Synthropol is for hand dyes and retayne is for commercially dyed fabrics. Small bottles last a long time

Hi There! Just wanted you to know that I did a test run with the Dawn, (blue Dawn). I had some deep reds, dark browns and deep royal blue to wash (separately, of course). I used 2 tablespoons per full load of water, and nothing else. I expected it to "suds up" a lot more than it did, and it only required one rinse to get the soap off of the fabric. The fabrics came out looking great; nothing unusual about that. I used 2 Shout Color Catchers per load, and they uniformly came out highly saturated with dye. You could see dye in the water. I didn't find any fabrics where the color ran onto another fabric. I took the high risk fabrics -- like the deep red and some blues and a dark brown that really colored my Color Catchers --- and tested them for bleeding. There was no bleeding from the fabric. The fabric didn't appear to be in any way harmed by the experiment. Overall, it was a successful test, although I can't prove that the blue Dawn is responsible for setting the dyes. It certainly was cheap to use, instead of some gentle detergent (I usually use Ivory Laundry Soap). So those are the facts and you can make of it what you will. I'm going to keep using it.

By the way, I had a chemistry professor who also dyed fabric as a hobby so he knew about washing fabrics and dyes. He said he would never use Woolite on any fabric, and if I understood what was in it, I would never use it either. He generally used Dreft or Ivory Detergent. So I stopped with the Woolite. But that doesn't prove anything either.

Thanks for all your input!

I use Dawn original full strength on grease stains on clothes. Wash as normal with regular detergent. The grease is gone in one wash. It hasn't hurt any of the clothes and I have a washer that recommends the HE detergent. If you are worried about suds just add some baking soda to the water, the soda will stop the suds. Water alone will remove washable glue, starch and other water soluble things used on quilts. I usually wash my quilts with a Tide (pod now) on hand wash cycle with warm water.

FYI - there are two different blue Dawn - one is "concentrated" and the other is not. I mistakenly bought the not concentrated one to do my dishes recently and could not understand why I had to keep adding more Dawn - when I looked at the bottle on my windowsill - it caught my eye that it did not say "concentrated" - so I called the company and they told me that some people prefer the weaker Dawn. Not me though.

Just an FYI. Dawn is super for washing anything with a greasy stain. I use it for washing our rags we use for cleaning candle jars, so they have a combination of oil, wax and dye. The Dawn removes the oil and wax. Usually does not get the red dye (one specifically for use in candle making) out completely however.

MacThayer, I think your test run confirms information on the web. However, I want to clarify that neither Synthrapol nor Dawn will set dyes. All they do is suspend unset dye particles in water so they are rinsed away instead of settling into fabric fibers.

Most fabric that "bleeds" has had dyes correctly set by the manufacturer but have not been rinsed sufficiently. Fibers can absorb only a limited amount of dye particles. Excess dye particles that are not rinsed away by the manufacturer end up in color catchers (such as those in your test run). Most of these excess dye particles come out in the first wash, and subsequent washes have color catchers that come out pretty clean.

When the manufacturer does not actually set the dye properly, the end result is a "bleeder" fabric that never stops bleeding. It's not just a problem of excess dye particles (more dye particles than the fibers can absorb) not being rinsed away; it's a problem of all dye particles not being permanently set into the fibers. Synthrapol and Dawn will prevent these loose dye particles from settling into other fabrics, but they will not stop the fabric from bleeding in future washes.

Hope this explanation is clearer than mud!

I can only picture dishwashing soap making a huge, Brady Bunch sudsy mess all over the place! Wouldn't chance it. But if you want a colorfast recipe, I was given one Saturday that worked very well. Quilt shop owner has used it for years (an old Amish recipe) and never had bleeding w/ fabrics.

As for HE detergents, I have a front loader, too. I use any kind of detergent but just less of it. I don't buy the HE specifically. No problems (yet, anyway).

Could you please post your Old Amish recipe?

Never tried it to get out color fading but I do use a mixture of Dawn and peroxide to remove stains.

I've used Dawn in the laundry room for years.....mostly for kitchen stains, but also for as a substitute for synthrapol and with great success.....no damage to fabrics and no greasy stains!....but it must be the original Dawn, blue bottle, no bleach.