How do you get rid of excess soap in a load of laundry?

[Kat45]

I'm cross-posting this from the Household Hints & Help Group because I don't know if many people read that group.

You know how the detergents are quite concentrated now? The bottle says to fill to line 1 for regular loads, line 2 for large or heavily soiled loads. I'm doing a full load of towels, so I filled to line 2, even though I had a feeling I shouldn't have. Anyway, when my load was done, there was still a lot of soap left in the washer. When it's happened on occasion in the past, I've run the load through again with no (additional) soap and it's been fine.

Well, after the second go-round there was still a ton of soap left. It's almost finished with the third round now, and when I peeked in a while ago, it looked like there was still an awful lot of soap in there. I have a feeling there will still be soap when this load is finished. I'm not sure what to do. Am I going to have to keep washing this towels over and over again before they'll be done and free from soap? The towels are going to get worn out just in the wash. I also have another load of laundry to do, and at this rate, I'll still be running these towels through tomorrow.

Is there anything else I can do to get rid of the excess soap?

[Glassunion]

1. I had the same thing happen to me once.

I rinsed them out in my tub until the suds were gone. I then wrung them out by folding the towels several times and pressing on them in the tub(think CPR)... then I put them in the dryer with a sheet of bounce. They came out fine.

[MicaelS]

2. Take them to a coin laundry, or use white distilled vinegar

And run them through one of the big front loader washers. The kind that have stainless steel cabinets, and cost as much as $3-$5 for one load. These are "extractor" type washers, and spin at high speed to extract water and suds from the clothes. Don't use any soap, run the towels on hot, not warm or cold, that will help break down the soap left in them.

Get and use some white distilled vinegar. It's cheap, only a few dollars for a gallon. Don't need to get any fancy brand names, just "white distilled vinegar".

http://www.vinegartips.com/Scripts/pageViewSec.asp?id=8

Add about 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar to the last rinse. The acid in white distilled vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, yet strong enough to dissolve the alkalies in soaps and detergents. Besides removing soap, white distilled vinegar prevents yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and static cling reducer, and attacks mold and mildew.

Remove soap scum and clean the hoses of your washing machine with white distilled vinegar. Periodically run the machine with only a cup of white distilled vinegar in it—nothing else added to the wash cycle.

[Dappleganger]

3. I'd use a whole cup of white vinegar and no soap

and run it through another cycle.

[Kat45]

4. Thanks to everyone for the replies.

I put about 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar in with the rinse cycle (of the fourth wash) and it seems to be ok now. (I already had the vinegar; that's what I use for cleaning.) Thanks.

[Hotler]

5. Is it the detergent, or is it too much detergent??

I end up with a white haze on dark items. I end up rinsing twice.

[MiddleFingerMom]

7. I get that sometimes when I set the washer for a "mini"-load and I probably should not have. n/t

[Iggo]

6. I don't do full loads of towels anymore.

I split them up between the other loads, no more than four full size towels per load, and four is really pushing it...two is better.

For now, bust the load in half, run it from the first rinse. Repeat for second half-load.

Dry both half-loads together.