How to Wash Work Overalls Without Greying Them
Overalls fail in a way other clothes do not. They go grey from inside the weave, and the washing machine is where it happens.
Brush and shake work overalls out dry before they go anywhere near water, empty the pockets, then wash them on their own at 40°C on a full-length cotton cycle. Never use fabric softener on flame-retardant or water-repellent workwear — it interferes with the finish.
Why do work overalls go grey instead of just dirty?
Because they carry 2 kinds of soil at once, and water turns 1 of them into an abrasive.
Overalls collect oily soil and particulate soil together: grease, and dry dust, grit, brick, plaster and metal filings. While it is dry, the particulate sits on the surface. Add water and it becomes a fine slurry, and the machine's own tumbling then drives that slurry into the yarn, where particles wedge between the twisted fibres.
Light scatters off those lodged particles, and scattered light reads to the eye as grey. It is not a dye problem and it is not a detergent problem. The particle is physically stuck, so no wash lifts it back out.
Overalls do not stain grey. They are sanded grey, and the sanding happens in your machine.
Should you shake overalls out before washing them?
Yes. It is the highest-value 2 minutes in the job.
- Outdoors, turn them inside out and shake them hard.
- Brush along the seams, cuffs, knee pads and pocket corners with a stiff brush.
- Turn every pocket inside out and tap it empty.
- Check the turn-ups. Grit collects there and nowhere else gets missed as often.
A forgotten screw loose in a drum will cut a door seal, and the seal costs more than the overalls. Anything that gets through ends up in the filter, worth checking after a heavy wash rather than in 6 months.
What temperature and cycle should work overalls go on?
40°C, cotton or heavy-duty, full length, spin at 800 to 1000rpm.
The long cycle is the point. Oily soil needs dwell time before a surfactant can carry it off, and on heavy cotton the mechanical action — fabric rubbing against fabric — is doing most of the work. A quick wash gives you neither.
Heavy cotton holds several times its dry weight in water. A drum packed with 2 or 3 wet pairs cannot tumble, and if nothing tumbles nothing rubs, and if nothing rubs the wash is mostly soaking. Overalls are the clearest case for washing 1 garment on its own.
Can you wash overalls with other clothes?
No, and the reason is not squeamishness.
Grit and metal filings released into the drum abrade whatever else is in there, and a shirt does not survive being scoured. Oil, meanwhile, disperses and redeposits thinly across the whole load, so nothing looks stained and everything comes out faintly dull.
Wash overalls alone, then run the next load after them rather than before.
Can you use fabric softener on work overalls?
On plain cotton overalls, if you want to. On treated workwear, no.
Flame-retardant and water-repellent garments work because of a finish applied to or built into the fibre. A fabric softener is cationic — it works by depositing a thin positively-charged film across the fibre surface — and that film sits on top of the finish and interferes with how it performs. Manufacturers of certified workwear say so in their own care instructions, and the instruction is worth following.
This applies to Element's softener exactly as it does to every other. Cationic is how the category works, ours included.
How do you deal with oil and grease on overalls?
Treat the patch dry, before the wash.
Scrape off anything solid with a blunt edge, blot — do not rub — then work 1 drop of washing-up liquid into the mark with a thumb and leave it 15 minutes. Dish detergent is designed for fat on a hard surface, which makes it the right tool for a spot and the wrong one for a whole garment.
This will not work if the oil has already been through a dryer. Hot air drives oil into oxidation inside the fibre, and oxidised oil is a permanent darkening rather than a stain sitting on top of the cloth. Dryer heat is the only irreversible step in laundry, and oily workwear is where it costs most.
How often should you wash work overalls?
- Daily trade use, dusty: every 2 or 3 wears, with a shake-out every single day.
- Daily trade use, oily: daily.
- Weekend workshop: after each session, while the soil is fresh.
- Certified flame-retardant workwear: follow the garment's own instructions and keep a rough count of washes. The finish has a service life, and that life is measured in wash cycles.
Between washes, hang them where air moves. Overalls folded damp in a van overnight come back as a different problem.
Overalls are a long 40°C cotton cycle, and the dose does not change for a dirty load: 1 sheet into the empty drum before the overalls go in, never the drawer. 30 sheets — 30 washes, up to 60 if you halve them, though a pair of overalls is a full-sheet job.
And leave the softener out of treated workwear entirely. Element's is cationic like the rest of the category, so the finish rule applies to it too. Keep it for the cotton that is only trying to be comfortable.
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Written and fact-checked by the Element for Men editorial team. General guidance only — always follow the care label on the garment.
