The 4 Best Laundry Stain Removers, Tested and Reviewed
We tested eight products by Shout, OxiClean, The Laundress, a DIY vinegar-dish soap mixture, and more to see which removed stubborn, set-in stains
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The feeling of pulling a white T-shirt out of your closet, putting it on, looking in the mirror, and realizing the bit of coffee you spilled on it at last weekend’s brunch hasn’t completely washed out in the washer is a familiar one. Even the best laundry detergents can struggle to completely remove stubborn stains like coffee, blood, and grass. That’s where laundry stain removers come in. They’re formulated to penetrate set-in stains more deeply than laundry detergents and are a must-have in any home, especially for those with pets and children.
To find out which stain removers deserve a place in your cleaning tool bag, we put eight store-bought and one DIY solution to the test. We stained white cotton fabric with some of the most common things you might spill on a white T-shirt. This included blood, coffee, mustard, concealer, and more.
Graphic: Consumer Reports Graphic: Consumer Reports
Performance: The before-and-after pictures for OxiClean Max Force showed the most dramatic differences between untreated and treated stains. None of the stain removers we tested completely removed concealer, lipstick, and mustard, but according to our colorimeter data, this cleaner lightened them most significantly. It completely cleaned oil, blood, and sweet potato baby food stains.
Note that you should not use this product on fabrics labeled “dry-clean only,” such as silk and wool.
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
Ease of use: You can spray a garment up to one full week before you do laundry. Most others we tested say you shouldn’t let the solution sit on stains for more than 5 to 10 minutes.
The instructions on the bottle were easy to follow, and using this product only requires spraying it, letting it sit, then washing the treated fabric in the washer.
This cleaner has a SkinSafe score of 82 and contains fragrance and methylisothiazolinone.
Performance: Shout’s stain remover was right on the heels of OxiClean Max Force in terms of performance. The before-and-after pictures looked quite similar, but our colorimeter data put it just below our Top Pick. It excelled at lifting all the stains we applied to cotton fabric, especially lipstick, blood, mustard, and oil.
Shout does not recommend treating stains on wool or silk with this stain remover.
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
Ease of use: Like OxiClean Max Force, this stain remover can be used to treat stains up to one week in advance. The instructions printed on the bottle are in both English and Spanish, and are very easy to follow.
SkinSafe says this product contains fragrance and methylisothiazolinone. It has a score of 82.
Performance: None of the stain removers we tried completely removed pen ink from cotton fabric, but our colorimeter data showed that this one lifted the stain best. It earned the third-highest overall rank in our testing and worked well against sweet potato baby food, concealer, and chocolate syrup.
It had the worst overall performance against lipstick stains.
OxiClean lists wool, wool blends, silk, silk blends, leather, fabrics labeled as dry-clean only, and painted surfaces as materials you should not try to clean with this stain remover. It is the most versatile stain remover we tested. According to OxiClean, it can be used to treat stains on couches and other water-washable upholstery, as well as grout and kitchen and bathroom countertops.
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
Ease of use: There are three sets of instructions on the back of this bottle—one set each for treating stains on laundry, upholstery, and in the kitchen or bathroom. Each one is easy to follow. When treating laundry stains, do not allow this stain remover to sit for more than 10 minutes.
SkinSafe scores this cleaner as 91. It contains fragrance.
Performance: Miss Mouth’s touts itself as a stain remover for messy eaters, and if a messy eater is what has you shopping for one, we can confirm that it is a good option. It removed coffee, chipotle pepper sauce, chocolate syrup, and oil stains well. Our colorimeter found that it had the best overall removal of grass stains and the second-best removal of chipotle pepper sauce.
It had the second-worst removal of mustard stains. Its performance against makeup stains was squarely in the middle of the pack.
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
Ease of use: The instructions printed on this bottle are easy to follow but don’t say how long you should let the product sit on a stain for the best results.
SkinSafe gives this stain remover a score of 100. It does not contain any of the top 11 most common allergens as determined by research from Mayo Clinic. It is the only product we tested that also has the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safer Choice label.
It is the most expensive stain treatment we tested, at $1.87 per ounce.
Other Laundry Stain Removers We Tested
Performance: Results started to blur together after the top four stain removers were identified. This one from Tide struggled against blood, lipstick, and grass. Chocolate syrup, a stain most others completely eliminated, was still visible on the cotton swatch we treated with this stain remover. It had the best results against sweet potato baby food, and second-best at lifting mustard and coffee stains.
Tide says you should not use this to treat stains on silk, wool, leather, and fabrics labeled “dry-clean only.”
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
Ease of use: Tide lists instructions for treating laundry and carpet/upholstery stains separately on this stain remover’s label. Both are very clear and specify how long you should allow the liquid to sit on stains for the best results (5 minutes).
SkinSafe says this stain remover scores an 82 and contains fragrance and methylisothiazolinone.
Performance: There was no single stain for which this stain remover earned the top score. It lifted most of the easier stains (sweet potato baby food, chocolate syrup, oil, and grass) well, though. Our colorimeter data put it dead last for its performance against concealer.
There are no fabrics listed as not safe to treat with this product. The Laundress is a Department of Agriculture certified biobased product.
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
Ease of use: Like all the others, the instructions for using this stain remover were easy to follow. The Laundress does not state how long stains must be treated before washing.
The Laundress Stain Solution scores a 91 on SkinSafe. It contains methylisothiazolinone.
Performance: We didn’t need to check our colorimeter data to know this stain remover had the worst blood-stain-lifting performance in our tests. It barely looked like it had been treated at all. It performed well enough against most other stains, but didn’t excel with any.
The list of precautionary statements on this cleaner’s label is quite lengthy. It should not be used on delicate fabrics, wool, silk, leather, upholstery, dry-clean only garments, or fabrics with the phrase “do not bleach.” You should also not spray this on metal fasteners or flame-resistant finishes. It should also not be allowed to sit on garments for more than 5 minutes.
This is the only product with a scent worth talking about, and not for good reason. Its rhubarb scent is strong and quite unpleasant.
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
Ease of use: Instructions on the bottle are clear and easy to follow.
This stain remover is not in the SkinSafe database.
Did Vinegar and Dawn Dish Soap Remove Stains?
Photos: Consumer Reports Photos: Consumer Reports
The recipe: In a spray bottle, we mixed half a cup each of warm water and white vinegar, and a teaspoon of Dawn dish soap. We sprayed each stain with the solution until it was totally saturated. After allowing the solution to sit for about 10 minutes, we washed it in a front-load washing machine in cold water with a standard powder laundry detergent.
Results: Based on our testing, we don’t recommend it as your sole solution for stains on clothing. When we ranked its performance, it had the fifth-best results. Not bad, but there are better options.
It lightened all the stains, but it only completely removed oil. It was one of the only stain solutions that left noticeable coffee and grass stains on cotton swatches after treating.
Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photos: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
How We Tested Laundry Stain Removers
We stained swatches of white cotton fabric with 11 common household stains: pen ink, lipstick, grass, sweet potato baby food, concealer, blood, chocolate syrup, mustard, coffee, oil, and chipotle pepper sauce. The stains set into the fabric overnight. Each stain was treated with the stain removers according to the instructions on each product’s label.
The treated cotton swatches were washed in cold water using the same standard laundry load and powder detergent as in our laundry detergent testing.
We also took into account the ease of dispensing each stain remover, the clarity of its instructions, its price, and the fabrics it was safe to use on.
