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
Last edited by HouseDragon; 10-21-2012 at 02:09 PM.