How to Wash a Nylon American Flag

I am washing a nylon American flag (Yes, washing the flag is OK!). The white stripes are a bit gray. Is it safe to use Clorox 2® for this? Also, should I wash in hot, warm or cold water?

What an interesting project! Yes, you can use Clorox 2® for Colors Stain Remover and Laundry Additive to whiten the stripes on your flag—an important consideration is to prevent the red (or blue, as well) from bleeding onto the white stripes and stars while the flag is washing or soaking and drying. This is less likely for a nylon flag, but it’s worth mentioning. Here’s how I would proceed:

1.   Wash the flag using a gentle cycle with warm water and detergent + Clorox 2® for Colors Stain Remover and Laundry Additive.

2.   Periodically check during the wash cycle to see if the red stripes are discharging color into the wash cycle. This can happen pretty easily when colored fabric is sewn onto white fabric and the dye wasn’t properly fixed.  If the water is turning red, immediately stop the wash cycle and rinse the flag.

3.   Air dry the flag—just be sure it can dry quickly. That’s because your damp flag may still be at risk of the colored sections bleeding into the white parts.  It’s hard to predict–nylon shouldn’t have this problem but it’s good to be cautious.

If the stripes don’t whiten as much as you’d like, you could try a little more aggressive approach with hotter water. Keep in mind that this is more likely to cause the colored stripes to bleed–if you saw any color coming off with the warm water wash then don’t increase the water temperature. But if your flag doesn’t bleed, then you could try presoaking with Clorox 2® for Colors Stain Remover and Laundry Additive—add a capful to 1 quart of hot water and fully submerge the flag for 1 hour. Drain the soaking solution, and then wash as described above using hot water. I would actually recommend against pretreating the stripes with undiluted product because you have too much surface area to treat.