Home

[jlkz]

This happened to me once when friends lent us their high rise condo in FL.  I was mortified the first time I took their beautiful white towels out of the washer.

Must have rehashed those towels several times with bleach to get the orangey-rust marks out !

[Tshirtgal]

This happened to me.  I thought the stains occurred in the laundry but in fact, I was getting them from the dryer.  Sure enough, the dryer, an older one, was discolored by the heat source and, I learned that if I stuffed too many clothes in the dryer, they did not tumble enough and what ever was right next to the heat source, discolored, similar to when you leave an iron on the ironing board too long.  Check your clothes before you dry them. 

[Mindy D]

What's the fabric content of the towels? What color are they? Are you washing them with only other towels of the same color? Are you washing in cold, hot or warm water? Are you using well water? Do you self tan? What detergent do you use? You have to ask yourself these questions to get to the bottom of this.

I agree with others, it could be iron from the pipes or even the scenario one poster mentioned about her dryer. 

If it is rust you can look up removing rust stains on towels. You usually lay a fabric down and put lemon juice or some use vinegar all over the stain and then lay the item in the sun for hours. Sometimes you can repeat the process. Then you launder as usual. 

[addtothis]

---

@Glorimar wrote:

When I wash my towels there is sometimes an orange stain left behind on some of them. I don't use any products with benzol peroxide and I don't use bleach in my laundry detergent so I don't know what is causing this. Any solutions for this? TIA ladies!

---

Glorimar, I am no expert at all on this situation but I just know what has worked for my husband and I through the years of owning 4 homes in NJ and now living in SC using city water.  For almost 30 years we lived in a home we had built outside the city limits and had well water but for sure my husband had CPVC pipes installed to prevent any rust accumilation and possibly doing such staining that may occur.  Our well water was great and we loved how great our water tasted and performed with bathing, laundry and also with our lawn irrigation system.  Now we have been here in SC outside of Charleston we have city piped in water so before we moved here we had Culligan System put in and I have to say our water has NO chemicals, no hardness to the water and our bathing and irrigation is just as awsome as when we were in Jersey.  Many factors play in with staining but may be your pipes or may be the water ph and/or chemicals and the interaction with the pipes and the material the pipes are made of.  Just guessing.  I hope you can find a solution but it sounds the posters here gave you some solutions needed.   Regards.

[SilleeMee]

I always use ColorCatcher sheets in my wash no matter what colors I'm washing. 

[shelbyshelbyshelby]

It may be your washer. I purchased CLR , follow directions , one wash and an additional rinse . It left the washer drum supper clean . Maybe this will help . 

[ECBG]

Are you dealing with tomatoes in the kitchen or rust?

In the kitchen, you might enjoy using the Kleenex brand of pop up paper towels.  They're softer.

Check the bottom if your water faucets with a white paper towel and see if your problem is there.

If it's your water, toilet bowls and tanks would have buildup.

[AuntG]

I'm perplexed. Could be rust in the water, but then porcelain fixtures would be stained too. My problem is an unpleasant odor coming from my washer. It's 16 years old and sits in a basement laundry room so while not a big deal, it bugs me.

[Imaoldhippie]

@Glorimar ..................Do you have a lot of iron in your water?  It could be iron stains, but it would also be on all your light and white clothing.  Also, if this only happened once could it be blood?  If anything with blood on it is washed in hot water it will leave a stain.

I know from experience that some materials towels & washcloths made today will turn a ugly mud, orange brown color.  I dont remember what the material is but I bought them at Walmart and they were very cheap.  All our washcloths did turn that color but not the towels.   I buy only white bath towels and dishcloths so that I can bleach them but the washcloths remained orange/brown.

[Judaline]

---

@tessam wrote:

This happens to us all the time!

I researched with no success.

Changed detergant.

Had water tested.

No solution.

I have had many towels ruined and would love to hear if anyone has solved this.

Thanks

---

I'd say buy cheap towels and when it gets too bad, buy new. (cheap towels, lol)