Can Laundry Detergents Disinfect Clothes?

People use laundry detergents as a liquid cleaning solution for the clothes in their washing machines. The detergent mixes with the water and spins with the clothes to remove common dirt particles and impurities from them.

However, there is a big difference between detergent and disinfectant. Standard laundry detergent is only formulated to clean clothes rather than to sanitize clothes. Therefore, if you want to remove germs and bacteria from your clothing, you need to look for laundry detergent with a disinfectant or sanitizing additive.

White Vinegar

Some laundry detergent brands contain natural disinfectant additives, such as white vinegar. The great thing about white vinegar is that it can disinfect colored and white clothes equally. And if your laundry detergent does not have white vinegar, you can always add it to the load in your washing machine separately. Any water temperature is acceptable.

Bleach

Bleach is a much more effective disinfectant for clothing. Some high-quality laundry detergent products contain bleach in them. These products work best for disinfecting white clothes because they don’t leave any stains or marks. Bleach has the power to kill 99.9% of all the germs and bacteria on your clothing. Hot or cold water is acceptable when cleaning clothes with bleach.

If you need to disinfect colored clothes, the bleach option has the potential to fade or discolor them. You’ll need to choose another laundry detergent product with a different disinfectant additive.

Phenols

Phenols are sanitizing compounds found in common household disinfectants and antiseptic products. There are also laundry detergent products that use phenols as an alternative to bleach. They provide a high degree of disinfection for your clothing. The best part is that you can use them to clean white or colored clothing.

You can use hot or cold water with a phenolic laundry detergent too. Anyone new to cleaning and disinfecting laundry should use phenolic laundry detergents. The clothes come out fresh, clean, and looking great.

The Verdict

Yes, you can disinfect clothes with laundry detergent. But you cannot use any random laundry detergent product from the shelf. It must be a product with disinfectant ingredients and compounds.

Also, certain laundry detergent products may be marked as environmentally friendly or biodegradable. These products won’t necessarily be better or worse as a disinfectant for your clothes. But if you would rather have environmentally friendly ingredients in your detergent, then look out for products with the proper labels on them.

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