'Good Housekeeping' Tests Stain Removers

Sept. 17 -- Back-to-school time often brings back-to-school stains, but parents can arm themselves with the latest stain removers to battle grass, blood and juice stains all year long.

Good Housekeeping magazine shared the results of their stain remover test with ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

The Good Housekeeping Institute tested three new stain removal products for the magazine's latest report. In each case, cotton fabric swatches were stained and the products were used on the fabric, according to the package directions.

Un-du Candle Wax Remover: The GH Institute specialists dripped candle wax onto test fabrics, letting it harden overnight. Then they compared the performance of Un-du to that of the standard warm-iron routine. After both swatches were laundered, the Un-du swatch came out cleaner than the one that had been treated with the warm iron.

Red Erase Red Stain Remover: Tests stained cotton swatches with red food coloring — red jello, grape juice, fruit punch — and allowed them to set overnight.One was treated with Red Erase and another with Shout Prewash Spray. After the swatches were washed, they showed that for all of the stains, except the fruit punch, the Red Erase outperformed the prewash spray. For the punch, the results were equal.

Carbona Stain-Seeking Tabs: These tablets combine the power of oxygen bleach with enzymes to better attack stains. In this test, three cotton swatches were stained with coffee, fruit punch, egg and grass. One set was washed only in detergent, while the other was washed in detergent and Carbona Tabs, and another was treated first with Shout and then washed. The detergent did not perform well on all of the stains. On coffee, the Shout only slightly outperformed Carbona. On egg, Carbona was clearly superior and equal to Shout on fruit punch and grass.