Help! Stain removal!

[Sue]

I have a white duvet cover which had two lots of (what I thought were) tea stains on it.

I've just used the Stain Devil for tea, and one lot of stains (which were definitely tea) have come off fine, but the other lot have turned bright yellow :(

If the stains weren't tea I have no idea what they were, but they were on the top of the cover at the bottom end so must be something spilled (before somebody starts making rude suggestions).

Both sets of stains looked exactly the same (very pale brown).

Does anybody know what I can do now, apart from bleach which I'm not keen on?

It was a new cover, as well :(

It must be something which has reacted chemically with the Stain Devil, which (not very helpfully) just says "contains amongst other ingredients 15 - 30% Oxygen-based bleaching agent".

I am contacting their customer services but hoping someone here might have some suggestions sooner!

[Robert Poste's Child]

A friend of mine says Fairy liquid works on most stains. Worth a try, as it's white anyway so no risk of fading? Or if cotton you could just soak in a solution of bleach. If you have outside space you could just put it in the sun as that may do the trick on its own.

[Jules-and-Boo]

hydrogen peroxide - works wonders.

You can get it in the chemist for around ?2 a bottle. Get the strongest you can.

[Sue]

Thanks both, but won't bleach/hydrogen peroxide rot the cotton?

[Sue]

I've googled the ingredients, which are:

Sodium Disilicate and Sodium Percarbonate

Any chemists out there? (My A level chemistry was too long ago ..... :( )

[Jules-and-Boo]

Oh, I've just checked - it should be about the 3% strength, so the medicinal type.

The strongest is for bleaching hair! I didn't mean that.

It's never damaged anything I've used it on. School shirts mainly.

[Cardelia]

Sodium disilicate is a thickening agent which is used to get the product to the right consistency. It probably won't do anything for removing stains.

Sodium percarbonate is a mixture of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. The peroxide will be the bleaching/stain removing agent and the sodium carbonate is there to help stabilise the peroxide to give the product a longer shelf life.

It's possible that a stronger peroxide solution will do the trick of removing the stain, but I'm not sure that the 6% stuff you can buy over the counter in a chemist will be any stronger than the stain devil, so you may as well try that a second time.

[Rosetta]

I like the Shout spray stain remover. You can also try putting the cover outside in the sun as sunlight often lifts stains like that, effectively bleaching it.

[IlonaM]

Good Housekeeping has some good advice on stain removal:

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/stain-buster/

and

https://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/institute/household-advice?a=7902

[Rob tolfts]

I've used:

http://www.hygiene4less.co.uk/product/coffee-machine-cleaning-tablets/

to clean tea tannins before, by far the most effective. Don't know how effective it would be if the stain isn't tea.

I dissolved in hot water, it foams a little like bi-carb

(these are sodium percarbonate)

[Sue]

Cardelia Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

I'm

> not sure that the 6% stuff you can buy over the

> counter in a chemist will be any stronger than the

> stain devil, so you may as well try that a second

> time.

Thanks, but the Stain Devil I used (there are several different kinds, and the one I used was specifically for tea plus some other things) has made the stain worse, so it can't have been a tea stain or it would have removed it, not turned it yellow!

Therefore I don't want to put more of it on .....

Thanks everyone for your help, cannot do anything about it today but will have another look tomorrow .....

[Rosetta]

Have also got stains out of linen and cotton with baking soda and white vinegar mix. Try dabbing it on.

[Sue]

OK thanks!

[Gaynor Hill]

I have always rubbed in fairy liquid too before wash I do it on white shirts cuffs then I put in soda crystals​ in wash worth a try

Gaynor

[annarosy]

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[intexasatthe moment]

On a wool carpet I used baking soda ( does that have bicarb in it ? ) mixed with cold water into a paste and allowed to dry .to remove cat diarreah . If that's any help .

[Laddy Muck]

Sue, I use soda crystals.

[Sue]

Thanks all, not sure why this thread has been resurrected now over six months later, but anyway the "worse" yellow stain came out when I washed it as normal after using the Stain Devil.

Thanks for everybody's suggestions, anyway, which I will bear in mind for the future!