Q&A for How to Add Vinegar to Laundry

Use 1/4 cup of vinegar for very mild odors, 1/2 cup for medium odors, and 1 cup for strong odors or if you want to brighten your laundry.

That depends on what you want the vinegar to do. If you want to brighten your clothes, add the vinegar to the bleach dispenser. For softening your clothes, add the vinegar to your fabric softener dispenser. To fight mild odors, add it directly to the washing machine basin during the rinse cycle, or use it in place of regular detergent and add it again during the rinse cycle if you need to remove really strong odors.

You can use vinegar and laundry detergent in the same load, but you cannot mix them. If you're using detergent, add the vinegar to the rinse cycle after the detergent is out. Otherwise, you'll get oily clothes.

Vinegar should not cause holes in most fabrics. Things that typically cause holes in laundered clothing include: The clothing is old and has weakened over time; the rinse cycle is too high for the type of fabric; something like opened zippers or a loose bra underwire has caught on other clothes during a wash or drying cycle; or the clothing was snagged on something before the wash and it wasn’t noticed until after drying.

Yes, you can put vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser when using it for the final rinse to soften your already washed clothes. Vinegar softens your washed clothes by removing residual detergent. Never add vinegar to a wash that’s used chlorine bleach though, as this creates toxic chlorine gas fumes.

Vinegar cleans away alkaline build-up left on clothes by the detergent; this removal of residue that dulls clothes brightens them and helps them to "look" clean as well as being clean. Vinegar does not set or prevent color bleeding on modern dyes. As such, it remains important to test colored clothing before washing it completely in vinegar in case it fades the color or causes it run. Also be aware that the acetic acid in vinegar can weaken some clothing fibers and possibly damage colors in certain fabrics, such as rayon or acetate, so it's best to avoid washing these fabrics in vinegar. And while vinegar can remove stains, it can also fade some colors, so be sure to test first.

Simply add half a cup to the "fabric softener" compartment, If you have one, since it is released during the rinse cycle and vinegar is used to rinse off any residual soap. If you don't have this compartment, wait until you hear your washing machine make the water draining sound and add the vinegar as it refills.

No. it will keep them scum free. Fabric softener is the worst item in your machine and pipes. It clogs with sludge.

You certainly can, but you don't want to. The vinegar will react with the baking soda to leave behind mostly water and some chemical salts. In other words, the two will mostly react with each other rather than the dirt/grease/smells in the laundry. Using baking soda during a soak cycle with detergent and/or oxygenated bleach followed by vinegar during the later stages of the wash cycle is the way to get the best of both worlds. Most of the baking soda will be gone after the soak water is drained so that when the vinegar is later added, it will not be neutralized by the baking soda.

Your detergent should have all rinsed out with the first rinse, unless you are using too much detergent. Try this: take some clothes (or better yet, towels) that have gone through the whole wash cycle. Put in the washer with no detergent, just 1 to 2 cups white vinegar. If you get suds, you know that is leftover detergent. In this case, keep running "vinegar rinse" until you don't get suds, then adjust how much laundry soap you use going forward.

Most grocery stores and supermarkets will have it, near the other types of vinegar and oils.

Yes. The first time you wash a pair of new clothes, add some vinegar to the rinse cycle. Vinegar is commonly used tie dyeing to set the color.

The vinegar goes in the fabric softener dispenser. I use 2/3 cup per load.

No, the aroma of vinegar fades during rinsing and drying.

Had the washing machine been used with bleach in that slot before? It is possible there was some bleach left that got picked up with the vinegar and deposited into the laundry.

Put vinegar in the fabric softener compartment. It will then go into the wash at the rinse cycle automatically.

No! Vinegar and bleach make poisonous gas, just as bleach and ammonia do. Don't mix bleach with stuff, the chemistry can kill you.

I only use about 1/3 cup of Vinegar in each load and no more store bought laundry detergents. We love it. NO smell, really clean, and the appliance person said it is the best.

Vinegar is safe for colors and whites.

Yes. Vinegar is good for your clothes. However, you need to make sure you rinse them well.

No, not any more than time, commercial detergents, or bleach. I use white distilled vinegar all the time and have not noticed any difference. In fact, my darks don't fade as badly, and my clothes seem brighter and smell fresher.

No, only distilled vinegar can be used. As far as I know, it is unknown if other types are just as effective.

It isn't unsafe. However, vinegar is more likely to impede than enhance the ecology of the system.

Vinegar will remove the musty, funky odor towels tend to smell like after a week or so of use. The vinegar can be added to your regular wash (1/2 cup) or in the final rinse cycle. There will not be any vinegar smell in the towels.

White vinegar alone should whiten clothes. I do not think adding borax with the vinegar would do any harm. Why don't you test it on a rag to find out?

Use distilled white vinegar. If your store offers more than one variety, stick with the standard strength, not "extra strength."

I've found the best way to remove the smell of cat urine from my son's hockey gear and the awful smell of his athletic sweat smell is to first wash out his gear in the tub with Dawn dish soap and drain it. Then I soak it in hot water and add baking soda and white vinegar (and yes I make sure it fizzes up) and then I just let it soak as long as possible. I rinse it all out and drain and hang/air dry everything.

Yes, you can add vinegar into the bleach dispenser to help clean your clothes.

Yes. Our washer is an HE machine. The vinegar works wonders. There was also mold building up in our washer before we started using vinegar. Now the mold is gone.

Anyone can contribute to an article on wikiHow. Most likely some are either using too much or too little of the product. Experiment a little and see what works for you.