Sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach)
An oxidising bleach that releases hydrogen peroxide in water. Gentler than chlorine bleach on fabrics and dyes, and it does not produce chlorine gas.
What not to do
Sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach) is unsafe on Wool
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
ADDED IN SPRINT 2. Oxygen bleach is widely believed to be the wool-safe alternative to chlorine bleach. The wool industry body advises against it too.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
Why we say this
Supported
This edge exists only because a source was read. CleaningHQ had recorded wool as chlorine-bleach-sensitive and would have gone on implying that oxygen bleach was the safe substitute — which is exactly what the colour-safe marketing around percarbonate encourages. One reading reversed it.
Sources
Best detergent to use when washing wool
The Woolmark Company · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That bleach must never be used when washing wool, either chlorine or oxygen based, and that detergents containing bleaches should be avoided. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The detergent-selection guidance and its bleach and enzyme statements. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. CleaningHQ had recorded wool as bleach-sensitive with respect to CHLORINE bleach only, following the Sprint 1 verification target. Woolmark's position is wider, and the wool record, the oxygen-bleach agent record and the laundry relationships were all widened to advise against oxygen bleach on wool as well. Separately, because the page supplies no mechanism, CleaningHQ's keratin-hydrolysis explanation is now cited to this source as background only and rests on protein chemistry from elsewhere.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Precautions
- Never mix with other cleaning products
- Wear gloves
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
In detail
Sodium percarbonate is a solid that releases hydrogen peroxide when it dissolves in water, and the peroxide is what does the bleaching. Like chlorine bleach it works by oxidation, breaking down the coloured parts of stain molecules, but it is a milder oxidant and considerably more selective in practice. That selectivity is why it is sold as colour-safe: it will generally remove a tannin or dye stain from a coloured garment without stripping the garment's own colour, though this is a matter of degree rather than a guarantee. It is markedly more effective in warm water than cold, because the release of peroxide is temperature-dependent. Its most important property from a safety standpoint is negative: because it contains no chlorine, it does not generate chlorine or chloramine gases. This does not make it safe to mix with other products, and no cleaning product should be mixed with another, but it removes the specific and severe hazard that chlorine bleach carries.
Properties
- Chemical name
- Sodium percarbonate
- pH
- Alkaline
What works
Sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach) is effective against Red wine Supported
Sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach) requires the precaution Cotton
Safe only in specific conditions
This is only appropriate within specific limits. Outside those limits, CleaningHQ makes no claim.
Sprint 28. Recorded against cotton because coloured cotton is where the colour-change risk is stated.
Only within these limits:
- Permitted only where the care label's bleaching triangle allows it — empty for any bleach, two oblique lines for oxygen only
- A crossed triangle excludes oxygen bleach too, and therefore excludes universal detergents containing it
- Stated consequence is colour change rather than fibre damage
The triangle is usually read as a question about bleach. The originating body applies it to detergent: 'do not use a universal detergent which contains oxygen for bleaching purposes, unless the bleaching symbol allows its use'.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
Why we say this
Supported
The originating body of the care-labelling system, stating the link between its own bleaching symbol and everyday detergent choice. Recorded at the strength it is given: a colour-change risk with a stated exception, not a damage prohibition.
Sources
GINETEX, The International Association for Textile Care Labelling · Standards body
Relied on for: That a universal detergent containing oxygen for bleaching purposes should not be used on coloured textiles unless the bleaching symbol allows it, with a stated risk of colour change, and that oxygen / non-chlorine bleach is contained in most universal detergents. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Sprint 28 read all thirty pages: the fold-out table on pages 1-2, then Basic Principles, Washing, Bleaching, Drying, Ironing, Professional Textile Care and Labelling on pages 6-24. Earlier sprints had read the fold-out table only. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. The register held this as a one-page symbol table for four sprints. It is a thirty-page booklet, and the pages nobody had opened carry the principles rather than the pictures: a label is set by the garment's most sensitive COMPONENT, not its fibre; following it guarantees no damage and guarantees nothing about stain removal; milder is always permitted; and the bleaching triangle governs ordinary detergent choice, because universal detergents contain oxygen bleach. Two whole treatment families — natural drying and professional textile care — become science concepts on it.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Why
- Sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach) is explained by Oxidation and bleaching
Hacks and claims involving this
- Oxygen bleach is the wool-safe bleach Does not work
When the obvious answer is wrong
What should I use on red wine spilled on a wool carpet or jumper?
Wool is a protein fibre and oxidising bleaches attack it directly, degrading the keratin rather than the stain sitting on it. The damage is structural and it is not a mark that can be cleaned off afterwards: the fibre is weakened, and on a carpet the affected area wears differently from everything around it. The wool body approaches this from the other side, warning that methods aimed primarily at cotton or synthetic garments are not all suitable for wool.
A different kind of treatment works: Change the mechanism from oxidation to dilution and dissolution, and respect the order. The wool body gives red wine, fruit and fruit juice their own entry and its sequence is three steps. First RINSE WITH CLEAN WATER — before any product, because wine is water-soluble while it is fresh and the cheapest removal happens then. Second, a DILUTE solution of an approved wool detergent. Third, and only where the mark persists, THREE PARTS SURGICAL SPIRIT TO ONE PART COLD WATER. Technique carries the rest and is stated for every entry on the page: scoop or blot the excess immediately with white tissue or an absorbent towel, work from the EDGE towards the centre, and dab rather than rub. Finish with a wash in an approved wool detergent. Where the label permits dry cleaning and the mark survives, tell the cleaner what the stain is AND what has already been applied to it — a treated stain is a different problem from an untreated one.
Sources for this page
Sources
Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology
John Wiley & Sons · Reference work
Relied on for: That sodium percarbonate is an adduct releasing hydrogen peroxide in solution and acting as an oxidising bleach.
Verification: the work exists and is described correctly. Nobody has yet read the specific passage.
GINETEX, The International Association for Textile Care Labelling · Standards body
Relied on for: That care labelling distinguishes a symbol permitting any bleaching agent from one permitting only oxygen / non-chlorine bleach, and from a third forbidding bleaching altogether. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Sprint 28 read all thirty pages: the fold-out table on pages 1-2, then Basic Principles, Washing, Bleaching, Drying, Ironing, Professional Textile Care and Labelling on pages 6-24. Earlier sprints had read the fold-out table only. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. The register held this as a one-page symbol table for four sprints. It is a thirty-page booklet, and the pages nobody had opened carry the principles rather than the pictures: a label is set by the garment's most sensitive COMPONENT, not its fibre; following it guarantees no damage and guarantees nothing about stain removal; milder is always permitted; and the bleaching triangle governs ordinary detergent choice, because universal detergents contain oxygen bleach. Two whole treatment families — natural drying and professional textile care — become science concepts on it.
GINETEX Technical Booklet — international care labelling system
GINETEX, The International Association for Textile Care Labelling, 2018 · Standards body
Relied on for: That oxygen / non-chlorine bleach is defined as an agent releasing a peroxygen species in solution, as distinct from chlorine bleach which releases hypochlorite ions. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The introduction and implementation section; the definitions of treatments and bleaching agents; and the description of the symbols. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. This reverses a Sprint 2 downgrade and corrects an attribution. The chlorine-versus-oxygen bleaching distinction, withdrawn in Sprint 2 because ISO 3758 could not be read, is restored and cited here. More importantly the source model was wrong: CleaningHQ treated ISO 3758 as the authority and GINETEX as a commentator, when GINETEX is the origin and ISO the licensee. The ISO record is now marked as deriving from this one. The 'maximum severity' principle and the definitions of the two bleach classes are new and now carry the laundry vertical.
Last reviewed by a person on .