I had been having problems removing odors from my husband’s work shirts, particularly under the arms. I had tried soaking them, every kind of detergent you could think of, pretreating them, and I even tried dish soap- nothing would get the smell out.

Every once in a while, I go surfing the internet for coupons. When I visited the Febreze website, they had a $2 off coupon for Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator, so I signed up to get a coupon by mail, and when it came; I decided to try it out. A 1.5 liter bottle of this stuff is priced at $7.96 at Wal-Mart, but I paid $5.96 using my coupon. Sure, it was expensive for such a small amount, but if it worked I knew it would be well worth it.

It is packaged in a blue bottle with a silver cap, and is in the laundry detergent aisle. It has a pretty thin consistency, not as thick as regular laundry detergent, and the smell is pretty neutral smelling, but it does have a hint of fragrance to it, and does not have a choice of scents in the store.

Here are some claims from the website:

“Enjoy fresh smelling laundry after every load. Add a capful of Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator to your wash cycle along with your liquid or powder detergent to remove tough food, perspiration, or smoke odors from clothing. Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator will also help remove smells such as mildew, motor oil, and pet odors.”

The directions say to add this to the wash cycle with your liquid or powder detergent. You may pre-treat your items by putting the garments in hot water, adding 1 capful of Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator, and then soaking- then launder according to garment’s directions.

There are 2 lines on the cap/measuring cup line 1 (3/8ths of a cup) for light odor loads, and line 2 (1/2 cup) for heavy odor loads. For extreme odor loads, add up to 2 caps full.

This is safe to use with detergents, bleaches, fabric softeners, and other laundry additives. Safe for pet bedding, but do be sure to keep this out of reach of children, it is an eye irritant.

Ingredients include water, concentrated odor eliminator derived from corn, and fragrance. This contains no phosphate.

Experience:

Well, I have had pretty good luck with the Febreze line, I can only think of maybe 1 or 2 products from them that I don’t like. This stuff does not affect the lather of your regular detergent, or the smell of it. I didn’t use any fabric softener with it, but my detergent is pretty stout and it did not affect its scent it left on clothes. Do note that this is not for stains, but odors- you still have to use detergent, and pre-treat your stains.

So, I first tried it out on the work shirts I spoke of earlier, and I was really hoping I had found something that would work. After drying the shirts, I sniffed them to see if the sweaty smell was gone, and it was! I was so glad. I used half a capful on the shirts, and there were some stinky work pants in there as well.

I had some towels that were a little damp and someone had stuck them in the dirty clothes and they had a rather nasty stagnant water smell to them, and I tried half a capful on the towels, and it removed the odor from them. I also tried it out on some sweaty socks, and it got the odor out of them as well, but I usually don’t have a sock odor problem except when the temperatures are really high.

Anyway, yeah this worked great but almost $8 a bottle is quite ridiculous, especially for just 1.5 liters of it. Be sure to get on Febreze.com and get a coupon mailed out to you first, so you can save $2.

My question is, why doesn’t Febreze just make a plain detergent that can be used by itself that removes odors instead of this stuff you have to add to the wash? Couldn’t they just make a big huge bottle that washed the clothes and took out odor? I use the Tide with Febreze, but it doesn’t take out stubborn odors.

Anyway, overall yes this totally works and I would recommend it if you have certain odors you can’t get rid of no matter what you try, but do note it is terribly expensive, and it can’t be used by itself. Otherwise, it holds up to all it’s claims, and I even noticed on the bottle it has the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on it.



Thanks to Helen for adding!

Recommended: Yes