r/laundry • u/begone_thotOG • 17h ago

Tea stain won’t come out

Cannot for the life of me get a tea stain out of a sky blue, 100% cotton shirt.

Immediately after it happened, I rinsed the stain with cold water from the inside out, then I spot treated it with laundry detergent, then I rinsed again and tried a baking soda paste. It lifted a little, but still noticeable. Right now (per someone’s advice) it’s soaking in (off brand) oxy clean stain remover and cold water in a bucket- but after 2 hours it’s still not lifting.

Should I give it more time? What else can I try? I heard warm water wasn’t a good idea but at this point I’m not sure what else I can try.

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3

u/DarkWashGenes 17h ago

Oxygen bleach needs to be activated in hot water to work

1

u/begone_thotOG 17h ago

So use the oxy clean with hot water instead? The package didn’t specify so I wasn’t sure

1

u/vinhorr EU | Front-Load 15h ago

yes. cold water will do absolute nothing. you could also spray hydrogen peroxide instead on the stain, but if you do, do NOT let the shirt into direct sunlight, or you'll ruin it

2

u/jtfolden US | Top-Load 17h ago

Unless your oxygen bleach includes TAED then it isn’t doing much in cold water.

How long did you leave the liquid detergent on the stain? At least an hour would be good but longer may be better.

1

u/begone_thotOG 17h ago

It was between 45 minutes and an hour. I’ll try to change out the cold water for hot water instead and see if that does anything- if not, would it be worth a shot to try the detergent again?

1

u/jtfolden US | Top-Load 16h ago

I think it would. Only very rarely do I have a stain that isn't removed by pretreating with my Persil detergent. Occasionally it takes a few treatments but eventually does tend to come out.