EmmaR- Washing Soda has been a common laundry aid for decades as a detergent booster that was especially useful in hard water. A great stain and grease remover. It can also be used as a household cleaner. Today it is more commonly used in homemade laundry soap mixtures to save money. Some people feel it's more "natural" than other commercial detergents, and better for the environment. There are drawbacks to using homemade mixtures, but cost isn't one of them. -Grainlady

Seems like you've tried about everything in the chemistry set! Oxidizer, acid, base, reducer/chelating agent. BTW, if you used baking soda and vinegar, I hope it was separately, because together they would just neutralize each other to make a solution of sodium acetate salt. To other earlier posters who used bleach on rust stains: Bleach oxidizes iron to rusty looking iron oxide, so it is not surprising it made the rust look worse. Use CLR another rust- and scale-remover instead. They have chelating agents that can dissolve the rust and keep it in solution so it can be washed away.

Persil has enzymes, OBAs, and oxygen bleach (unless you use the Colors version), while Charlie's Soap has none of those. Have you tried the Sears Ultra with oxy bleach? There is a "free and clear" version. We use the non-oxy version and really like it.

First, do you allow those gym clothes to dry out completely, before you toss them in the dirty clothes pile? This is really important. If they are even slightly damp, they are going to ferment. Second, washing sweaty clothing - even completely dried out ones - requires a slightly warmer temp than cold, at least lukewarm like 80 degrees F ... as warm as they can tolerate... in my opinion. I washed all my DH's wicking polyester golf shirts in CS for the past couple of years, and they don't have any odors. It gets HOT and HUMID where we live, and he's out there sweating for four hours at a time. I always make sure they are completely dry before they go into the hamper (lik, the next day). Now that I have a front-loader, I no longer use CS. It left a dusty white residue all over the drum the first and only time tried it. In my old top-loader, our whites got dingy over time, in spite of washing soda, borax and Calgon added in various combinations. I'm now using detergents with enzymes and they are cleaner than before. I doubt I'll ever go back to CS. This same subject was discussed recently, at the link below, and you might find some helpful information. Here is a link that might be useful: Funky smelling workout clothes