Rinsing in a washing machine

[monica]

Hi everyone,  I am a newbie to here so please  bear with me.

I love to dye beach towels,  and have had quite a bit of success until now.  I just got a new high efficiency washing machine and am having a real hard time keeping the colors from getting murky.   Unfortunately I am now under  the wire because I have been asked to put together a few tie dyed items for a charity auction basket and I need to have them done by Thursday.  Any suggestions??

[tiedyejudy]

Hi, Monica.  Welcome to the forum!  As for your new machine, does it have a feature that allows for one or two rinses?  If so, I suggest using 2 rinses.  Also, what makes it high efficiency?  Is the water use lower than regular machines?  If so, you may need to run the items through two washings or set it for a larger load.  I assume you are using synthrapol to wash after you have dyed... if not, I strongly recommend that you do.  Hope this helps!

Judy

[steve]

You could always to some pre-rinsing by hand before throwing them into the machine. Not ideal in terms of labor, but since you are under the gun...

[monica]

Thanks for the help! The towels turned out wonderful. I tied them in a classic spiral and dyed them with the classic colors turquoise, yellow  and fuschia intentionally overlapping the colors for orange, green and purple. the rinsing and washing Was very time consuming. First I ran them thro 2 cold wash cycles on the "quick wash" setting. Then 3 runs thru on hot. On great thing about my low water usage HE washing machine it that it has a Sanitary setting which unfortunately takesabout 2.5 hours to run (which is that I used on one of the hot runs). However it Was worth it. After about 8 hours of washing and rewash I was very pleased! Now lets all hope my "Fun in the Sun" basket which has 2 towels, 2 spiral T shirts (same dye lot), sunscreen, beach ball, and a few sand toys or, does well at the auction which is tomorrow night.
 Thanks Again! Monica

[Marg]

So could you clarify on your usage of the HE machine? You took your dyed items and put them straight into the machine and did 2 quick wash cycles and then 3 hot cycles? I have never used my HE machine for tie dye and am curious if it could actually work. Thanks, Marg