Breaking in Jeans with a Tri-Acid Wash

I received a pair of LL Bean Double L jeans for Christmas.  It's my first pair from Bean and they are a nice heavyweight material good for daily wear.  A negative to the heavy denim is that it was rather stiff.  I turned to the internet to search for ways to soften them up quickly.  There are plenty of articles on how to break in a pair of jeans.
I settled on a vinegar soak and wash followed by extended drying with tennis balls.  Of course this was too simple.  I didn't want to go the extra step to beat them with a bat or run them over with a car in the filthy New England winter.  So what could I do?
If the main acting agent in vinegar was acid, wouldn't more acid be better?  Well its worth a shot, instead of one acid I decided to use three.  Vinegar = acetic acid, Barkeepers Friend = oxalic acid, and pure citric acid.
A soak, acid wash, regular wash, and two dry cycles produced softer jeans with little to no fading on the dark wash jeans.  I did the process with the jeans inside out and the inside surfaces seemed to be softer than the outside indicating that the beating in the dryer had a bigger effect on the exposed surface.  I think repeating the dry cycles with the jeans normal side out would make the outside softer as well, and I might take the extra step next time I have some time.
Another good thing about the LL Bean Jeans is that they are affordable and it emboldened me to take a chance on the multiple acids.


Materials:

• Tennis Balls
• Dryer Balls
• Aluminum foil balls
• 1 Gallon White Vinegar (acetic acid)
• 1 TBS Barkeepers friend (oxalic acid)
• 1/4C Lemishine (citric acid)
• Laundry detergent (I used Woolite dark)

Process:

1. Soak the jeans in warm to hot water mixed with a half gallon of vinegar that just covers the jeans.
2. Dump the jeans and solution into the washer (most washing machines will drain prior to starting anyway)
3. Fill the pre-wash, main wash, and fabric softener dispensers with vinegar.
4. Add the Bar Keepers Friend and Lemishine. I put them on the bottom of the washer not touching the jeans.
5. Run the longest pre-soad/wash combination cycle that you have with warm water.
6. Add small amount of detergent to main wash, vinegar to fabric softener dispenser and run another wash cycle.
7. Put the jeans in the dryer with tennis balls (I used 4), dryer balls (I used 3), and aluminum foil balls (I used 2). You probably don't need the variety of balls, the point is to put a bunch in there. A half dozen of one kind or assorted should do it.  I just happened to have them all on hand. Note that the drying is going to be loud with all those balls in there.
8. Run dryer on low heat for longest cycle (mine was 1:50)
9. Repeat drying cycle 1 or more times as fits your schedule, on the second and subsequent you can switch to just air tumble (I ran them twice for a total of 3 hours and 40 minutes)
10. Enjoy your now softer jeans.

Bonus: All that acid does a great job of cleaning your washer, especially when you have a front loader.