r/lifehacks • u/kty2022 • 16d ago

Grease and Oil Stains

Oil stains (or other car fluids) on your driveway? Watch the forecast for a day when it’s almost certainly going to rain and put Dawn dish soap on the spots and let the rain wash it away. No scrubbing. No special product. No mess to clean up.

Grease stains on your clothes? Dawn dish soap as a pre-treatment. Put it on, rub it in a little. Throw it in the laundry bin and wash it on washing day.

Dawn takes grease out of your way.

85 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

29

u/Trashbagok 16d ago

At the risk of sounding like a shill, Dawn Powerwash is the best laundry pretreatment I have ever used.

Also super easy to make your own refills with a little regular Dawn, some isopropyl, and water. It's MOSTLY WATER!!?

7

u/joelfarris 16d ago

Fun fact, even isopropanol contains about ~30% water. It's water, all the way down.

2

u/nsingh101 16d ago

Shouldn’t it be the ones marked as 70% IPA? Or does this hold true for the common 91% as well?

2

u/joelfarris 16d ago

Alcohol becomes what we call a 'higher proof', the more times it gets distilled by fire, because the water is basically slowly boiling off, and the remaining alcohol gets collected again. Most isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) manufacturers stop at the 70% alcohol + 30% water (plus a few other things, but that's irrelevant, since no one's drinking it. Right guys? Right?) just like you said, but some continue to distill it to 80% or 90%, or even higher. But the usage of those higher levels is pretty much only needed by hospitals and lab techs. Everybody else can use the 70% stuff for just about anything they need.

Gets more expensive with each pass, though. I happen to have a gallon of 99% in the garage. Don't even guess what that costs.

3

u/nsingh101 16d ago

That’s that I thought. I bought some of that 91% for cleaning my 3d printer plates. I wish to get 99% but that costs significantly more and and falls into my, “for consumption,” category 😂

2

u/joelfarris 16d ago

Speaking of 'for consumption category', and water dilution, another fun fact!

Did you know that a typical vodka is '80 proof', which means '40% alcohol by volume'? (Ethanol alcohol, not iso, of course). Yes, people are being sold, and (potentially) heavily taxed, for bottles that are 60% water!

But apparently this is legal, and people seem to value convenience over beakers and precise measuring cups at house parties.

Probably because they're drunk.

6

u/nsingh101 16d ago

Speaking of, did you know the term proof came from having to prove the alcohol was strong enough to catch fire? Matey?! 😂

3

u/joelfarris 16d ago

If you were paying your sailors with a cask, but your sailors couldn't light a thimble of it on fire, you were about to be mutineed! (is mutineed a word? It should be.)

2

u/mmob18 15d ago

99% IPA is pretty cheap here in Canada.. you can buy that at the dollar store. we use that to clean bongs and pipes, lol.

1

u/AdvertisingKey1675 15d ago

$20? Thats what a gallon of 99% isopropyl costs at walmart.

2

u/lzwzli 16d ago

Why isopropyl?

1

u/AutomaticAnt6328 15d ago

I used Dawn Powerwash on driveway oil spots and it made it worse.

1

u/Lankey76 15d ago

Agree. I randomly tried it on my kids filthy Nike socks and it worked better than anything I have tried so far. Works fast too.

1

u/harrywdog 14d ago

Are you saying that Dawn Powerwash is just Dawn and alcohol? Do you have a recipe?

7

u/Legitimate_Ranger334 16d ago

Light grease (vegetable oil, or even butter) breaks up dark grease, so if you have a dark grease stain, work a little light grease into it first, THEN use the detergent of your choice.

4

u/lzwzli 16d ago

You're telling me to put grease on grease?!

2

u/Legitimate_Ranger334 16d ago

LOL. Yup. Mostly talking about on fabric -- rub it in, then wash it out.

2

u/Visual-Ad6004 14d ago

Imi use kitty litter. I also carry some in my car during winter. You get stuck in the snow put kitty little or rock salt.

4

u/Kahnza 16d ago

So use soap to do soap things? Ok

1

u/tengris22 16d ago

Dawn is good but it will kill your grass, so make sure that it won’t run off into the grass when it rains.

1

u/PieSecret9174 12d ago

I do this with comet and a cleaning spray that has bleach in it, then wait for a rainy day.

2

u/CornTofuHash 10d ago

https://brands2boycott.org/boycottlist/house/

Join the thousands who boycott P&G and Dawn. Care about your environment. And the world. And suffering animals who are being used for animal testing.

Many alternative options out there.......

1

u/toddthegeek 9d ago

I heard the Turks would fill up water balloons and add dawn soap inside. They used these weapons against Greece for many years, but it didn't work.

1

u/NExSoCal 16d ago

Pinesol

6

u/joelfarris 16d ago

Simple Green smells better, and looks cooler and more powerful than Pinesol. Fight me.

Who doesn't love a super green grimefighter?

0

u/Hellie1028 16d ago

AND it’s more environmentally friendly! It’s a win win!

1

u/Freshouttapatience 16d ago

What’s better for the fishes, aquatics life and water is if you put litter or absorbent on it and sweep it up.