<p>Our washer is leaving bleach spots on clothes. The weird thing is I don’t use bleach. The cleaning lady does use cleaning products with bleach in them. The dirty rags are washed in the washer.
Any ideas? The washer is probably 14 yrs old. A old fashion top loader.</p>
<p>Wash the bleach product items separately from ANY other items that don’t need bleach. My guess is this is not the washer…it is because you have items with bleach on them mixed in with items you do NOT want bleach on.</p>
<p>Are the cleaning rags getting thrown into the washer by the cleaning lady, when she’s done cleaning, and then getting removed by you to run a regular load of clothes? Or, is the cleaning lady piling them on top of the washer or dryer after cleaning and then you are piling clothing in the same area? It does sound like there is some “cross-contamination” going on with some cleaning agents containing bleach like Soft Scrub, etc.</p>
<p>I had problems with this in my front load washer, I had to run an extra rinse cycle before I put any clothes in after washing anything with bleach. I don’t seem to have the same issues with my new top loader.</p>
<p>Your pump may be failing and not pumping out all the water from the last load, so the bleach is remaining in the machine. Do the clothes at the bottom of the washer seem damper than unusual when you pull them out?</p>
<p>Our pump failed a few months ago (puddle of water on floor in front of our 16yo machine - see my thread on what new washer to buy), but was preceded by nearly a year of the stuff on the bottom being very wet.</p>
<p>The replacement pump was $40 and H did it himself.</p>
<p>Sounds like there is some residual bleach either left in the washer or somehow your clothing items are coming into contact with areas that your cleaning lady has cleaned with bleach. </p>
<p>For instance…If your cleaning lady has used bleach to clean your sink/counters and then you’ve leaned against them, then when you wash, the bleach activates. My H used to get “mysery bleach” stains on his clothes, then we realized that he was coming into contact with the chlorine powder from our pool, and then the powder was activated in the laundry.</p>
<p>Ask your cleaning lady to stop using bleach products while cleaning your home. </p>
<p>In the meantime, if there is residual bleach in your washer, fill your washer with hot water, rinse, repeat. Then test with washing rags to see if any new bleach stains.</p>
<p>A decent guess is that you have the typical buildup of detergent where it fills and that some bleach is embedding itself in that, kind of the way plaque builds on artery walls. When the area flushes during a cycle, some of the embedded bleach goes in. Take out the filling area and clean it in the sink. See if you can clean in the filler area. </p>
<p>Another but more problematic guess is detergent built up in the drain holes of the washer tub. I’ve seen this - in my own machine because I used too much detergent. Bigger issue if you’ve been using powder because that doesn’t always dissolve entirely. The only fix for this is running cycles with hot water until nothing is left. (On a front loader, the problem can become a leak, which is how I learned about this. That is best fixed by replacing the entire drum.)</p>
<p>Just a thought but I kept finding bleach spots on pillowcases, sheets, towels, etc. and realized it was the benzoyl peroxide in my teens acne medication!</p>
<p>I suspect it is cross contamination , if bleach was staying in the washer because the pump was failing it would not be spotted like that, it would probably bleach stuff out as the bleach dissipated into the washing water. The other thing I can suggest is run washing machine through a cycle with no clothing in it without soap, to try and flush it out. I also would run water through the bleach dispenser (if it has one), in case someone at one time put bleach in that, it could dribbble out and do what you are saying, can’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>The only other thing I can think of is if someone left stuff on the top of the washing or spilled something up there that might have a bleaching action, like cleanser or something.</p>
<p>We had a faulty pump on a top washer many years ago. It left “rust” looking spots that matched the hole pattern in the drum.</p>