oxi-Clean in a sink or bucket for pre-treating stains and stick to Tide pods for my washer.

A Dirty Washer

Guess what! A dirty washer was actually the cause of the grease spots on my polo shirt. You see what happened was, my husband’s greasy laundry, that I’d washed the day before, had built up around the drain holes in the washer drum and when the shirt was spun out, it was pressed tightly against the side of the tub. And you guessed it! The holes made the shirt come out with round grease spots.

How do you avoid spots on your clean laundry? Spot recommends that you clean your washer monthly or just use the clean washers at a Spot near you.

Well Water Spots On Clean Laundry

I’ve written a blog completely about this issue, check it out sometime. But to summarize, your well water or even a water softener can lead to spots on clean laundry. If none of the above tips work for you, then you may want to consult with a water expert to find out if your well water or water softener could be causing your laundry problems.

But don’t let dirty laundry get you down. There are tons of clean washers at Spot just waiting to do your laundry. Stop by a Spot today to save you time and aggravation, they’ll even do it for you. Spot run, and done! What a relief.

Did you have success with any of these tips? If so, we’d love to hear about it on our Facebook page or through email.