Ammonia in Laundry

[brisnat81]

its not a good idea to mix ammonia and Bleach

I'd be very wary about mixing ammonia and bleach in one load. I've by accident had them mix in the bathroom a few times, and lets just say it takes your breath away more than the ammonia alone.

Maybe a cup of each diluted in 20 gal of water is ok, but I'd be very wary about letting them mix undiluted, you'll need to vacate the room.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/toxicchemicals/a/Mixing-Bleach-And-Ammonia.htm

 

[launderess]

Fat, grease and oil stains

Again it isn't necessarily ammonia you want, but alkalinity which can be had from various substances.

In the old days table linen and anything else with fat/oil stains would be presoaked in lukewarm to warm water that a bit of washing soda, borax or similar substance had been added. It was that old saponification reaction at work again. The alkalinity of the base substance would react with the fat/oil causing the latter to become a type of soap that could be washed away.

For pretreating fat/oil stains my favourite go to has always been a bar of laundry soap. Fels Naptha (vintage) is my top choice, but on other side of pond there are things like Fairy and other "green" soaps. Not green as in ecological but the actual color.

 

[lordkenmore]

>Again it isn't necessarily ammonia you want, but alkalinity which can be had from various substances.

Wouldn't many powder detergents deliver alkalinity? It seems to me that I've heard they often heavily use washing soda.

 

[launderess]

True,

While it does have some uses for stain removal (blood), and so forth, much of the lore surrounding ammonia came up from when soap was the dominate laundry "detergent"; that is it acts as a wash day "booster". No different than say boxes of washing soda and other products sold then and today to enhance performance.

 

[frigilux]

Thanks for the link, Nathan. Apparently bleach shouldn't be mixed with anything but detergent and water. I use bleach in at least a couple of loads each week so I play it safe and never use other products (vinegar, ammonia, etc.) for laundry.

 

[tolivac]

AMMONIA-back in the days when I had a chemistry set and was a socerer--I made up a batch of Ammonia solution---was stronger than the household kind.My stepmother wanted me and my brother to clean the vinyl couch that was in the rec room.It was pretty dirty-was our dogs favorite.So I conjured up a batch of my Ammonia-My brother called it "BONES Ammonia" one of my nicknames.I put a little on the really dirty area of that couch-it started fizzing and foaming!My brother and I laughed in delight-than my Stepmom came down to see what we were doing-We said--"just cleaning this couch as you asked"-She then asked "Where did you get that ammonia you are using??Rob said Rex made it up!"She says-"That's the strongest Ammonia I smelled!""Next time I have a cleaning job to do will ask Rex to make me some"That chemestry set never was so more useful.That couch looked like new!!!My StepMom was so happy how clean we got it.She didn't let the dog sleep on it anymore!