Ok, ladies. My husband does martial arts and his gi (or however you spell it) just gets shoved into his bag while still damp. So it sits in the warm car for a day or two before he brings it in to be washed. As a result, it has that sour towel smell when it gets wet. It is just horrible! I have tried washing in hot water with Oxyclean, Trizyme (Amway product), and vinegar. It still reeks. Help! Do I need to wash it in chlorox? And if I do that, how do you neutralize it so it doesn't eat the cotton? These things are really thick canvas and cost quite a bit. Thanks!

Hot water and laundry detergent does wonders!! The towels are far nicer when I use hot, than cold or lukewarm! (sorry, no direct experience with a "gi")

Once you get it figured out, then perhaps you'll have to "teach" DH to unpack it right after each workout.

On the other hand ... if it is not bothering your DH, should you be letting it bother you?

My daughter did Judo and has her brown belt. On her Gi when I would wash it, I washed it with bleach at least once a month to get that nasty smell out of it too. And then the rest of the time I used Tide with bleach and oxyclean and used dryer sheets. And I ALWAYS ALWAYS used hot water.

When you wash it with Oxyclean and detergent, let it sit in the water -- after the soaps have agitated in. Leave it for a coupla hours....then complete the wash, rinse with vinegar and then rinse again with fabric softener. Hope that works.

Also try hanging it outside for the sun & fresh air to help. A windy day would be great.

This is the best advice. If the gi has patches or stripes, the bleach will ruin them.

Well, I've done the soak in the hot water trick. I think I might have to try bleach this time. It bothers me because I am very sensitive to smell and I can't stand the thought of someone else having to smell that smell on my DH! It reflects badly on me, I guess. I know I would gag if I was the one who had to grab him by his stinky clothes and toss him! I will bleach the older one first and see if it eats it up before I do the newer one!

I have always had good luck adding a cup of ammonia to the load of laundry along with detergent and softer as usual, using the hottest water recommended for fabric. If it is truely mildewed I let it soak over night, run thru the cycle. Occasionally, I might run a extra rinse cycle to finish it.

This works well for mildew, sour smells, grease, diesel fuels, car fluids, etc.
*use caution and plenty of ventilation around ammonia)

hot water and baking soda?

I have a front loader and have found the only way to get rid of the sour smell is to use the "sanitary" cycle on my machine. I haven't tried ammonia or vinegar, however.