How To Remove A Gas Stain And Smells

It's fair to say that many of us pump gasoline on a regular basis, and when doing this it is all too easy to get a gas stain or odors from this flammable liquid on our clothes or other parts of our home or car, such as upholstery or carpeting.


Below are tips for how to remove the spots caused by gas dripping and causing spots on fabric, as well as a video focusing on removing the gas smell from clothing.

Whenever you try to clean up fabric from a spill or splash the most important thing to remember is safety.

The more gasoline on the fabric the more caution you should exercise, and perhaps if it is truly soaked just safely dispose of it instead of trying to clean it up.

On the other hand, if it is a small drip or drop, you can feel safer in proceeding with the stain removal process. Just be very careful of not adding the clothes into the dryer until all traces of the spill have been removed!

As usual, there is often more than one way to clean up or remove odors from fabric. Therefore, if you've got a tip you've used that you don't see below please share it with me here, and I'll the best ones to the site.

In addition, you can check out tips for removing gasoline from carpet, upholstery and clothing here, for more safety tips and instructions for these other surfaces.



Scroll down for more tips and ideas!

Removing Gasoline Stain From Clothing After Normal Wash Didn't Get It Out

Ripley wrote me the following question about removing a gas stain from clothing.

Ripley asked:

A friend got gasoline on her clothes and washed them normally. The smell is gone, but the spots remain. Any tips on post washing gasoline stain removal?

Taylor says:

Ripley, thanks for your question.

It would be easier for me to answer you if I knew if your friend had run the clothing both through the washer and the dryer, or just washed in and then let it air dry when she noticed the spots remained.

Preferably she did not run the stained clothing through the dryer, because heat helps set stains (so this would violate one of the top 10 rules for removing stains).



Try this treatment, either way, but it has more chance of success if she let the clothing air dry, then if it was run through the dryer.

First, put a little bit of dishwashing liquid on the stained area and scrub it in gently, with an old soft toothbrush, for example.

Then, let it sit for 5-10 minutes.

Next, immerse the clothing, still with the dishwashing liquid on it, into hot water (as hot as allowed per the washing instructions) and let it sit for 30 minutes.

These steps will help get rid of any oily residue from the gasoline which could be causing the spots.

Then, rinse the clothing thoroughly.

Next, rinse this out and if the stain remains try a paste of baking soda and water. Apply a thick paste to the stain and let it sit until it dries, and then gently scrape it off.

Finally, if the stain still remains pretreat with a laundry stain remover and let this sit for 5-10 minutes, before washing.

In any event wash the clothing again, in the hottest water allowed for the garments according to their care labels.

Hopefully this will remove the gas stain.

Make sure to not run it through the dryer until all the spots are removed, for the reasons explained above, plus because running clothes through the dryer that have gasoline residue on them is a big no no, because of safety reasons!

I hope this helps!


So, do you need help with removing a stain? If so, submit your stain removal help question here and I might just answer it!



Photo by spakattacks

Gasoline Stain Removal From Clothing

Gasoline, which you accidentally spill or drip on your clothes, can not only stain them, but also make them smell.

Below is a video which gives several tips for removing the gasoline odor from your clothes.

Remember, whenever dealing with clothes that have gas on them you need to think of safety first, because gasoline is very flammable.

The video below does not mention it, but be sure not to dry any clothes that have (or had) gasoline on them until you confirm they have all gas removed.

Get more tips for removing clothing stains here.



Photo by AlishaV

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