Hi. I need some advice on a laundry issue. Many times when I wash colors and dark clothing, there is a wet looking stain on the item. I have tried washing in warm water, cold water, extra rinse in warm, extra rinse in cold, turning the clothing inside out, liquid detergent, powder detergent (filled with water first and swished around), fabric softener, no fabric softener, "tide", "all", "gain", "ecover" (green product), "seventh generation" (also green), hanging to dry, drying in dryer... nothing seems to help. Every now and then, I don't get these stains, and sometimes they will wash out after awhile. The kids uniform tops seem to get these water or soap stains worse than other items. Could it be that my washer machine isn't rinsing the clothes well? And do any of you have this problem? Will vinegar help? Any advice is welcome.
Thank you very much!

How many stains are we talking about? Could it be a grease stain from food on clothing that is showing up after drying? that happens to me sometimes and I just rub in some blue Dawn dishsoap and rewash, and they're gone. If not, it could be from dryer sheets or fabric softener...but you already tried eliminating that...hmmm....

I have this happen too and it drives me nuts. All of my darker colored t- shirts and sweatshirts have these "grease" looking spots. I don't see them until after I get the clothes out of the dryer.(I don't use dryer sheets) Sometimes I will rewash them and put a little OxyClean stain spray on, but it doesn't really seem to help. And like you said, sometimes the spots eventually diappear after washing repeatedly, but new ones usually appear anyways! I never know what it is from either. I also have tried wahing inside out, washing hot/cold...etc. I never notice this on other people's clothes, so I always wonder what I am doing wrong. I am glad you asked this question, hopefully someone can help!

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SAHM TO 2 GIRLS
6 years and 19 months

I have no idea...but am anxious for someone who knows to answer.

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Dottie

Mom to Michael 6, Matthew 4, Katherine 2, Ellen 1, and new baby EDD 10/29/08

My only (and always) advice is to try vinegar in your rince cycle, like you would a fabric softener.

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

Things have been so busy at my house that I forgot to check back to see if there were any replies to my question. It doesn't seem to be stains from food or drink. The clothes will look clean, and then come out of the dryer with spots on them. I have tried to wash fewer clothes in each load, and that didn't work. My clothes are all crunchy because I am no longer using fabric softener or dryer sheets. I did soak some shirts in a vinegar/water solution last night. Then I rinsed in clean water, but they were still there. I will try using the vinegar in the rinse cycle after washing regular first and see if that helps. Sometimes I am afraid to wash clothing we really love. Again, I'll take any and all suggestions.
Thanks so much.

Are your laundry loads too full? If your clothes don't have enough room and water to rinse properly and there is still soap in the laundry when it goes in the dryer, it can leave marks on your dark clothes.

I am finding once again marks on my families clothes. This happened once before with a regular washer and it stopped when I switched my detergent from a blue colored liquid to the powder. We now the HE washer and dryer. Well not too many companies make HE detergent in powder form. So I bought the liquid. Guess what...the marks have plagued us once again. We were also having the musty mildew smell in our towels like so many people complain about with these w/d. I found Tide makes a HE powder and our local walmart finally got some in stock. I bought it and used it for the towels...took out the smell immediately...I am hoping it will do the same for the black marks. Might not remove the marks we have but at the least stop new ones from appearing. If you have colored liquid try switching to a white powder. Before the HE w/d I used Arm and Hammer powder. Never had this problem with that powder.