We all know about pre-treating spots before clothing goes into the washer, but what if you could erase spills almost as soon as they happened? How about a handy, dandy little fresh stain erase pen you could tote in your purse, backpack or pocket protector, or stash in your glove box, locker, desk or kitchen drawer?

Tide To Go

From a well-known name in laundry products, here comes a small orange plastic cylinder, about the size of a stick pen, with a slanted, felt-like dry erase tip. Uncapped and pressed against a variety* of fresh food and drink stains, this magic eraser pen releases small amounts of cleaning fluid.

The good news is that this fluid doesn't raise my VOC, or Volatile Organic Compound, alarm, the way the old benzene-based spot/dry cleaning fluids would, nor leave a harsh, stiff feel to the treated fabrics.

But does it work as promised? This past Memorial Day 3 day weekend provided an ample opportunity to check the limits of Tide To Go, and my results, as detailed below, were mixed.

Field Research

A great company picnic presented catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickle relish, iced tea, Sangria, (red wine and fruit juice punch), fruit punch, Popsicles and juice bars, Dove bars, fresh watermelon, strawberries and cherries, hot dogs, hamburgers, Teriyaki wings, BBQ chicken and its' attendant tomatoey sauce, potato salad, buttered corn on the cob, baked beans and spaghetti with meat sauce.

In the interests of research, yours truly tested as many of these items as humanly possible in one afternoon, even forgoing my more typical, unsightly paper napkin bib.
And where I was known as a stain magnet in the days I donned a nurse's pristine white uniform, at some point here I was actually having to apply artful blobs for the full effect.

One rayon-based Hawaiian shirt, (Elvis in Blue Hawaii to be exact), and one 100% cotton Beefy company tee received the brunt of the spills, though a pair of knit, cotton-poly blend crop pants also obtained a few smears.

Following package instructions to first blot as much of the stain up as possible, I next applied Tide To Go. Using a little pressure and back and forth motions I completely treated each stain, sitting at a picnic table in the shade with only a dozen or so avid lookie-lus. And since I would be then returning to bright sunshine, I made sure and thoroughly blotted the treated fabric, the better to prevent those tell-tale rings.

Stain Type/Results:

Iced Tea/Stain completely gone
Sangria/Stain completely gone
Fruit Punch/Stain completely gone
Cherry Juice/Stain completely gone
Strawberries/Stain completely gone
Watermelon/Stain completely gone
Grape Juice Bar/Stain completely gone
Baked Beans/Stain completely gone
Teriyaki Sauce/Stain completely gone

Barbecue Sauce/faint stain noticeable on white
Spaghetti Sauce*/faint stain noticeable on white/colored
Mustard/faint yellow stain on white/colored

Chocolate Coating/greasy mark left, faint tan stain
Mayonnaise, potato salad/greasy mark left
Butter, corn/greasy mark left

One slow-moving guy with a long gray ponytail asked me where the Tie Dye booth was, a couple others gave me that Billy Idol lip curl, (as in 'what a slob'), before using Tide To Go. After treatment, one of the former snarlers actually did a cartoonish double-take, ('hey, weren't you the one...'), and the Dead Head was taking a siesta under an obliging tree.

My Hawaiian silky was still good to go, with maybe just a tinge more pale yellow, peach and tan hues added to the already colorful mix, the sage blend crop pants would get plenty more warm weather workouts and the freebie cotton tee would now be relegated to the chores-around-the-house then reincarnated into dust rag status.

Final Thoughts And Recommendations

Going into this, I knew greasy stains were beyond the expectations of Tide To Go's fresh stain eraser. Still, in the interests of science, these spills were duly tested as well as the coffee, tea and fruit based ones listed as being removable.

*Spaghetti sauce with meat was tricky. A hybrid combo of tomato sauce/paste, red wine, garlic, mushrooms and Italian sausage, I'm thinking the slight grease factor made this one harder to remove than the non-greasy KC style BBQ.

For the iced tea, grape and cherry juice and red wine stains alone, I feel this inexpensive fresh stain erase pen performed up to expectations. Each of these stains was removed completely and the treated fabrics weren't harmed.

Proctor and Gamble does note in its copy that questionable fabrics should be color-tested, say on an inconspicuous seam-that way it might be hard for Dad to ruin one of those loud, screaming ubiquitous Father's Day ties, and even expensive-to-dryclean cashmere or silk items may benefit from Tide To Go.

Recommended. 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for a helpful, on-the-go product, that still will never replace the lowly bib. Still, whether it's Earl Grey, hot, or Lipton's with lemon, cold; Kool-Aide, Kosher Concord or just a flirty, fruity Merlot, this handy, dandy, inexpensive fresh stain eraser's got your back, er, front.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~My thanks to the DeVries PR mavens for providing me the opportunity to test drive this product with the understanding I'd provide an unbiased review.




Recommended: Yes