When Using Bleach, Follow These Guidelines

(A special household tip.)

Before you bleach, read the garment's care label. If it says "no bleach," don't use any kind of bleach. Chlorine bleach is usually safe on cottons, linens, and some colorfast fabrics.

Don't use chlorine bleach on wool, silk, mohair, leather (e.g., buttons, Spandex, or noncolorfast fabrics or dyes). If you're unsure about the safety of a bleach for a garment, first do a safety test on an inside seam as recommended on the bleach's label.

Never use chlorine bleach with hand dishwashing liquids, ammonia, or toilet cleaners. The combination can produce irritating fumes.

Chlorine bleach must first be diluted as directed on the product's label. It should then be added 5 to 6 minutes after the wash cycle has started.

Oxygen (nonchlorine) bleach should be added with the laundry detergent to the wash water before the laundry is added. It is safe on washable fabrics. It works more effectively at higher wash temperatures than at cooler temperatures.

Note: Chlorine and oxygen bleaches use different active ingredients that decolorize and solubilize stains so they can be removed with the help of a detergent. Liquid chlorine bleaches all have about the same amount of active ingredient, sodium hypochlorite, and there is little difference from one brand to another. The active ingredient in liquid oxygen bleaches is hydrogen peroxide. In powder oxygen bleaches it is sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate tetrahydrate. Oxygen bleaches usually contain other ingredients as well to help in stain removal.

Chlorine bleaches have always been far better than oxygen bleaches at whitening clothes. Oxygen bleaches can only maintain whiteness, not restore it.