My husband is a farmer and when doing hard labor outdoors he really sweats! His chore clothes are usually poly/cotton blends, occasionally all cotton. He buys cheap shirts at the farm stores when he can get them for a few bucks. I was washing them in "hot water" in the Maytag in the basement. I'd let the shower hot water run to get hot water near the machine, then run it. His shirts were not getting clean. I did not do the soak so that is an option. Our hot water heater is set at 130 or 140. Anyway, I ran ALL his shirts through the sanitary cycle in my Miele, and presto, the shirts are clean. With the Maytag I think I will start letting the clothes soak in addition to the hot wash. The Maytag is more convenient to use for his chore clothes because it is near the shower he uses in the basement.

Thank you both, the hot and the soak seems to have eliminated the stench, until the next practice/game

When you do a prewash use lukewarm water. Hot opens the fibers of the fabric which is something you don't want for prewash, than do a hot wash in as hot as the fabric can stand..130-140 is good. The idea of prewash is to getas much of the yuck out before you do a hot wash. You may have to wash his clothes seperately, teenage boys will sweat a lot factor in sports and they sweat buckets.

So Mamapinky, in my Maytag I should run a cycle with lukewarm water? Then run another cycle with the hot water? When do you soak, following the hot water fill?

Thanks mamapinky that advice makes much sense. I will do that next time. I do wash all sports stuff separately. He comes home from practice, literally soaked in sweat. I make him strip and put his stuff in the washer on his way to the shower.

Enduring, a lukewarm prewash gets a lot of the yuck out first. When you wash in hot it will open all the fibers of the fabric, if the wash water is full of sweat, dirt it will just get down into the fibers, and when it hits the cooler water temps on rinse the fibers close back up trapping the yuck...after the prewash, when I fill up with the hot I allow about 5 minutes of agitation, shut the machine off and soak, after soak time I turn the machine back on and let it continue.

Enduring, I should add the prewash only needs done if the laundry is tragically dirty and full of yuck. For moderate soil levels you can skip the prewash and go straight to hot wssh and soak.

So on my old machine, I should just do a lukewarm wash cycle then stop it after the spin and reset to a hot wash cycle.

Or do I let the lukewarm wash complete the cycle, going through the rinse as well? Then do a complete hot water wash with a soak (30min) after 5 minutes agitation.

toss some distilled white vinegar into the wash.

No don't do a rinse between prewash and main wash, just let it spin out after prewash than reset back to wash for the hot wash.

What detergent do you use for prewash? I usually use a 1/2 dose of sears as I have it in abundance, you don't need much detergent in the prewash, and you can use whatever you have, but I wouldn't use a pricey one, since the prewash is just to get some of the yuck out even a cheap brand will work for that.

"tragically dirty" OMG - mamapinky0, I just love that phrase! You made me smile.

Cavimum lol..yep really dirty stinky loads are tragic loads..haha

I am learning so much here lately. You guys are getting laundry down to a science! I am going to start pre-washing my husband's running gear.

Thanks Mamapinky,

1) I will prewash with the regular cycle, on lukewarm, using just any old detergent, 1/2 dose. I have several that I got lately for the machine.

2) Once the regular cycle drains, I stop the machine and reset to regular cycle with Hot water and the other 1/2 of the detergent.

3) Let this cycle with hot water agitate for 5 minutes, then stop and soak. I believe you have mentioned in the past, minimum of 30min, up to a full 24 hours. I will do 30min to several hours at the most, depends if I get distracted :)

4) resume the wash and let it finish out the cycle.

Please correct any of the above if I am wrong in any part of the plan. I appreciated all you do!

I would add a full dose of detergent for the hot wash...also although I soak all night for me that's about 6 hours..actually no need to soak longer than 6 hours I think enzymes live about 4 hours after activated in water and oxy bleach 6 hours..you will be amazed how nice the wash comes even with a 30/60 minute soak. Good luck, let me know how it works for you.

Thanks, so I will had that full dose for the regular hot wash and let it soak 30min to 6 hours. I will let you know how it works.

For colored clothes that cannot be bleached with LCB I found that adding 20 Muleteam Borax to the wash helps clean and deodorize very well.