A different homemade detergent.

[launderess]

Need not necessarily be a "high" pH; just alkaline. To a point stronger is better that is why washing soda is a better cleaner than borax; but the reaction is same.

It all comes down to something we all learned in chemistry classes while at school, saponification.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification

Base substances react with fats or oils to become "soap". For cleaning or laundry purposes we use that process to turn fats/oils on surfaces or textiles into a soap that then can be washed away. When you pour lye based drain cleaner down drains it reacts with fats/oils to become "soap" that can be cleared away because the clog is now dissolved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester#Addition_of_nucleophiles_at_carbonyl

High pH substances are or were a good choice because they are cheap and performed reliably at their task. But for laundry use they also bring a host of other issues.

Higher pH used to "break" or for detergency means more rinsing is required including a sour bath to restore final pH levels that won't irritate skin.

Repeated high pH washing also can take a toll on certain fabrics especially those of cotton or linen. Just one wash will likely destroy silk or wool fabrics.

If you've ever used a powdered detergent, especially the more BOL bargain brands that left your clothing hard and scratchy; likely culprit was excessive washing soda, caustic soda and other high alkaline substances.

In fact you can make a pretty good "detergent" using nothing more than some sort of surfactant and sodium metasilicate alone or blended with washing soda or another alkaline substance. For years laundries in UK and Europe did just that by using soap and metasilicate along with hot to boiling water. The other benefit of this was that the high pH also destroyed protein including blood stains.

Persil soap powder was nothing more than PERborate, SILicate and soap. Hence the name PER-SIL.

 

[vacuumguy99]

I think I had saw you explained how persil got its name in another post and that was very interesting to me, might shape how my diy detergent gets made. As far as the sour rinse goes what is the best product or compound you have found for the task as it seems to be an important step in washing with an alkaline detergent

 

[launderess]

When using soap in a top loading washer or wringer machine

You want a lively rich layer of thick suds as shown:





You notice a recurring theme in Ivory Snow advertising; the supposed absence of "harsh detergent deposits"....

Well Ivory Snow would leave things washed "softer" wouldn't it?

Unlike powdered detergents then and largely now pure soap Ivory and others did not contain washing soda or other alkaline substances. Thus no such residue and or harsh feeling due to textile fibers being roughed up by high pH substances.

The "deposits" spoken of are what happens when you use precipitating water softeners (washing soda, caustic soda etc...) which can cling to fabrics if laundry is not rinsed well.

The other issue is something one has spoken about before; encrustation. Basically when using high or moderately high pH substances for laundry it causes textile mesh fibers to open. This is a good thing because soils can thus be easily flushed away. Problem is that if those fibers close down before all soils and residue are rinsed away that residue becomes trapped. Result is harsh, scratchy feeling laundry that soon becomes dull and tattle tale grey.

The old way was to have one, two or more boiling, hot or at least warm rinses to make sure fabrics were free of residue before a final cold (or warm) rinse. This and or a "sour" would be used after the third or so rinse to dissolve any remaining alkaline substances out of the wash.

Liquid laundry detergents are either neutral to only slightly base. They clean more based upon surfactant and enzyme action rather than brute high pH strength. Thus risk of encrustation is reduced. More importantly for commercial laundries and linen services things last longer and they can skip the sour and perhaps few rinses. This allows them to save money on supplies, energy, time and water.

For wash loads that need extra oomph, commercial laundries have access to products like emulsifiers and breaks that can be used with liquid (or powder) detergents as needed.

Finally as for all those soap products and their "harsh deposit" advert claims. Light duty detergents such as Dreft and Woolite soon displaced soap for "nice things". Eventually even Ivory Snow succumbed. P&G discontinued it as a soap and reformulated it as a light duty detergent.

On another thing; to combat that "harsh" feeling early detergents left with laundry a new product hit the market, fabric softener. First used by commercial laundries and later introduced to consumers early formulas were nothing more than an emulsion of fats, oils and or tallow. The last should sound familiar since that is what soap is often made. So now P&G and others found away to sell "soap" back to American housewives who gave up using that for wash day. They now just added the stuff to the rinse.

Dryer sheets both early and many today are nothing more than fabric coated with stearic acid, or fatty alcohols and or fatty acids. Again, soap more or less.



[this post was last edited: 2/24/2017-05:18]

 

[launderess]

Laundry Sour

For household use stick with plain white vinegar from supermarket. It is already diluted enough acetic acid that won't likely harm fabrics or washing machine.

 

[sudsmaster]

In my experience, STPP is rather stable on the shelf if it is kept dry and not overheated.

I don't think it spontaneously decomposes to TSP overnight as Keven intimated.

One can easily check on the status of stored STPP by adding some to a solution of hard water (well water generally will be hard). Shake to dissolve, and then observe if the water is clear or if it has precipitates. If it is clear, the STPP is good. If there are precipitates (look like flakes), then the STPP may have gone off.

I checked my stash some years ago using this method, comparing it to STP and to washing soda (Sodium carbonate). Sure enough the STP and washing soda resulted in precipitate, while the STPP solution remained clear.