"Grab Green pods, Oxi Clean White Revive pods, Perwool White renew
detergent, German Dalli Med powder, Ariel powder from Europe and Persil
pods"

Wouldn't one round of chlorine bleach have done the trick? Has that been banned in SoCal or something? (not inconceivable; IIRC it is not available for laundry use in most of Europe)

Sodium hypochlorite bleach would remove most organic colorants, including, obviously, most but not all clothing dyes. To remove inorganic stains or colorants you usually need chelation and/or reduction.

BTW congrats on the rainy day - California needs it.

Mine are slowly starting to lose their teal hue. Pretty happy about it.

I thought someone recently posted that BIZ worked best. I was going to get some. I find that chlorine bleach works best on blue shades and Oxi Clean works for yellows.

davidrt, you're kidding about the chlorine bleach, right?

How disappointing, I was hoping to dig them out of your trash can so I can have some very nice dingy towels. ;)

Ford tech, just thinking about you the other day when the Sears detergent was talked about. Are you still using it and if so, when they stop making it what are you going to switch to? Good to see you post and hope you are doing well. Sorry Larsi for getting off subject on your post.

I dont know Sparky, Ill probably read a couple hundred posts on here and try to decide. I still have a couple big boxes left and Ill probably keep using it till its all gone. It works and its cheap to eat.

Thanks Sparky for the alert. I found our Sears store is going out of business too, and they just closed the Kmart last month. I did find 7 26.4 lb pound boxes of the green boxed Ultra Plus and I purchased them. Hopefully that will last a couple years.

You are good to go then. The Sears closest to me only has the Orange box one but lately it's been sold out. I figure they won't be getting any more since word has it is discontinued. I haven't been in there and physically checked, but I have online.

Everytime I tried to order online from my store it would say its not in stock in my store at the online sale price. I would go to the store and there it is, but I had to pay store price and they wouldnt honor online pricing. Pretty messed up. Even today I got it for 20 percent off regular price, not the online sale price.

"davidrt, you're kidding about the chlorine bleach, right?"

Kidding about what? That people use it to whiten whites? But that it isn't marketed to consumers in Europe due to environmental regulations? These are observations as clear and plain to me as saying wheels roll. Some of the stuff in this straightdope thread is wrong, but no clorox in Europe is really old news: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=184314  I grew up with a lot of family friends who were European so maybe I just took for granted that most people knew this. As for whether people use it in the US...sheesh, have you ever gone to the laundry section of any grocery store? Not only is there about 80 shelf-feet of bleach, you can buy it in 5 different "flavors". (as someone who minored in chemistry, I've actually been impressed that they figured out how to add fragrance molecules that are resistant to getting oxidized by the bleach)

We only use chlorine bleach in my laundry. It doesnt brighten as much as I like but it does sanitize.

You only wear white clothing?

I use chlorine bleach in my white cottons (mostly white T-shirts, briefs, washcloths and handkerchiefs. It gets them very white, almost blue white (no yellow). As soon as I do a load without it, I notice the white is gone. We get it at the Dollar Tree store. Their cheap brand works as well as Chlorox and the cap liner stays in place, which is not true of Chlorox. Oh and Larsi, I don't know how your weather is now but here In Eastern Washington, we have had snow and ice for almost 3 weeks. My wife and I were snowed in for 6 days straight. Had to pay to have a path cleared on our driveway three times, then freezing rain and the kids next door were ice skating on the driveway. We get alternating bitter cold (near zero) from the arctic and warm wet wind from Hawaii. Worst winter in well over 50 years.

Nerdy the Dollar Tree bleach may whiten, but it will not sanitize if you should need sanitation. I'm sorry its nothing like Clorox regular.

Bleach is caustic, and if not used properly does way more harm than good. I can't tell you how many people put it in the start of the wash cycle, big mistake, and how about rinsing, some people equate the bleach scent once the load is done washing with clean, another big mistake.

Yes chlorine bleach will whiten, but repeated use or using the wrong way will result in damage.

If Dollar Tree bleach is sodium hypochlorite, it will sanitize as well as any other sodium hypochlorite. Are you saying it is an oxygen bleach? Who needs to "sanitize" their laundry anyhow? There are only a few instances in a typical household where that would be medically necessary. Granted if you're dealing with a mildew problem, you need to 'sanitize' the mildew, but in that case, you shouldn't leave your clothing around in wet piles to mildew ;-)

Wrong..not all chlorine bleach' are created equil. Look for the EPA seal of approval on the jug, if its not there than the hypochlorite is to weak for disinfection/ sanitation. but like I said it may still whiten.