Vinegar works as a great substitute.
this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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Vinegar is just an incredible thing. It gets out so many weird substances and smells.
Even without fabric softener people should be running a hot water heavy duty cycle with bleach or washing machine cleaner every now and then because that sludgy buildup happens eventually either way
I've run 4 swlf clean cycles some with bleach, some with vinegar, and some with the professional washer cleaning stuff. It's still full of gunk. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to have to pull the drum and hand scrub at this point.
I haven't used fabric softener and I don't feel like I'm missing out
I recently read an article (in Dutch) which sums up why you should not use fabric softener. It is quite politicized, so I will not directly link to it here. The TL:DR is a bit like below:
- It does not work
- It is bad for the environment
- It is bad for humans
- It is bad for the washing machine
As fellow Dutchie I would like to read the article, is you don't feel like posting it, could you dm me?
I hate fabric aoftener. And people who use fabric softener on towels are psychopaths.
Chances are your mom just uses way too much.
Any amount is too much.
I feel the same way with my wife adding fabric softener or natural vinegar to loads. I would expect the vinegar to throw off the ph of the water and make the detergent not work as well as it's supposed to.. but to each there own I guess.
Most fabric softeners contain animal fats.
Folks have already explained that the fabric softener compartment gets added at the rinse cycle and is where vinegar should be added, but I wanted to add that if you'd like to remove fabric softener from your clothes or other fabric items, vinegar does a wonderful job and will make things absorbent again :)
Its great for microfibers, or towels ☺️
I always throw vinegar into the fabric softener compartment so it's dispensed toward the end of the cycle. By that point it doesn't interact with the detergent and I've found that it does rinse clean, leaving clothes smelling fresher than if I don't use it.
You can also use it as rinse aid in your dishwasher, although I've found you may need to increase how much "rinse aid" is dispensed for a similar effect. Still a huge savings over rinse aid. But I digress...
Same, after washing there isn't any vinegar smell either. I make my own cheap liquid laundry detergent with olive soap and baking soda.
Vinegar can be used as a fabric softner but you need to add it durring the rinse cycle. So you can't just throw it in at the start.
I have always heard that using it too often is very acidic and bad for plastic and rubber seals on a washing machine. More so front load but also top load.