Laundry Experts? Help!

[Melrosgirl]

Many of my cotton clothes develop white spots (not circles). Some are an inch long, some a couple of inches long. Always the cotton shirts (pastel colors typically). It's not from deodorant. They can be anywhere on the garment. I have a shirt that I bought a month ago that has 3 big spots on it now. (middle of shirt).

Any idea what is causing this? I have a front loading washing machine, wash the clothes on cold, use liquid detergent. I do not use bleach (these are pastel cotton shirts). It's driving me nuts. Thanks!

 

[swanmom]

I had a similar problem when I brought the wrong detergent by mistake. I usually buy 'Tide' and mistakenly picked up 'Tide w/Bleach.' Took me several washloads to figure out why I was having problems with white spots. It comes from clothes having direct contact with the soap....I guess you're supposed to let the tub fill completely which dilutes the detergent and then add your clothes. Well, (being the patient one that I am) instead of following the instructions, I solved the problem by making sure my detergent never contains bleach!

 

[Melrosgirl]

I have only used color safe bleach (clorox 2) and that's on rare occasion. Could it be that??