What kind of detergent do you use and what's your water hardness? Is this washer new? Did you change detergents or additives? Do you sort?

I use 7th generation. Water is medium hard. Electrolux is about 3 months old - this hasn't happened previously. I don't sort, but never have! Thanks!

Some articles aren't colorfast enough for sanitize temperature. I once washed a white and a green bathmat together on sanitize, and the green ran onto the white. I was able to rewhiten it with chlorine bleach, probably the last time I used the stuff.

For me 7'th Generation cleans nothing let alone whitens...also washing whites with colors will turn whites dingy and grey. Med water hardness will turn whites grey too.

I would recommend you sort, I also recommend Tide with Bleach powder for whites, unless your using 7th Gen for health reasons.

There is no way to keep your whites white with your laundry practices, and I doubt its your washer causing this. The E-Lux is a great machine, there are others here with this machine and I haven't heard this complaint. You will have to at least sort if you want brilliant whites.

I have the same machines and only have sanitized whites. I never use high heat on anything in the dryer and I under dry.

You need to sort, there is barely any water to dilute colors.

Sounds like water minerals got trapped in the high heat of the washer and baked by the dryer.

Exactly George. I know many FL'ers hold a lot more laundry than top loaders and some times its probably easy to just put everything in and get it done, but its sure not good on the clothing. you can not wash mixed loads and expect your whites to stay white.

Sabrown..stick around and the good folks here will help you achive brilliant whites. And you will have fun doing it.

Was everything you washed 100% white, or did anything have stripes or a pattern of any kind, in any other shade than white? Washing on Sanitize could have pulled some dye, even from a light colour and transferred to the white.

I had an Electrolux 70 and 60 Series washer for quite a while, and never once had this.

Sorry!

Poor laundry practices will result in exactly what you have described. There are countless articles on the internet related to how to properly sort laundry. At minimum, Whites in HOT, Colors in WARM separated by light and dark. Jeans and denim by themselves.

Regarding drying...there are specific cycles on the dryer. Pick an appropriate cycle for what your drying. Your clothes will love you! Once you fix your bad laundry practices and learn to properly use your machines you will be astonished at the results.

I've read that proper HE detergent is formulated to help prevent color transfer between items. This is necessary due to the lower volume of water in HE machines that results in a higher concentration of dyes in the water when items bleed. I've never (and won't) use 7th Generation ... but being a "natural" product it's unlikely to be effective in that regard.

@dadoes - unfortunately the marketing claims for detergents are half truths. While improvements have been made in "limiting" color bleed. they are all pretty much ineffective. Much of the problem is poor garment and textile manufacturing, sub par dye and setting, cheap manufacturing and imported clothing. I've processed "labels" that costs hundreds of dollars that bleed like a stuck hog! We would cringe every time someone would walk in the shop. The best defense against bleeding is simply follow good laundry and sorting practices, proper water temperature, and knowing the right detergent to use. The typical modern day American laundry consumer washes everything together with there one jug of soap and wonders why there clothes are dingy, or their white blouse is now pink. :)

Thanks for all of the great replies. I checked, and it wasn't just the whites - some of my purple socks are noticeably faded. I understand that it's not "proper" laundry practices to wash whites and colors together, but these are undergarments and socks, so it really doesn't matter to me. I've done this my ENTIRE life, and never had a problem until now with a change in the fabric.

I think that suburbanmd is right - that the sanitize temperature isn't great for colors. larsi_gw, I think that you're right too - some of my striped socks are faded, so I think that that the color transferred.

Thanks everyone - had to laugh at people calling our my poor laundry practices!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Without a change in your laundry habits, using Sanitary or Tap hot water will produce identical results. Since your accustomed to doing laundry your way, you must be satisfied to accept inferior results. The machine and cycles are not the problem here. Just saying...

I will add here that some socks with polyester in them will gray over time. Especially 100 percent polyester. No matter how much you wash, bleach, or boil them, they just take on a gray cast. White polyester will always gray over time, there is nothing you can do about it. Nylon will also pick up ANY color in wash water, no matter how little. White and very light nylons should always be washed with white only laundry.

Sanitize cycles are pretty hot, and will most definitely cause color transfer. The hotter the water, the more likely that colors will run. How about trying some Cheer detergent? It is for colors, and will help with fading and helps a little with transfer. Since you do mixed loads, I do not think you are concerned about how white your whites are, instead you can try to preserve your colored parts. Cheer might help, and is certainly a better performing detergent than 7th Generation.

Sabrown72...

I understand you've done this practice (not sorting) your whole life but with your brand new high efficiency machine there is a learning curve.

If you had a traditional top loader before you could get away with mixing as there was a ton of water to help suspend color transfer (plus your old washer never got as hot as the Sanitary cycle reaching over 150F). With so little water in "he" machines you're concentrating color dye as well as soils (dirt and body oils).

Be sure to use a detergent for what you're washing. There are detergents geared for whites and detergents geared for colors and they really do help keep whites white and colors bright with less fading but you need to separate the two loads at minimum between colors and whites. Whites can withstand hot hot washes where colors will benefit with warm. I don't recommend cold/cool (unless your cleaning a blood stain or protein based stain), as cold/cool doesn't loosen body oils trapped in clothes fibers.

For me the learning cure was dosing detergents and bleach with my Electrolux. I have soft water and only need 2 Tablespoons (3 for huge load) of detergent. There should be no suds visible, just bubbles.

Only a 1/4 to 3/4 cup of bleach is needed. If you don't use liquid bleach you can substitute with an "Oxi" type bleach (only use on whites).

I love my Electrolux and hope you enjoy it too.

I have used a Traditional top loader my entire life except a couple years in 1980 when I had a Westinghouse FL..and I will say even washing darks, colors and whites together in a TL will give you dingy grey whites. there's a degree of Art involved in laundry along with common sense. I'm sure your new washers high sanitize temps will play a roll on how dingy your whites are if washed with colors, but I'm fairly certin reguardless of what machine you've used your entire life your whites wouldn't have been white-white...if you didnt sort..many people don't see dingy until they turn grey..I'm not being a smart ass here, just trying to help which is what you obviously wanted when you posted. I would definitely try sorting and use a good detergent designed for whites and you will see an improvement. By the way, welcome to the Laundry Room, stick around and learn, share and have fun.

Seventh Generation doesn't work very well for me. Even when clothes looked clean they still smelled off. Like a little sweaty or stale. Biokleen premium is a much better green detergent. Without optical brightners or bleaching whites will grey over time regardless. Cotton isn't naturally glowing white. My sister is a Seventh Generation user exclusively and her solution has been to not buy white anything. Totally gross.

For me, 7th Generation and Biokleen left ALL my laundry smelling "off" and stale, or sweaty. Also, everything looked "matte" and dehydrated, and the fibers rough. Not a fan!!!

I really like the Biokleen Premium Plus for whites, I do think you need soft water for this detergent to work well and leave soft clothes. Larsi you had harder water than it could be different now but you really are not impressed with it so I'd just not even try it again. Theres to many other goodies out there just waiting for you to try. LOL

Laundry 101:

You ALWAYS need to sort out your whites and wash them separately.

Whites will always pick up colors from your other clothes.

My apologies if someone else has repeated these suggestions... First, separate your clothes and wash whites only with other whites. Second, use the hottest water you can. Third, make sure you are using enough detergent. Insufficient detergency can lead to greying whites. I've seen more problems in this forum caused by insufficient detergent than too much. Lastly, add a good quality oxygen bleach. I use pure sodium percarbonate because products like Oxyclean are typically 50% or more fillers and less active ingredient.