My whites come out of washing machine a dingy grey

[dbspritzer]

We purchased a new washing machine. There are all sorts of items listed to wash things like towels, bedding, colours, sports clothing, jeans, heavy duty etc. but no where is there a listing about washing white clothes. I've tried the heavy duty wash with hot water, and heavy duty with a pre-soak, but my whites still come out a dingy grey and even the newer whites are starting to turn grey. I miss my white clothes getting white. Please help, am I doing wrong?

Thanks

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hi. If the white coloured laundry is not coming out properly cleaned and is turning grey, this is usually caused by a lack of bleaching agents in the detergent. The chances are that you are using colour friendly detergent which has no bleaching agents. Many types of washing machine detergent are designed to be friendly to colours so that when you wash them the colours don't fade. But this is totally inappropriate for white laundry.

I've always said that ideally you should use two types of detergent, and you should definitely wash coloureds and whites separately. This is all explained in good detail in the following article - Which is the best type of detergent for whites or coloured laundry?

I also have an article specifically about whites coming out of washing machine looking grey, coloureds losing their colour although it is better to read the first article before reading this one to get a full understanding of the issue.