I wear lots of dark clothes that have a bit of lycra/spandex. I stick to cold water, turn them inside out, and use a liquid detergetn made for dark colours like Cheer or Woolite. I used to use regular liquid detergent (my favourite is Tide Free), but when we got the front-load washer I found the dark clothes were getting white spots even though I was usuing the same detergent (and much less, like 1.4 cup). When I switched to Cheer Dark the white spots disappeared, so I wonder if there's something special about that kind of detergen in combination with front-loaders. I never had the white spot problems with the top-loader and the Tide Free coz I'd fill the tub up with water then detergent and get it mixed well before adding the clothes. Can't do that with the front-load..