820-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 14, 1994
Our great-grandmothers had
laundry recipes that called for
ingredients like lye soap, salt, vin
egar and boiling water.
“Those recipes may have work
ed with cast-iron wash pots, steel
laundry tubs and scrub boards, but
they’re no good for modem fabr
ics or automatic washers,” say
home economists from Whirlpool
Corporation.
In fact, they report, salt and vin
egar can be murder for an automa
tic washer’s basket and tub.
“Automatic washers are designed
to handle alkaline detergents.
“Substituting salt or vinegar for
detergent in a soak or >vash creates
an acid condition which can pit
porcelain and rust metal,” they
advise. And, they add, pitted por
celain can snag clothing while rust
on the outer tub can stain wash
loads.
“There arc lots of common
laundry practices that can damage
automatic washer baskets and tubs
by creating acidic conditions,”
warn the home economists. One is
using the automatic washer as a
hamper to collect and store urine
soaked diapers and bed linens,
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another is soaking items overnight
in the washer.
“And poor practices aren’t just
restricted to washers. They hap
pen with clothes dryers, too
and some are potential fiie
hazards,” report Whirlpool hom<j
economists. These include drying
newspapers, items that contain
foam rubber and oil-soaked
fabrics.
According to the home eco
nomists, drying oil-soaked fabr
ics, even after they’ve been laun
dered, can lead to an infrequent,
but nonetheless dangerous situa
tion called spontaneous combus
tion, which, in turn, can cause a
piece of fabric (or pile of them) to
burst into flame with no apparent
cause of ignition.
This kind of spontaneous com
bustion occurs under conditions
that appear to be related to recent
changes in lifestyles and laundry
practices.
To avoid throwaways, many of
us are using washable cloth dish
towels instead of paper towels to
wipe out deep fat fryers and clean
greasy rangetops and counters:
and to save energy, we’re washing
Laundry No-No’s
more loads in warm or cold water,
Unfortunately, warm or cold
water washing doesn’t always get
all the cooking oil out of the tow
els, and when those towels subse
quently are dried in an automatic
dryer and then.folded and placed,
still warm, in a laundry basket,
you have unwittingly created the
ideal environment for sponta
neous combustion.
“The combination of oil
saturated fabric, laundry addi
tives, high drying temperatures
and compression of warm fabrics
in a laundry basket or storage con
tainer promotes a chemical reac
tion that can cause spontaneous
combustion,” say the Whirlpool
home economists.
They add, however, that while
poor laundering practices can
cause various problems, good
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laundering practices can solve
them, and they offer these
Suggestions:
• Read and follow washer and
dryer use and care guide
instructions;
• Use only additives intended
for use in automatic laundry
appliances; never substitute salt,
vinegar, ammonia, etc. for a laun
dry detergent;
• Don’t use your washer for
soaking loads overnight. Long
soaking with strong chemicals can
damage fabrics and the washer’s
basket and tub;
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• Never use your washer to col
lect and store soiled, damp or
urine-soaked items;
• Never dry fabrics that have
foam rubber in or attached to them
in your dryer. They can cause a
fire.
• Avoid the possibility of spon
taneous combustion. Use paper
towels to clean oil-coated pots and
pans and wipe up cooking oil
spills: pretreat oil stained fabrics
before washing and wash them in
the hottest water available; and
use a heavy-duty liquid laundry
detergent for best removal of oily
soils and stains.