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ball point pen ink on inside of dryer

19 years ago

*sigh*

Someone left a ball point pen in a shirt, it went all the way through the wash and dry. Now the dryer cylinder inside (originally white) has places here and there where there are smears of blue pen ink. I am worried about ruining all our clothes. Is there something that will take it off? I have rubbed and rubbed with soap to no avail.

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Comments (6)

lindac
19 years ago
Try a solvent ( with a cold dryer that is turned off of course!) like pine sol....or orange glow...If nothing comes off....then don't worry...
Another thing you could do is wash and dry some rags...or a couple of old white towels and see if anything comes off.
Linda C
shaun
19 years ago
try alcohol or acetone on a piece of cotton then wipe with a damp cloth to remove the chemical smell.
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Definitely what cupajoe said. My seven year old wrote all over our white Natuzzi sofa (black ink) on 3 different occasions at ages 18 months, 2 and 3 years of age. The rubbing alcohol and the qtips worked great, although it did take some repeated applications. It looks a bit splotchy at first, but then I cleaned the whole sofa off with a good wipe off of diluted Murphys soap and a microfiber cloth and it looked like new. Kids and pens are a bad combination, but boy can kids find a pen, even in a child proof drawer. I feel for your sister, hope it works out for her. Was she able to get it out? I'm a firm believer in white sofa. We have a brown leather sofa now, and I realize that if it were to get a stain the dye would really show altered in the brown. Let us know how it went.
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Well, I know the type of alcohol (denatured?) in hair spray will melt it off clothing. You could try a little hair spray on a Q-Tip and see if it works.
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Use goo gone! It works wonders and is non toxic and totally safe to use inside the dryer. You can even use to to pre treat stained or greased clothing before washing it in the washing machine! Its just a natrual citrus extract. I use the goo gone gel spray, not the pro goo gone, just the regular! Spray it on a paper towel or old towel and just start to wipe it right away!
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The alcohol is why hair spray works on many (but not all) inks. But it evaporates very quickly, so it can be hard to get enough to remove rather than spread the ink. The hand sanitizer is the same principle -- never tried it and not sure if I would have thought of it, but great idea to keep in mind for the future. I would experiment with different solvents in the dryer to see what works on the ink before trying the clothing since you are more likely to do damage on the fabric and dyes in the clothing than a metal drum -- but do be careful to avoid any rubber or plastic parts as much as possible -- just in case. If some of them have ink, work on them after knowing what works and tread lightly. Same with the fabric. The dryer drum isn't as porous as the fabric, so the fabric could be more difficult to remove the ink without damage. Do carefully clean the dryer and let any solvent completely evaporate or be washed off before running the dryer. GooGone, Acetone and alcohol are all flammable. Mine was a red crayon in a load of whites. Got it out of everything but the white socks. The knitted texture of socks makes them so much harder to get everything out.
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sheilajoyce_gw
19 years ago
Spray it with hair spray, which melts ball point ink, and then wipe it up right away. Works on the clothes that got marked too. Just fill the washer with soap and warm water, and spray the spots thoroughly with hair spray and drop into the churning washer.
shaun
19 years ago
Sheilajoyce, I used to use alcohol on my phone at work! It always worked at getting off those ink marks!! I had forgotten, thanks!
smom40
19 years ago
One thing, if you use a solvent on the inside of your dryer, don't spray it. Put it on a cloth and rub ONLY the places affected with as little as possible. Then make sure that the solvent is completely cleaned off of the interior of your dryer before you turn it on.

Two reasons, residue will leave a greasy stain on the next load and secondly, that stuff is flammable. You don't need a fire.
Purple_Jade
19 years ago
Is injet printer ink like ballpoint ink? Does hair spray get rid of it? I had to take my printer apart because somehow my black cartridge must have leaked inside, and not sure how to clean the dried up ink, it's clogging up the printer so it can't even print now.

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