With the bleach they come out of the washing machine looking as new. I should maybe try it on the whitest-white cycle without the bleach just to see how different they'd be. I've heard some people use vinegar as an alternative too.
Cleaning them is hardly my favourite chore although I find I loathe it far less than say mixing up alkalinity dosing liquid. The most time consuming part of the whole task is I sit there and pick out every brittlestar, copepod and bristle worm and release them back into the wild. Of course half of them get eaten by the fish "RIGHT ON! HE'S FEEDING US LIVE FOOD!" so unfortunately what starts off as a guilt-reducing measure never works out as such. Can't win.
