How to Get Gum Stains Out
Chewing gum and bubble gum are favourites among children. However, often they like to blow bubbles or take the gum out of their mouths. As a result, it ends up in the carpet, their hair or even their clothes.
Overview of Gum Stains
There are several different types of gum, including chewing gum, bubble gum and the Indian flavoured gutka. Every type of gum has one thing in common: it’s sticky. For this reason, it’s unlikely to come out in the washing machine on its own. To get rid of this type of stain, you need a few more steps and a little more work.
Getting Gum Stains Out: Step by Step
- Choose a Dynamo Professional detergent
- Pre-treat with heat or ice
- Remove the hardened gum
- Apply Dynamo Professional liquid detergent directly to the stained area
- Wash and rinse
- Check to see if the stain is gone
Choose a Detergent
Gum removal usually requires either heat or ice. To heat the gum up, you can use a hair dryer or an iron. To freeze it, a couple of ice cubes should work well.
After this, you’ll need a detergent that works well with the colour of the clothing and fabric type. Dynamo Professional should be safe for use on most laundry items, but it is wise to always test for colourfastness in an inconspicuous spot. For delicate fabrics, always hand wash with a sensitive detergent.
Pretreat the Area
Freezing the gum so it can be easily removed is simple. Just place an ice cube on it for a couple of minutes until it’s frozen, then scrape the gum off with a spoon or blunt knife.
Heating the gum is a little more complicated. Use a hair dryer to soften, but not melt the gum. Then, place a piece of cardboard on the iron board and place the clothing on the board so that the gum is touching the cardboard. Using a medium heat, iron the back of the clothing. In just a few minutes, the gum should be soft enough that it sticks to the cardboard and can easily be pulled away from the clothing.
Once the bulk of the gum is gone, pre-treat any remaining residue with your Dynamo Professional detergent.
Wash and Rinse
Wash the clothing item as usual. The remaining residue should come out.
Check the Stain
Always check to see if the stain is gone before placing the clothing in the dryer. If not, repeat the pre-treatment steps.
How to Get Gum Stains out of Special Laundry Types and Fabrics
Be careful when you’re getting rid of gum on certain fabric and laundry types. This is especially important if you’re using the freezing pre-treatment method. Use tweezers to remove gum pieces around delicate embroidery to avoid damaging it or tugging on delicate threads.
If the fabric is hand-wash only, make sure to use a sensitive detergent during the gum stain removal process.
Removing Gum Stains From White Clothing
While most of the time you can use the steps above and get rid of bubble gum on white clothing, there are exceptions to the rule. Some gums, especially those that have food dyes or are high in sugar, can cause additional stains on your clothing. After you remove the bubble gum, be sure to treat with Dynamo Professional detergent to remove as much of the stain as you can before washing.
Gum tends to get everywhere, especially when you have kids. Don’t worry, though, removing gum stains isn’t has hard as you think when you have Dynamo Professional.