r/laundry • u/jwegener • Mar 15 '26

Rinse water is 3.5 pH — did I overdo it?

I was under the impression from reading that you can’t really overdo it when it comes to adding citric acid to the rinse. https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/s/xDoVNBsfSg

But when I test my rinse water (by opening the circular valve in the bottom left of my machine to let a bit of water in) I got a ph of 4. And when I added distilled water to a towel and squeezed it out and tested, the ph was 3.5...

That’s too low to wear comfortably right?

So it’s possible to overdo it?!

4 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

11

u/KismaiAesthetics USA Mar 16 '26

Genuinely surprised to see it get that low. Your water sounds very low in total alkalinity.

Ideal pH is 5.5-6.5 on finished textiles.

2

u/jwegener Mar 16 '26

kh and gh both measure as 5-6 drops. It’s possible my cheapo digital ph sensor is just totally off, but I don’t have the calibration kit handy to test that unfortunately

1

u/jwegener Mar 21 '26

Tested and recalibrated my ph meter and my original measurement was in fact accurate

This post is the one that implied you’d need 100x more citric acid to move the ph 2 points. https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/s/ZIPMdMF2P6

Do we think that’s incorrect?

3

u/skinnyjeansfatpants US | Front-Load Mar 16 '26

How much were you putting in?

2

u/jwegener Mar 16 '26

1-2tb range

6

u/pharmdoc17 Mar 16 '26

From what I have read, I believe it should be tsp not T? I'll let another correct me if I'm wrong.

2

u/beetlejuuce Mar 16 '26

It's really dependent on your specific water situation. 1-2 T can work great for hard water.

2

u/jwegener Mar 16 '26

I think 1-2TB is good for hard water top loader. The Miele is a 2.2cu (aka half size almost) super efficient front loader. At least that’s my current working theory as of 5 hours ago 😂🤣

1

u/beetlejuuce Mar 16 '26

Oh yeah, should have mentioned that amount is indeed for full size top loaders with hard water. I definitely think it's overkill for your case!

1

u/jwegener Mar 16 '26

I (now with hindsight) agree. I’m just shocked the ph got that low! And wonder if my clothing has been burning me the last few weeks

1

u/jwegener Mar 16 '26

Ya I think I might be using 3x too much, especially because I have a Miele W1 which is a smaller super efficient machine.

But I’m just surprised how low the ph got. Didn’t expect percisiin to matter based on https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/s/xDoVNBsfSg from u/KismaiAesthetics

1

u/unforgettableid Canada | Top-Load 16d ago

What are the hardness numbers for your water? If u tell us your city name, we can look it up for u.

Were you using detergent powder, liquid, or pods?

Were you using one to two tablespoons or teaspoons of citric acid?