OIL stains are tough, but they are no match for one woman who figured out how to remove them when dish soap won’t cut it.
She included pictures of her own pair of shorts that benefited from her cleaning hack.
Redditor Shoots_and_latters aired out her dirty laundry in a post on the social media platform.
She acknowledged that her approach may be unusual for most, but it worked for her.
“I removed oil stains from my clothes with brake parts cleaner,” she said.
“I know this sounds a little insane lol, but I used brake parts cleaner (specifically Brakleen in the red can) to remove grease/oil stains from my clothes.”
The Brakleen Brake Parts Cleaner is sold at Walmart for $5.98.
The Redditor said she had already tried dish soap followed by traditional laundry detergent to no avail.
“In the before picture, I had already tried scrubbing out the stain with dish soap and washing with Tide. Still didn’t come out,” she wrote.
“I tried brake parts cleaner, recommended by a family friend, and it took the majority of the stains out.
“I know there are still a couple stains at the top. I’ll probably do it once more to get those out.
“I was obviously hesitant that the brake parts cleaner would also leave stains, but had no issue with it.”
She detailed how she used the automobile product to make her clothes look pristine.
“I sprayed it onto a cloth first, then dabbed the cloth over the oil stains,” she said.
“I didn’t let it sit and threw it right in the wash with Tide detergent on cold.
“I’ve tried this with other stains and it worked well.
Other Redditors gave their opinions on the laundry hack in the comments section.
“There’s a very good reason why this works,” one wrote.
“Red-can Brakleen is tetrachloroethylene, which is also commonly used in dry cleaning. It’s also non-flammable.
“The non-chlorinated stuff that comes in a green can is mostly acetone with a bit of toluene.
“The low-VOC formula is still mostly acetone but replaced the toluene with naptha and heptane.”
“Break cleaner will do it. There are other ways effectively remove grease and oil from clothes, too,” another added.
