Ammonia

[justjunque]

Noob question:

When I started getting a little more into laundry, beyond just; okay. I washed it, it must be clean, I bought a few additional laundry aides. One of which is a bottle of ammonia.
In two separate current threads, I've seen recommendations for using it.
One, in the thread about getting whites whiter, and one in a thread about killing germs in the laundry.
The only thing that I know for sure about it is that you never mix it with chlorine bleach.
But...on to my question.
I swear I had read somewhere on this site that ammonia can damage parts of your washer.
Can anyone speak to this? As it stands, I've never even broken the seal on my bottle.
Thanks in advance.

Barry

 

[perc-o-prince]

Hi Barry- Near 90/495 junction here!

I was a service tech/supervisor for Miele for 4 years and I never heard anything about that. Most household "cleaners" are sufficiently diluted right from the bottle, then diluted again in the machine, so damage wouldn't be likely. Someone tried to tell me that using 1-2c of white vinegar in the dishwasher to periodically clean it out would rot the hoses. My reply was that some of the cleaners for dishwashers are much more concentrated acid than the 3-5% in household vinegar. That got me an "oh yeah."

That said, maybe there are parts on some machines that would react to the alkali property of the ammonia, but I doubt it. Just keep in mind that (I believe) most if not all detergents are also bases on the pH scale, so the ammonia adds to that. When I do a whites cycle with chlorine bleach, I put a bit of lemon juice in the fab softener container to help neutralize the bleach in the clothes/machine.

Regards,
Chuck

 

[warmsecondrinse]

I've never heard of ammonia damaging a washer. As Perc-o-Prince said, it's quite diluted.

I've been putting ammonia in the bleach compartment of ALL my non-whites for years. I work mostly inside, frequently in under air-conditioned places/ I have extremely oily skin and I sweat a lot. Also, at the time I was doing a lot of cooking from scratch so I'd often get spots of olive oil on my shirts. Point: 90% of my 'dirt' is oil-based.

I was discussing this at what was one of my first Wash-Ins when I was advised that ammonia is very effective for sweat/oil/grease types of dirt. I tried it and it worked wonders. I've used it ever since. I hardly ever pre-treat anything anymore.

Jim

 

[justjunque]

Hi Chuck!
Hope you don't take offense, but that's my cat's name! He was already named when we adopted him, and we really thought a cat named Chuck was pretty cool.
We're over here in the forgotten part of the state. West of Worcester, east of the Berkshires, a stones throw from CT.
Thanks for the info. Ironically, I use white vinegar in every load without even giving it a thought.
If ammonia is a germ killing option when bleach isn't, (anything but whites), I'll have to give it a shot.
Since I worry and overthink everything, let me throw this out there.
Should I be concerned at all with using ammonia in the wash cycle and vinegar in the rinse?
Sorry. I'm not up on my alkalines and acidics.

Barry

 

[justjunque]

Jim,

Thank you!
Your reply came in while I was rambling.
That's good to know. As long as my aforementioned concern about ammonia in the wash cycle, vinegar in the rinse isn't a problem, I'm definitely going to try the ammonia.

Barry

 

[warmsecondrinse]

You're very welcome

I hope ammonia as a bleach substitute and vinegar for a fabric softener isn't a problem bec I've been doing it for years!

As for killing germs, IIRC ammonia does kill some classes of microorganisms but not nearly as many as bleach does and I don't think it does much to most of the disease carrying ones we humans worry about.

I could be wrong. Could one of you chemical gurus help us out, please? (bats eyelashes)

Jim

 

[sarahperdue]

Ammonia and oil...

I've definitely got to try this! I'm always pretreating olive oil/cooking stains, and it seems like it would also help with my dingy sheet issue since I'm sure part of that is body oils--especially DH who has extremely oily hair and skin.

Ammonia is a base, right?
So an ammonia wash and vinegar in the rinse would probably help neutralize the ph of the finished load. Yes?

Sarah

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Yes, ammonia is a base. There's no problem with doing ammonia for the wash and vinegar for the rinse.

You may have detergent residue. Since you're suspecting insufficient rinsing I'd split it. one was with ammonia. then wash again with vinegar as 'detergent' . Since oils are a prime suspect I'd use the hottest water you're comfortable with the whole way through.

Somewhere here there's a thread about skin oil and the effects of wash temps. IIRC skin oil is a solid below 85F or so. I forget details but basically the higher the wash temps the less chemical 'energy' is needed to release the oil form the fabric. And the inverse is true.

I have a vague memory of an in-depth discussion at a Wash-In regarding the fact that detergents that dissolve oils at lower temps have a higher carbon footprint in production. I know the chemists here will cringe at my bad analogy but getting oil out is sort of like making O₃. Oxygen atoms like being in pairs (O₂). You can force it into a three-way (O₃) to make ozone but it requires a net input of energy and stability isn't the greatest.  Maybe someone can explain more clearly?


 

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Ammonia

I’m sure that I’m the one who mentioned it! I really think it is one of the best laundry additives. Recently I borrowed a sweatshirt of a friend. I washed it, used ammonia with unscented Tide USR, and he was astonished at how soft and fresh it felt and smelled. Removing residues and body oils makes a big difference, especially washing in cold.

 

[ozzie908]

I found this

Its an additive that used in with the detergent to remove oils etc from fabric in the wash.

I use 20 ml with a load of dark clothes some of which have oil splats from cooking and when washed with this there are no oil marks left on everything and clothing feels different like when it was new and not washed.

Austin

PS anyone know how to rotate the pic?

 

[DADoES]

[No message]

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Thanks you gentlemen, for the product info and and for righting the pic.

I checked the website and the seem to be out of stock of everything, lol. Hardly a surprise. Would you mind sharing where you bought yours?

Oh, if you tell us operating system you're using someone will probably be able to explain how you can rotate them yourself.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Ammonia is not registered as a disinfectant

Ammonia is not registered as a disinfectant with the EPA like other products such as chlorine or quaternary ammonia or phenol. I guess a strong enough detergent solution that is hot enough will kill microbes, but don't count on ammonia to work like chlorine bleach or water over 160F. [this post was last edited: 4/20/2020-23:22]

https://www.clorox.com/how-to/disin...-fabrics/ammonia-as-a-sanitizing-alternative/

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Re: #12

Thank you for confirming I was remembering properly

 

[tomturbomatic]

Re: #7:

I have heard/read a time or two in discussions that this virus has an oily or greasy coating so hot water and strong detergent will strip that coating off the virus and destroy it. I do not know if this is an authoritative pronouncement or not, but I think that they were saying that chlorine bleach is not necessary to kill the virus on fabrics in the presence of other chemicals.

 

[ozzie908]

Rotating picture

Thank you Dadoes for turning it around I have searched and cannot find out how to do it on my MacBook ?

I bought the emulsifier from a company in Ireland I will see if I can recall where as I have thrown the paper receipt I never think to keep it in case I need it ....

 

[ozzie908]

Laundry emulsifier

This is the company I bought it from.

Seller information
Dormer (Ireland) Ltd
+353 00353429372106
http://www.dormer.ie
[email protected]
Invoice ID
Dormer.ie2054
Purchase details
Premium Emulsifier - 5 litres
£22.75

 

[DADoES]

 
I've used Paint Shop Pro for years for photo editing.  Have upgraded it a few times on various computers, favorite is Version 7.  Any type of photo editing software should be able to rotate images.

I also have a photo viewer name of ACDSee (very old version 2.42, updates have been released many times but I haven't done so) that can rotate images in 90° steps ... as can Windows Photo Viewer.

 

[ozzie908]

@dadoes

Thank you Kind Sir xx

 

[sudsmaster]

AFAIK, ammonia's main action in cleaning is to cut grease. So for laundry with excessive body oils or other greases and fats, it should be useful.

Useless Tidbit: Ancient Greeks and Romans used to collect urine and let it sit for a while. Over time bacteria would turn the urea in it into ammonia, which they then used for cleaning purposes (like laundry).

 

[sarahperdue]

Ammonia

This thread has been very informative. Thanks very much.

Given the info about ammonia's grease cutting action, I cleaned my 3M half face reusable respirator with a wet cloth and ammonia. It cut...whatever the goo that is a combination of skin oils, sweat and dust fairly well--better than anything I had tried up to this point. I added a dash of Dawn and a bit of water to my ammonia soaked rag, and that was pure magic!

Sarah

 

[mrboilwash]

Isn`t ammonia hard on colors and fibers just like washing soda is because of its high pH?

 

[jamiel]

I don't think high pH is necessarily hard on cellulosic/synthetic fibers (protein fibers i.e. wool/silk are a different story). Washing soda, though, causes encrustation (non-precipitating scale) which is what's hard on fabrics...the gaseous dispersion of ammonia isn't going to linger and encrust.

 

[gyrafoam]

Ammonia was a laundry staple back in the day---------

Farm workers, mechanics, miners, restaurant employees, aircraft mechanics,etc. all made good use of Ammonia on wash day.

If you were good at measuring just the right amount then the "Sudsy" Ammonia was good just by itself or with some regular detergent. Especially in areas with very hard water.

If you had soft water you had best use "clear" ammonia along with your regular detergent. Or suffer billowing oversudz conditions-----like from a Kelvinator.

And HOT wash water.

It still works very well on loads of greasy/oily fabrics.

 

[askolover]

Ammonia works on cat pee too!  When my boy cat thinks the litter box isn't clean enough he will sometimes retaliate by peeing on any piece of fabric, blanket, or robe that has fallen off the couch and on to the floor.  Ammonia always takes it out.

 

[sarahperdue]

Urine

My mother taught me to use ammonia on pet pee as well, but I don't understand how this works. Bacteria break down the components of urine into ammonia, so how does cleaning with ammonia address this problem?

Sarah

 

[sudsmaster]

As mentioned, ammonia is a good grease cutter. I wouldn't be too worried about its alkaline character vis-a-vis colorfast fabrics, as many laundry detergents are on the alkaline side, with sodium carbonat (washing soda) being quite alkaline.

Ammonia may be good for removing urine odors from fabrics because the odor causing chemicals in pet urine are not ammonia, they are probably various other organic compounds in the urine which the animals add to provide scent markers to declare their "territory".

To neutralize ammonia and other odors one can use baking soda powder or solution.

If the pet urine has gone deep into a carpet, it may have to be peeled back and cleaned from the underside, particularly if the padding gets soaked.

Ammonia is not recommended for use on wool or fur fabrics, as it will attack the keratin component of such materials. Similarly, it will cause skin irritation by a combination of its ability to strip skin oils from the tissue, drying it out, as well as its alkaline character.

Length of exposure is probably key. In a washing machine, the fabrics are exposed to an ammonia additive for less than an hour. On a carpet that is not cleaned soon enough, the pet urine will decompose into ammonia and then over time attack susceptible fibers.

Personally I don't like wall-to-wall carpets - too hard to keep clean.

 

[jamiel]

I had always understood that you did NOT use ammonia to clean pet urine messes because that would merely reinforce the signal to "pee here"!