Laundry Soap Designed for Mechanics to Remove Grease are Rare
Its actually kind of surprising that there are not more laundry soaps designed to remove grease from the clothes of mechanics. Although any companies use a laundering service for mechanic uniforms, there is still a pretty large need for laundry soap that’s designed to remove grease.
Even if your company uses a service to wash your work clothes, there are still many other clothing items for mechanics that need to be washed regularly. Gloves, hats and things like this are regularly washed by mechanics and removing the grease, grime and oil can be a serious headache.
I have used one of the only products available to remove grease from mechanics clothes, “Grease X” made by Permatex and sold under the Fast Orange line of products with mild success. Since the results were far from a spam-dunk, I wanted to do some research and find out what other mechanics are using to wash their clothes.
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Finding Laundry Soap for Mechanics is Harder than I Thought
My reason for purchasing Grease X in the first place was just because I came across the laundry soap while looking at tools on Amazon. I had never used any type of degreasing soap to wash my work clothes and I figured at the price it was worth buying. I honestly wasn’t floored by the results, but it did work better than normal laundry soap for my clothes that were covered in grease and oil.
The company I worked for at the time also had a laundering service, so I didn’t have a huge need for my own laundry soap to wash my work clothes. Fast forward to now where I actually have to wash my own work clothes and I found myself again looking for something that would actually take the grease out.
What I found when I started to do some research was surprising. There is virtually nothing available for mechanics laundry soap aside from the Permatex 22340 Grease X that I bought in the past. Not on Amazon, not on eBay- nowhere.
Laundry Soaps for “Work” are More Common- But Still Rare
When I broadened my search to include “laundry soap for work clothes”, I was able to find a couple more options aside from the Grease X soap. Unfortunately, the laundry soaps I found with this query were more geared toward eliminating odors as you can see with the picture below showing OUT Prowash Workwear.
As you can see, there is little value in adding “work clothes” to the search when it comes to finding a way to remove grease and oil from a mechanics clothes. This isn’t to say that removing the smell from a mechanics clothes isn’t important because it is, but it does nothing for the oil and grease that we get on our clothes, hats and gloves working on vehicles.
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Why Aren’t Their More Laundry Soaps for Grease?
I suspect the main reason there aren’t many laundry soaps specifically for removing grease is because there isn’t a huge demand for it and most mechanics won’t pay a premium for laundry soap made for mechanics specifically.
The use of uniform companies like Cintas is another good reason nobody is making laundry soap for mechanics. If more mechanics had to wash clothes at home, the demand would be higher for both laundry soap and washing machines.
Washing clothes that are covered in oil, dirt, grease or anything else that comes with working on a car is notoriously hard on washing machines and should be avoided unless the washer is designated for washing work clothes only. In many auto repair shops that don’t offer a laundering service, they do have a washer used just for washing work clothes and accessories.
Its these places that a laundry soap designed for removing things like the smell of fuel and gear oil would be handy. Unfortunately, there are very little options on the market right now.
If you do wash grease stained work clothes at home, there is a good option for cleaning your washing machine called “Active Washing Machine Cleaner”. The tablets made for removing grease and dirt from your laundry machines are a good idea when you have no choice but to wash your clothes from work in your home machines.
What are the Options for Cleaning Grease from Clothes?
Since we’ve established that there are very few options for removing grease from work clothes, what is the best way to get your clothes clean after working on a car, truck or other piece of equipment?
Most mechanics, myself included actually use a product that isn’t sold as a laundry detergent to remove grease and oil stains from clothes. Lestoil Heavy-Duty Degreaser is a powerful concentrated cleaner that can be added to a load of laundry to get everything from fuel to gear oil out of your clothes.
Here is the Recommended Lestoil Procedure for Clothes
It’s important to realize when using Lestoil to remove stains from clothes that a little bit goes a long ways. If the grease stain is isolated, dab around a teaspoon of Lestoil on the stain and let it sit for 10 minutes. If you are using the degreaser on an entire load, pour around a 1/4 cup (2 oz.) directly in with your laundry soap.
If you are using Lestoil to wash an entire load of work clothes, I would recommend also using a small amount of Dawn dish soap, either on the worst stains or just added to the load. Either way, it would be a mistake not to use Dawn and expect the best results getting grease out of the clothes.
I found this method of adding Lestoil to be very popular among mechanics trying to get their clothes clean. Searching the internet for the easiest way to get grease stains out of clothes was how I ended up finding the method in the first place.
If you are desperate to find a better way to degrease your work clothes, the method above is 100% worth trying. As I said, I have searched for and tried all of the laundry soap made for mechanics and getting grease out with little actual success. The fact that I got my best results using a cheap degreaser in Lestoil was a benefit I never intended to find.
Is there another way you get grease out of your work clothes? Share in the comments below so other mechanics can try it.
