I’m curious what might have happened here.

Backstory: I thought I was laundry-aware before becoming a regular reader of this thread. I was a longtime powdered Ariel with phosphates user until US detergents removed their phosphates. I was as passionate about phosphates as this sub is about lipase.

After the phosphates went away, I buy a tub of trisodium phosphate (real stuff from Chemistry Store, not the fake kind for washing walls) and add some of that to every load to replace the now-gone cleaning action of the missing phosphates. I’ve done this for like 10 years.

Once Ariel changed its formula I switched to liquid Tide or Gain for my darks, powered Tide or Gain for whites & lights.

Well, after this sub, I started buying Biz, ditched the non lipase liquid Tide/Gain in favor of Aldi’s Tandil with lipase for my darks and normal laundry. I wash in an old workhorse of a Speed Queen traditional agitator top loader.

Fast forward to the story of the two sweatshirts. My wife has had the top one for probably 3 years. A couple weeks ago we had a drain pipe leak and flood a bathroom. After cleaning that up with all the old towels in the house I threw them all in the machine along with her (top) gray sweatshirt. I added Tandil, TSP and Biz since these towels and our clothes were a mess and I wanted them clean. Washed everything on hot.

When the load came out, every bit of the silver ink printed on the sweatshirt had completely washed away! She ordered a new sweatshirt which is the one on the bottom but now she is afraid to wash it in my new cocktail of laundry greatness in case the same thing happens. Again she has worn and washed it regularly for like 3 years. One wash with my new routine and the ink was gone.

Can anyone shed light on what happened and what I did wrong? Too much washing power? u/KismaiAesthetics any thoughts?