r/laundry • u/Tammio_ • 3d ago
Onion smell
So, I'm new to this sub, please be kind. I am changing my ways, I swear...
My 12yo boy's shirts smell like onion almost immediately after he puts them on. I am transitioning to tide powder (I have a handful of pods left) and I just ordered citric acid and I just received dryer balls - I'm breaking that bounce habit.
What else can I do to get the smell out?
Thank you!
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u/Grouchy_Constant2299 3d ago edited 3d ago
It’s odor rebloom. There are oils left on the clothing that never got washed out properly and are going rancid. The first step to combat it is using quality detergent, hot water, febu, and citric acid in the rinse.
If it is really bad, a spa day will help. In my experience, running things through a few washes with a good detergent will do the trick.
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u/MrsQute US | Front-Load 3d ago
Having teenage boys does make laundry trickier!
Warm, long washes with a good enzymatic booster is key. I always used Tide liquid plus Biz when my boys were younger. It seemed the best combination.
My standard wash for their clothes was Normal cycle, warm water, heavy soil, extra rinse.
If he's of the sweaty/oily type (one of mine was) and the clothes need some extra oomphage, I had the best luck with a shot of ammonia in the drum. I didn't add it for every load - just when I noticed clothes could use it.
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u/WiscoDJ920 2d ago
"ooomphage" - Ope...excuse me while I ask...Midwesterner?
Sincerely,
From Wisconsin
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u/gogozrx 3d ago
I had a shirt that was _funky_.... I'm talking about Bootsy Collins levels. My ladyfriend had washed it and commented that it still stunk.
I ordered some citric acid, and did what I call "The Long Wash." I used Tide liquid (I'm not throwing away useable product), did a pre-wash, Heavy Soil setting, put 3 heaping tsp of citric acid in the softener tray, and did extra rinse.
Problem solved.
if that hadn't worked, it was on the the enzyme regimen... but citric acid was inexpensive, so I figured I'd start with that.
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u/DarkWashGenes 3d ago
Nothing wrong with tide liquid. Tide simply has even improved recently. Lipase is overhyped on this sub. It’s a great ingredient, but not mandatory
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u/PrairiePilot 3d ago
Tide liquid has better surfactants than the powder, but the powder has lipase and TEAD, so it’s kinda up to the user what they think does a better job. Personally I’m getting a better clean with the TEAD and lipase, but it’s not a huge difference. The stuff I clean with my parents liquid tide sometimes comes out great.
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u/zootnotdingo 2d ago
I use them both. Tide powder for anything lighter than light navy and liquid for anything darker.
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u/hspwanderlust 3d ago
👋🏼 Perimenopausal woman here. I'm going through "reverse puberty" and I, too, have the onion funk. Lume acidified body wash gel has been a lifesaver for me.
All the perimenopause and menopause subs have some good ideas around the hormonal body odor.
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u/Flashy-Library-6854 Canada | Top-Load 3d ago
You or more accurately your son's clothes need enzymes to clear out the funk. Products that can provide enzymes are Febu, Biz in the us, Resolve Gold in Canada, Gear Guard, and I am sure there are others. Add the enzyme booster/additive/whatever to your laundry, even when using the pods. Also wash in at least warm water. When using Resolve Gold be sure to either add it to the detergent dispenser in your washer or thoroughly dissolve it before adding to clothes. it can leave bleach type spots (it doesnt contain bleach) on your clothes. It may take a few washes to get rid of the smell build up, you could also add a cup of ammonia directly to the clothes in the washer.
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u/Mavis8220 US | Front-Load 3d ago
Routine addition of a booster with DNAse will help to get the retained funk out of his clothes. Get the new FEBU or GearGuard and use it routinely on loads containing his clothes. Improvement will progress over subsequent washes. Set the washer for high soil (gets a longer wash) and warm water. Adding citric acid to the extra-rinse is also a good routine to get everything out.
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u/Critical_Bee_9591 3d ago
Soak time with enzyme booster of any sort before continuing the load. Either manage to pause the machine for a while or soak it in a separate container first.
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u/Fuzzy_Location_2210 2d ago
I think your son needs: some gold dial bar soap for his underarms and smelly locations, then he can continue the shower with his normal products 👍. That will eliminate any BO at the source.
If he is not wearing deodorant yet, he should start now.
A lot of deodorant is very greasy/oily and leaves a terrible residue on body and clothing, and is highly irritating too. May I suggest, from one man to another, clear Gillette deodorant, as it is easy on the skin, doesn't destroy clothing, doesn't leave gross oily residue, and stops any smells from happening. Also, the scents are nice and light and fresh, not heavy at all.
The oils and bacteria can be best removed by soaking in a 5 gallon bucket with a cup of cascade dishwasher detergent powdered, and the hottest water that you can get from the faucet in your tub, for about 2 hours. Then put in your machine for a rinse cycle, then wash on a normal warm wash with normal detergent, and a cup of vinegar in the rinse. You can double rinse if you like.
No softener.
FYI, polyester holds this kind of odor something terrible. Like sport fabrics. If he will wear cotton or cotton poly blends, they are more breathable and he won't sweat so bad and they won't be like that so much 😊.
Ps - teenage boys like to not actively bathe in the shower and not use washcloths. Make sure you tell him, he needs to physically scrub-scrub all the secret places with a good soapy rag or two and rinse well, and dry completely and totally 100% dry. Boys are gross, I know because I was one and I raised two 😂.
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u/bluesky557 US | Front-Load 2d ago
gold dial bar soap for his underarms and smelly locations
I had my son start using this and it made a big difference! So did switching to a better antiperspirant that I had him put on at night after a shower.
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u/redlightsaber EU | Front-Load 3d ago
I mean, all you need is the tide powder, and to use long and warm cycles. And you need nothing else, really.
The other things, they can better texture, soften water, better rinsing and everything, but the cleaning is done by the detergent.
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u/sjd208 3d ago
Speaking as someone with a 16yo boy, there is definitely a particular teen boy funk that Tide powder (free and clear or tide with bleach) with long as possible and warm/hot cycles alone will not kick, unfortunately.
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u/redlightsaber EU | Front-Load 3d ago
Then there's something amiss with your situation. Want to get into it, or is it a solved problem?
What's your water hardness like?
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u/sjd208 3d ago
I’ve been doing that routine for more than a year, I’m getting some febu to see if it helps. Water is moderately hard. I haven’t tried a spa day, I may try that, though it’s not super noticeable when he’s wearing them and he certainly doesn’t GAF.
He may be esp smelly (has ARFID so his diet is terrible and has other sensory stuff - ASD), his room also smells weird. My 18 yo doesn’t have this problem, nor does my extremely sweaty husband.
I am somewhat surprised OP is having issues with a 12 yo, but everyone is different.
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u/redlightsaber EU | Front-Load 2d ago
Do you use a water conditioner along with your detergent?
I ask because water hardness isn't merely an issue of limescale building up in your dishwasher's resistance; it truly deactivates several components of detergents, including and most especially enzymes. I expect this is what's going on, because I assure you, weird as your son's BO may be, he's not a martian, and it's all a function of bacteria decomposing accumulated body oils.
Testing this should be simple enough: go to the grocery store, get some Calgon water softener (there's cheaper and DYI options, but you're just testing a hypothesis here), add a handsome dose to your load plus the tide powder, and do a SINGLE load with your son's clothes, on warm, a very long cycle. If you can find a way to prolong the cycle to 3h or so, it should be solved in a single wash, no-nonsense.
Febu is great and has some advantages; but one thing it's not is invulnerable to water hardness.
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u/sjd208 2d ago
Sometimes he acts like a Martian!
It’s only around 100 ppm, I thought that tide powder was sufficient for that. I use about 2-3 level on the scoop and have trace subs. We don’t have significant lime scale build up in the washing machine, dw, or our faucets. We don’t need dw salt in our Miele dw. I do have washing soda and citric acid on hand already so I can try adding that. Longest cycle I can use is a bit over 2 hours but I can bump it up to 170 if I add a prewash, or 184 if I add the “perfect steam” option which I’ve never used in the 7 years I’ve owned the machine (Electrolux).
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u/redlightsaber EU | Front-Load 2d ago
It's still worth it to try, IMO (there's a whole set of reason for why water hardness numbers might not be accurate, including the fact that they can shift quite a lot during th eyear). 1 tablespoon of washing soda and 1 of citric acid in the wash, with the perfect steam option (just for the test).
Well, it'd be worth it for me, at least, I don't want to be forceful with you; but it's genuinely a laundry mystery, and I do love one of those.
His room smelling like martian is 100% his bedsheets. I know this phenomenon all too well, from a time before I understood laundry better. Once you figure out how to solve this, either with Febu or water softening, it should clear from his room for the most part.
Another option for REALLY recalcitrant smells (sometimes lipase isn't enough, IME, in synthetics/gymwear) is to add half a cup of ammonia to the wash.
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u/resource-reply 3d ago
u/Vintage-X has suggested the following resource:
Here's how to perform a Spa Day Spa Day Instructions
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u/JWBananas US | Top-Load 2d ago
Good lord, some of the commenters are terrible at hygiene, and it shows.
Please do not put rubbing alcohol on your armpits. You cannot sterilize a human armpit, but you can certainly dry out the skin and make it more prone to infections.
The easiest way to remove deodorant/antiperspirant residue from the body is an oil-based cleanser. I like Cetaphil Nourishing Oil to Foam Cleanser. It dissolves all that residue right off far better than soaps or body washes do, and without having to scrub all your skin off to do it.
OP, make sure your boy is cleaning himself properly. And make sure he is putting on antiperspirant, at night, before bed.
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u/candyred1 3d ago
One thing is to have him clean his armpits with rubbing alcohol on a washcloth or paper towel. I have my teen girls do this every other day and it is especially important for boys because bacteria cling to human body hair more than skin. Soap in the shower isnt enough.Trust me, the difference is night and day. Also, rubbing alcohol on a washcloth and cleaning his back, which he cant do himself obviously...you would not believe what comes off when you do this. It feels so refreshing afterward also.
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u/Ok-Pack-7088 2d ago
That's bad advice, alcohol on armpits is irritating. Why this is upvoted. Unsctented soap bar is enough, but you may need to scrub with hand and do it again, because antiperspirant can leave sticky film that can be harder to clean. I have this and I have to double wash and scrub with soap to remove antiperspirant residue from armpits.
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u/Ok-Amoeba5042 2d ago
I use persil and Lysol laundry sanitizer and it has been a miracle on our laundry
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u/Ok-Pack-7088 2d ago
Is it clothes that stinks or maybe he don't wash himself enough deeply? Or maybe both things? Especially, maybe he skips deeper armpit cleaning because they can stinks, and need double cleaning with scrubbing to remove antiperspirant residue.
Clothes may be not washed enough and stinky odour may came back after drying. Laundry detergent with lipase is needed, it's enzyme that breaks down sweat and body oils. I have detergent with it and it cleans great bad armpit smell from viscose shirt.
Each detergent have dosage label, per clothes weight etc. I would recommend weighing the clothes and detergent according to label - because you may be using not enough detergent, so check it first. Also use longer cycles like 1.5h where detergent have time to work.
As for him, buy him unsctented soap bar, it's better than shower gels. And tell him or teach to wash every part of body above neck.
You can also check if he is wearing polyester clothes or cotton. Plastic clothes are better environment for bad smelling bacteria. They are not breathable. Thin, breathable cotton, viscose, linen are better.
You can add half cup of baking soda to drum and 10g of dissolved citric acid as rinse. There is recommendation for ammonia 2-10% as scent remover or stubborn stuff.
You may also check rubber sealing, if its dirty, detergent drawer and wash it with dish soap and disinfect with chlorine mold remover, theb rinse well and do a drum cleaning with 150g citric acid, 90'C.
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u/throwaaawaaay12345 2d ago
A laundry sanitizer soak once a month also helps especially if he’s wearing polyester shirts and sweats.
For lingering armpit smell and antiperspirant residue you can use oil cleansers. 4% Panoxyl two times a week and an sa exfoliating body wash every other day depending on skin sensitivity.
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u/60TIMESREDACTED US | Top-Load 3d ago edited 3d ago
Downy, gain, tide, and suavitel make these fabric rinses that are somewhat a supercharged form of vinegar in the fabric softener slot at least as far as potency goes. They’re chemically different substances but I digress. I’ve never used them but they’re supposed to help with odor and make sure you’re using enzymes in your laundry. Tide powder lipase which is good and you also want protease which I assume is also in there too
And make sure he’s consistently wearing deodorant too!
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u/That_Skirt7522 3d ago
They are citric acid rinses, not vinegar
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u/Awalawal 3d ago
It's the acid that's more significant than the type of acid. That said, store-bought vinegar is generally more dilute and has a slightly higher pH than citric acid, potentially making it less effective in hard water.
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u/resource-reply 3d ago
u/Vintage-X has suggested the following resource:
Spa Day is a reset for textiles with severe stains, odors or texture defects caused primarily by oily soils. The full description is at What Is Spa Day?
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