AbstractThe rate of soil removal during multiple cycle washing has been studied for three artificially soiled cotton test cloths. Results are considered in relation to a soil removal rate concept proposed some years ago by Vaughn, Vittone, and Smith. It is shown that the rate of removal for these soils, when washed in the Terg‐O‐Tometer with a built, anionic, synthetic detergent, does not correspond to a simple first order rate process as proposed by Vaughn et al. Rather, it was found that under a variety of washing situations the percentage soil removal increased linearly with the log of cumulative wash time. Further, it was shown that for those experiments involving detergent concentration or level of mechanical action, the slopes of these log time relationships, which reflect the rate of soil removal, vary in the expected manner.