Fighting hard water: how do you keep your whites clothes and sheets white?

Man, it's been 8 months here and some of my underpants have turned grey! There may be no hope for them, but, I'm hoping to keep the ivory towels from heading that way.

Any advice? It's the hard water right? I'm putting in the powdered water softener that I can buy from Wilkos, but it only seems to put a slight delay in the graying process.

Thanks, Rutabega

I use White Vanish powder in all of my white washes.

Ah, every time? Wow. Good to know! I'll be making an investment!

Bleach!

I've always lived in areas of hard water.  Bluing works wonders for whites, but I like to use borax instead when i can still find it. 

Vanish! Expensive, but it works. It's like Oxyclean. It's also great for set-in stains. It saved my favourite white jumper when I got curry on it last week! 

I would buy descaler and clean the machine monthly. Maybe that might help?

I would buy descaler and clean the machine monthly. Maybe that might help?

Or you could use soda crystals:
http://www.dri-pak.co.uk/soda-crystals-for-laundry.html

I use Vanish as well in all my white washes.

Be careful about using bleach.  I would love to be able to use bleach, but our washer/dryer manual says that you should not use bleach and I assume this has something to do with the dryer part.

Be careful about using bleach.  I would love to be able to use bleach, but our washer/dryer manual says that you should not use bleach and I assume this has something to do with the dryer part.

That's right.  Bleach ruins your plastic tubs and erodes other rubber and plastic parts   (married to the former Maytag repair man...LOL).  Still, I wonder why machines in the US have the little bleach compartment although frequent bleaching is not recommended?

My MIL swears by Dylon Whitener.  Personally I haven't really had an issue, but then I use Napisan and or OxiClean Simple in my washes.   

If you shop in pound shops you can sometimes find Dylon in them with the other laundry products - same for grocery stores.

Good luck!

A light bulb just went off in my head reading through this thread. I wash my bras by hand and I did the same in the US but they never turned as dingy as they have here. I guess that is the water? If I use something mentioned in this thread in my hand washing would that save my white bras from an early death?

Move to Leeds - we have naturally soft water here!