Thread: color catchers

Consumer Reports may be correct about catchers not working in mixed clothes loads. I wouldn't know since I separate clothes into darks, lights, and wash anything new like a red sweatshirt separately. OTOH, if C.R. is saying catchers don't work at all, they are incorrect.

I wash like-colours together. I throw in a Shout catcher and, if it's drenched in colour, I send the load through another rinse leaving in the first catcher and adding a second one.

You can really tell the difference: the first catcher will pick up even more dye and the second catcher will be lighter. Repeat until the newest catcher is white or pale.

The Shout Colour Catchers work! I rarely need to do a third rinse.

FYI, I wash the like-colour fabrics just the way I expect the quilt to end up being washed: warm wash, cold rinse with Tide Free. I put the catcher in at the beginning of the wash cycle.

Shout is the only brand I've tried. I stock up when they are on sale.

Originally Posted by danade

If you use a color catcher, how do you tell if it has worked enough so you won't have any more unacceptable bleeding--even if it seems to have gathered up all the bleeding from fabric, don't you have to go through a second wash with a new color catcher to see if the excess dye is really gone? I'm thinking especially of batiks.

Here's a resource about color catchers:

consumerreports.com/.....color catchers

They tested both the Shout and the Carbona color catchers and their opinion was that they didn't work as claimed. I'm confused.

Dana

Originally Posted by HouseDragon

Consumer Reports may be correct about catchers not working in mixed clothes loads. I wouldn't know since I separate clothes into darks, lights, and wash anything new like a red sweatshirt separately. OTOH, if C.R. is saying catchers don't work at all, they are incorrect.

I wash like-colours together. I throw in a Shout catcher and, if it's drenched in colour, I send the load through another rinse leaving in the first catcher and adding a second one.

You can really tell the difference: the first catcher will pick up even more dye and the second catcher will be lighter. Repeat until the newest catcher is white or pale.

The Shout Colour Catchers work! I rarely need to do a third rinse.

The point of the article is this...color catchers do not trap ALL the loose dyes. The white cloth that was included in with the red shirts turned pink in wash loads both with and without the color catchers added. It made no difference and if it makes no difference, why use it? CR said they did not work as advertised, and they didn't.

I seldom need a third wash for bleeding fabrics using no color catcher at all. It's the washing that gets rid of the excess dyes, not the color catchers. All they do is show you there's loose dye in the water...and merely looking at the water or adding a white wash cloth to the load will tell you that much.

You'd be far better off using Synthrapol, a product that chemically suspends loose dyes in the wash water until they are drained out of the machine, than something that claims to "trap loose dyes and prevent color runs", a dye magnet if you will.

Retayne, by the way, is not intended for use with mixed colors. It's for use on uncut fabrics, before they get made into a quilt. It will set loose dyes on any fabric in the wash load, not at all what you want for a finished quilt or a mixed load of wash.

Yes my red sheets still blead after so may washes. They are not the only sheets I have but I like them the most because they are a good quality set we got when we got married. The thing is I did not know they blead since it is a large set and fills the machine so they are always washed by themselves until I tossed in a color catcher by habit. Boy was I surprised.
About chemicals, color catchers are as benign as they get. When I get back home and to my own computer I will post a link to DIY color catchers.

One thing to watch out for is that you are not supposed to use color catchers in a front loader. Not enough water. I had been using them in my old top loader machine. When I got my new front loader, I did a load with a color catcher as usual. The color catcher caught the color (say that fast 3 times) but when I took the load out, the color catcher was plastered against a light colored garment and had deposited the color onto it. I'm guessing during the spin cycle. Anyway, if you read the box they say not to use them in a top loader. Earlier this year I started using Retayne. An inexpensive and effective remedy.

I had quilts for Granddaughters with a red backing that was rubbing off on my white sewing machine - yikes!! I did some research and bought Color Catchers - they caught the red colour and it did not transfere to the white, red and green fronts. I have been using them ever since for all quilts. You can safety pin the sheet so that it doesn't get lost or end up on another article in the washer. These sheets are part of my quilting tools since I found them!