Do you want to know the best laundry detergent for grease and oil?
Do you look at the many different products out there and wonder which one is right for my grease or oil stain on my clothing, towels, sheets, etc.?
We can help!
There are many laundry detergents out there, some better than others at removing grease and oil stains, but they have different criteria for being the appropriate choice.
To successfully remove your grease and oil stains, it’s essential to know how to choose the right product for each situation – and then execute it properly.
If you make the wrong choice or do it incorrectly, you’ll have wasted your time, money, possibly hurt the environment, and still be stuck with your unsightly grease and oil stains on your clothing, sheets, towels, etc.
You’ll still be trying to figure out what to do about it, all the while bad-mouthing a product that may work perfectly well when used correctly.
We investigated this and laid it out for you – how to choose the right product, what to look for, and even reviewed a few of the top performers!
While there are countless laundry detergents on the market to choose from, we’ve narrowed it down to our top 4 choices.
Laundry Detergents In This Review
- Permatex 22340 Fast Orange Grease X Mechanic’s Laundry Detergent (#1 Choice)
- Tide 10X Heavy Duty Liquid Laundry Detergent
- Tide Power PODS Laundry Detergent Liquid Pacs
- Ultra Fresh Platinum Original Blue Liquid Laundry Detergent
Choosing The Best Laundry Detergent For Grease And Oil
There are quite a few different products to choose from when deciding which is the best laundry detergent for grease and oil stains.
If you look at the reviews, you’ll mostly see success for some and not for others.
The trick is choosing the right product for your specific grease and oil stains, your particular fabric, a few other parameters, and then following the packaging’s instructions precisely (possibly tweaking it a bit for each situation).
If you’re still having problems, be sure to reach out to the company for help and suggestions, as well as to others who have already successfully used the product.
There are many things to consider when choosing the appropriate laundry detergent for your grease and oil stains.
- The type of grease and oil stain, i.e., motor oil, cooking oil, greasy food stains, etc.
- The type of fabric, i.e., cotton, linen, silk, etc.
- The type of laundry detergent, i.e., powder, liquid, pods, strips.
- The size of the stain and/or the number of stains (for possible pre-treating necessary).
- The type of washing machine, i.e., standard or HE/high-efficiency.
- The size of your load of laundry, i.e., small, large, commercial.
- The amount of dirt/soil on your load of laundry, i.e., normal, heavy.
- The stain-busting ingredients to look for in a laundry detergent, i.e., surfactants, enzymes, bleaching agents, etc.
- The toxic ingredients to avoid in a laundry detergent, i.e., 1,4-dioxane, phosphate, etc.
- Ratings and certifications to look for in a laundry detergent, i.e., USDA Bio-Preferred Program, EPA’s Safer Choice Program, etc.
Types Of Grease And Oil Stains Found On Laundry (Most Common)
The most common types of grease and oil stains found on laundry are motor oil stains, cooking oil stains, greasy food stains, liquid makeup stains, and many more…
These are all different types of grease and oil stains, which may require different cleaning agents.
It’s important to know what type of grease or oil stain you’re dealing with, if possible.
Types of Fabric (Most Common)
The most common types of fabric found in laundry are usually cotton, polyester, linen, rayon, wool, silk, and more…
Some of these fabrics are delicate and require different laundry detergents and have different laundering instructions from some of the other fabrics. Be mindful of the type of fabric when choosing the best laundry detergent for each job.
Types Of Laundry Detergent (Categories)
There are four categories of laundry detergents.
Some are much more generalized than others in their removal capabilities, based on their ingredients and how each type is formulated.
The four categories are:
- Powders
- Liquids
- PODS
- Strips
Benefits of Using Type Of Laundry Detergent – Powders
Powder laundry detergent are generally much cheaper than liquids, PODS, and strips.
Powder is more effective at removing dirt, clay, and mud than the others, but less effective at removing grease and oil stains.
Powder provides excellent cleaning results.
Benefits of Using Type Of Laundry Detergent – Liquids
Liquids are the most popular, readily available, and versatile of the types of laundry detergents.
Liquids are great for pre-treating stains and hand washing delicates and other items.
Liquid laundry detergents work best on greasy, oily marks and at dissolving grease and oil stains.
Liquid provides excellent cleaning results.
Benefits of Using Type Of Laundry Detergent – PODS
PODS are single-use liquid detergent packets wrapped in water-soluble PVA (polyvinyl alcohol).
PODS are growing in popularity, although they’re on the pricier side, partly because they’re so easy to use and they make sure you don’t overdo the amount of detergent used per load.
PODS are safe for use in most washing machines, including regular/standard and HE washers.
PODS provide excellent cleaning results.
Benefits of Using Type Of Laundry Detergent – Strips
Strips are the newest laundry detergent type developed, designed to eventually replace liquid, powder, and PODS in standard and HE washing machines.
They’re made of polyvinyl alcohol, completely water-soluble, and with almost 70% of their ingredients being plant-derived or biodegradable, they may be the wave of the future.
Strips provide excellent cleaning results.
Type Of Washing Machine
There are two types of washing machines: standard and HE/high-efficiency.
Standard washing machines are older washers, most with agitators, use more water, and are only top loading.
HE/high-efficiency washing machines are newer washers, use much less water, and some are top-loading, but all front-loading washers are HE.
Because HE washing machines use less water, you can only use a HE laundry detergent in a HE washer, and you cannot use regular laundry detergent in a HE washer. Still, you can use a HE or regular laundry detergent in a standard washer.
Size Of Your Load Of Laundry And Amount Of Dirt/Soil On Laundry
The size of your load of laundry, as well as the amount of dirt on your load of laundry, will affect the amount of laundry detergent you will need to use to get your laundry clean and especially to get the grease and oil stains out.
If you use the wrong amount of detergent for your load size and/or dirt amount, the stain removal results and the clothes cleanliness results will be negatively affected.
Instructions for both load size and dirt amount should be found on the laundry detergent packaging.
If not, reach out to the company for help or to other users of the product.
Stain-Busting Ingredients To Look For In Laundry Detergents
Grease and oil stains are incredibly difficult to remove because of the lipid molecules, which are insoluble in water and good at sticking tightly to cloth fibers.
A formula must effectively break the bond between the lipid molecules in the grease and oil and the cloth fibers to remove a grease or oil stain.
Ingredients in laundry detergents like baking soda, enzymes, alcohols, and concentrated solvents are most effective at fighting oil and grease stains.
There are several essential ingredients to look for in a grease and oil stain-busting laundry detergent, such as:
- Surfactants – remove dirt, grease, and oil, i.e., Alcohol Ethoxylates, found in liquid laundry detergents, used to remove grease and oil stains, and Alkylbenzene Sulfonates, found in powder detergents, used to remove mud, grass, and bloodstains.
- Enzymes – for stain removal, usually ending in -ase, i.e., Lipase is used to remove grease and oil, Amylase is used to remove starches, and Protease is used to remove proteins like blood and gravy.
- Oxidizing Agents – for bleaching, i.e., Sodium Percarbonate often used with Hydrogen Peroxide.
- Water Softeners – to make sure the surfactants work well, I.e., builders or sequestering agents.
- Polymers – to make sure dirt and stains removed go down the drain and don’t re-settle on laundry.
- Optical Brighteners – to make fabrics look whiter.
- Anti-Foaming Agents – to suppress suds, preventing excess foaming.
Toxic Ingredients To Avoid In Laundry Detergents
Some toxic ingredients are found in laundry detergents that you may want to avoid, depending on personal preference and environmental or health concerns.
A few to look out for are:
- 1,4-dioxane – a potential human carcinogen which is a byproduct of making ethoxylated ingredients – it’s been found in a couple of Tide products (not reviewed in this article). However, found to be well within allowed federal guideline amounts.
- Phosphates – make illegal algal blooms and were banned by the EPA over 20 years ago.
- Phthalates – plasticizers, which soften hard plastics, making them more difficult to break – currently, it’s unclear how they can affect our health, although they’ve been shown to have some negative impact on reproductive systems – The FDA says the way phthalates are used in laundry detergents right now is safe. Still, it’s keeping an eye on the situation.
- Nonylphenol and Nonylphenol Ethoxylates – endocrine disruptors which are related compounds usually listed together because nonylphenol ethoxylate will break down into nonylphenol (the worse of the two) in soil and water, tending to accumulate in the environment, where they can be dangerous and cause harm to wildlife (laundry detergents with the EPA Safer Choice label are free of both compounds).
Ratings And Certifications To Look For On Laundry Detergents
A few different ratings and certification programs easily let consumers know if the products they’re looking at fit a certain set of criteria, outlined, tested, and evaluated separately by each program.
These programs’ rating s and certifications help increase consumers’ confidence when buying or trying a product either for the first time or ever continuing to support the brand long-term.
Some of these ratings and certifications programs, as related to laundry detergents, are:
- USDA Bio-Preferred Program – certifies products contain a minimum of 34% bio-based ingredients, which are those ingredients “derived from plants and other renewables agricultural, marina, and forestry materials”, confirmed by a 3rd party lab test (each certified product label shows % of bio-based ingredients in each product).
- EPA’s Safer Choice Program – certifies detergents that meet specific human and environmental safety criteria, as determined by the EPA examining a detergent’s formulation for toxic ingredients, also taking into account performance, chemical ingredients, packaging, ingredient disclosures, and volatile organic compounds.
- Leaping Bunny Certification – ensures there was no animal testing at any stage in development of the product or formulation.
- EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaners – EWG’s research team examines product labels, product websites, ingredient disclosure documents, material safety data sheets, and any other information on the product they can find and compare it all against the “information available in the top government, industry, and academic toxicity databases and the scientific literature on health and environmental problems tied to cleaning products”, assigning product and ingredient ratings and marking those products meeting their “highest standards created in the interest of public health” as EWG Verified.
Review Of The Best Laundry Detergent For Grease And Oil
In this section, we’ll discuss each of our picks for the best laundry detergent for grease and oil stains.
Permatex 22340 Fast Orange Grease X Mechanic’s Laundry Detergent, 40 Fl Oz.
Permatex is found on Amazon and gets great reviews.
It’s effective at removing and repelling grease and oil stains, while also eliminating fuel, oil, and exhaust odors.
It’s great for pretreating heavily stained areas and keeps your washer free of residual grease and oil.
It has a unique blend of specially formulated surface-active agents, builders, enzymes, and additives just for removing automotive grease, oil, and fuel stains and odors.
HE detergent and safe for septic systems.
It’s available on Amazon in a 40 0z. bottle, up to 40 loads per bottle, and available in a 6-pack of 40 Oz. bottles.
Pros For This Product
- Professional grade product specifically for mechanic’s laundry – grease and oil.
- Gets rid of grease and oil stains, odors, and works to repel future stains.
- Has an element to keep your washing machine clean from residual grease and oil.
- Works on cooking oil (and other oil) stains as well.
- For use in both HE and standard washing machines.
Cons For This Product
- Cost – it’s not the cheapest bottle of laundry detergent.
- It’s industrial strength and great for grease and oil, but too strong and expensive for regular laundry.
Tide 10X Heavy Duty Liquid Laundry Detergent, 72 loads, 69 Fl Oz, Pack of 2
This product by Tide is found on Amazon and gets great reviews.
It’s formulated to fight set-in stains, caked-on dirt, and foul odors, and specifically designed for impossible stains like grease, oil, red wine, blood, and smoke.
It has 10X the cleaning power compared to stain removal of one dose of Tide Heavy Duty Liquid vs. ten doses of the leading liquid bargain brands.
Has an improved formula with chelating agents to soften water and purify the wash, enhance cleaning action, and facilitate stain removal – Ingredients: Biodegradable surfactants (Anionic and Nonionic), Enzymes.
For use in both HE and standard washing machines and safe for septic systems.
Tide 10x Heavy Duty Liquid Laundry Detergent is known as the “#1 stain remover for working professionals and the hardest working detergent in your laundry tool-box”.
It’s available on Amazon in a 69 Fl Oz, 72 Loads, 2-Pack and available in a 69 Fl Oz, 44 Loads, 1-Pack.
Pros For This Product
- Designed for impossible stains like grease and oil.
- Biodegradable and safe for septic systems.
- Cost-effective and concentrated.
- For use in both HE and standard washing machines.
Cons For This Product
- Some dangers associated with this product,
Product Safety Information: Keep out of reach of children.
Do not reuse this package for dispensing beverages or other liquids.
If swallowed, give a glassful of water.
Call a physician.
In case of eye contact, flush with water.
Tide Power PODS Laundry Detergent Liquid Pacs, 10X Heavy Duty For Impossible Stains
Tide Power Pods is found on Amazon and gets great reviews.
It fights set-in stains, caked-on dirt, foul odors and is specifically designed for impossible stains like grease, oil, and wine.
It gets 50% more cleaning power in large loads of laundry vs. Tide Original Liquid.
Made for large loads – washing machines, and therefore loads of laundry are getting bigger, so you need a bigger POD to take care of all the dirt and stains.
It dissolves completely, in any washing machine (HE or standard), in any water temperature, in any water condition.
A Reader’s Digest Survey shows Tide as Consumers’ #1 Trusted Brand.
It’s available on Amazon in a 41 Count and available in a 48 Count.
Pros For This Product
- Extremely convenient and easy to use.
- Less waste, recycling, environmental impact – so safer for environment.
- Designed for impossible stains like grease and oil.
- For use in both HE and standard washing machines.
Cons For This Product
- Some dangers associated with this product,
Product Safety Information: Concentrated detergent Pacs can burst if children put them in mouth or play with them.
The liquid inside is harmful if swallowed, or in the eyes.
KEEP PACS OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN AND PETS.
- Cost – PODS are pricier than liquid or powder detergents and less cost-effective, especially because you can’t adjust the amount of detergent used to match the actual size of your laundry load.
- At times, the PODS have been known to either not fully dissolve in the load, leaving behind a plastic ball which could be dangerous if found by children or pets, or stain white clothing or towels blue.
Ultra Fresh Platinum Original Blue Liquid Laundry Detergent, HE Concentrated
This product is found on Amazon and gets great reviews.
It’s formulated to clean heavily soiled and stained laundry, to brighten and whiten the fabrics in one washing.
It doesn’t contain any harmful ingredients like bleach or phosphates and has a refreshing fragrance.
For use in both HE and standard washing machines and safe for septic systems.
Its sturdy, sizeable 5-gallon bucket has a child-proof pull up spout and comes with an included pump to ensure easy dispensing.
Its premium concentrated formula compares to name brands like Tide based on quality, cleaning power, and number of possible loads,
It’s available on Amazon in a 5 Gallon (640 Oz.) Pail, up to 640 Loads, and available in other varieties and scents, all in 5 Gallon pails.
Pros For This Product
- Cost-Effective – although pricey, being concentrated and its huge size and extremely large number of loads make it an economical choice over other liquid laundry detergents.
- For use in both HE and standard washing machines.
- Great at stain removal – good reviews for removing grease and oil.
Cons For This Product
- The included pump can be difficult to use and will leak if installed incorrectly.
- Cost – although it will last longer than most other detergents, the initial outlay of money is a lot more than smaller sized bottles.
There are a lot of laundry detergents for grease and oil out there that you can purchase.
However, these four are some of the best laundry detergents for grease and oil that we’ve come across.
Of course, choosing the best laundry detergent for grease and oil stains depends on your things to consider when choosing the appropriate laundry detergent for grease and oil stains, as mentioned in an earlier section.
To recap:
- The type of grease and oil stain.
- The type of fabric.
- The type of laundry detergent.
- The size of the stain and/or the number of stains.
- The type of washing machine.
- The size of your load of laundry.
- The amount of dirt/soil on your load of laundry.
- The stain-busting ingredients to look for in a laundry detergent.
- The toxic ingredients to avoid in a laundry detergent.
- Ratings and certifications to look for in a laundry detergent.
FAQs
What about massage oils and creams? Are there any laundry detergents specifically for removing those types of oil and grease stains?
-Yes, there are several out there and I found a couple of them getting good reviews and available on Amazon.
Designed to quickly break down and remove tough massage lotion, oil, gel, or cream stains and any residue from all your massage sheets, linens, and uniforms.
Active ingredients include brighteners and fresheners rather than harsh bleaches and other chemicals, contains no phosphates, and is biodegradable.
Also used on work clothes and other oily, greasy laundry.
A Professional strength and biodegradable detergent improved for better oil break down and odor elimination.
It has a clean, spring fresh scent, perfect for use with your massage sheets, linens, and towels.
Why do some of the laundry detergents remove grease and oil stains completely for some people, but then don’t work at all for others?
-There could be multiple reasons and they all go back to choosing the best detergent for grease and oil which is also the right detergent in each particular situation based on the ten things to consider when choosing the appropriate laundry detergent for grease and oil stains, as both outlined and recapped earlier in this article – and getting it right!
Additionally, one of the most important factors affecting stain removal effectiveness is the amount of detergent used – too much or too little could both have negative impacts on the effectiveness of stain removal whereas the correct amount could result in complete stain removal.
Conclusion
Now you have information on what you need to consider when choosing the best laundry detergent for grease and oil stains.
You know what to look for in your stain, in your fabric, your washing machine type, in the different types of laundry detergents, their ingredients, and a few more things, when looking at the many laundry detergents for grease and oil out there and available for purchase.
We’ve reviewed several of the top performers to give you further knowledge of what to look for in choosing the best laundry detergent for grease and oil stains.
When you make the most informed choices, you prepare yourself for grease and oil stain removing happiness!
