Calling Launderess....... STPP Ponder

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aquarius1984

aquarius1984

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Hi

Can you tell me what this stuff does exactly as Ive heard many members including yourself use this in your laundry.

I bought some toothpaste a while back which contains STPP and im a bit curious as to what it will do to my teeth.

Anyhoo it does not mention the concentratedness of the STPP but it does mention that it constitutes as being a Health Promoting Ingredient.

The actual toothpaste is

Beverly Hills Formula Natural white Active 10 Sensitive

other ingrdients that promote the 10 Health promoting agents are.....
Flouride
Aloe Vera
Vit.E
Lactoferrin ??????
Panthenol ?????? usually only found in hair care products here
Xylitol
Folic Acid
Baking Soda
STPP??????

Any information you could proviide would be very helpful.

Thankyou

Nick
 
STPP in pure form is an approved food additive. It's used in everything from packaged breakfast cereal to shrimp. It is bascially non-toxic and I wouldn't worry about the small amounts in your toothpaste.

In most foods the STPP is used as a "hydrating" agent. It helps keeps shrimp plump and juicy.

In laundry, it works really well to remove soil from fabrics and keep it in solution so it can be rinsed away. It's also an excellent water softener, improving the ability of soaps and detergents to clean.

I don't want to be immodest, but I'm the guy that turned both this forum and the one over on THS to the virtues of STPP, some five years ago...
 
Hi Nick, STPP = Sodium Tripolyphosphate.

Sometimes shortened to `phosphates'. In laundry terms they used to be used in most detergents for the reasons sudsmaster described. Nowadays in the UK most detergents contain zeolites instead, as an (arguably, let's not start the debate again) environmentally friendlier alternative.

On the plus, phosphated powdered detergent is kinder to colours than zeolytic detergent and it is generally easier to rinse. Phosphates also help to keep a healthy machine and are excellent in hard water in terms of preventing scum, heater build up, seepage to bearrings etc.

In the UK phosphated detergent is available in the form of any Unilever tablets, all of which I believe to be excellent washers / rinsers and very economical, I use one tab on most loads. I do not know if any other detergent in the UK is phosphated.

Regards, Nick
 
Said Sylvia to Crystal

"I was out in the open dear when you called, hope you don't mind me being modest"

"Modest? You? That's a laugh"

Sorry, had to use that line as one so rarely gets the chance.

Ok, back to phosphates.

Phosphates are an approved food and beauty additive for the their many properties, some of which Sudsmaster alluded to alread. Phosphates are also a by product and important part of animal cell functions (remember ATP from high school biology class?". As such you probably excrete far more phosphates with in a day or week, than contained in an entire tube of toothpaste. So go on, get dirty! *LOL*

As a big fan of laundry soap, have known about STPP for years, but will give Sudsmaster "props" for spreading the word.

L.
 
STPP

I have used STPP for 25 years it not only helps with heavy soil stain removal a little added with the bleach helps it work better too.
 
I have softened water, but still use it from time to time in white loads, and for especially dirty clothes/rags, etc. I've had it on the shelf since reading about it on THS - probably five years ago!

I've found that phosphates were used in detergents much later that I'd thought - an 80's box of Clothesline Fresh Tide from an estate sale not long ago has 6.4% phosphates, a much lower concentration than in earlier versions - many of the 70's brands have 8.4%.
 
Ok thanks guys....

Now the next question....

Ive not noticed it being any different to any toothpaste ive used before in terms of the fact my teeth are nice and clean and my breath smells nice.

So is it likely to be worth the £7 a tube price tag (yes I was daft enough to buy it) compared to my regular Colgate Total with Whitening at a more realistic £3 for the pump tube thingy...... i just love them.... LOL

Is the STPP likely to promote health benefits to my mouth at all? or is it just another pointless gimmick to tempt silly sods like me into buying a worthless product.

N
 
Al Gore didn't invent the internet

And I don't claim to have been the first to "discover" the wonderful properties of STPP. The detergent mfg's have known about since at least WWII. It's just that since phosphates have been banned in many areas since the 80's, that many people forgot about how efficacious they are.

It took me some time to figure out what the missing ingredient in modern detergents was. I knew that I could correlate reduced washing performance in "Clout" laundry detergent with the disappearance of significant phosphate content in the mid-90's. But even though I have a degree in biochem, I wasn't aware that STPP was the missing ingredient. I wound up trying TSP but found that wasn't quite the ticket. After some internet sleuthing in 2000, I finally got the picture that it's not just enough that it be a phosphate - it has to be what's commonly called a "complex" phosphate. As Laundress aluded, ATP is a complex phosphate. It packs a lot of energy for our muscles and other organs. Similarly, STPP packs energy which is used to snap up hard water minerals and also mineral rich fabric soiling, and instead of forming a cement like compound, it keeps those nasties in solution so they can be rinsed away.

A couple of years ago I took a refresher molecular biology course where we went into some detail into just how DNA is replicated inside our cells. The whole process is highly dependent upon the energy provided by phosphates - and even the DNA molecule itself has phosphorus as a key part of its backbone.

What I did do on THS, and later, here, was to inform the forum members of the benefits of STPP in laundry detergents, and how to obtain it. I recently got a communication from a detergent manufacturer about STPP, and suprisingly they were not aware that TSP doesn't quite do what STPP does. So we do need to continue spreading the "good word" about STPP [void where prohibited by law]. Perhaps we can even halt or reverse some of the unnecessary bans on STPP in residential laundry detergents.
 
"I've found that phosphates were used in detergents

In California, phosphates were still available in detergents such as White Kind D and Costco's in house brand "Clout", both made by Huish of Utah, into the late 80's to early 90's. After that, it was available in the White King Laundry Booster, until a couple-three years ago, where it seems to have disappeared as well.

I remember the period when Clout lost its "clout". It was when I was doing volunteer safety work and had to wear white clothing. Typically the pants would get dirty very quickly, but I could always rely on Clout and hot water to get them clean. Then, one day, I noticed the whites were no longer getting clean. I compared labels on different Clout containers (tubs, really) and noticed that the version that didn't work very well listed no phosphate content. That was in the late 80's. I started using White King Laundry Booster because it listed phosphates as an ingredient, but I still didn't know exactly what type of phosphate it was. It wasn't until I bought my Neptune front loader in 2000 that I got serious about finding out what the missing ingredient really was. I was disappointed with the results with Wisk HE detergent, and set upon a quest for enlightenment. It came gradually, thanks in large part to the burgeoning internet.

So I suppose I can thank Al Gore for helping me "rediscover" STPP, LOL.

"Where can I get a 55 gallon drum?"

STPP in bulk is typically sold in 50 lb paper sacks. It's a powder so a drum isn't usually used, but an air-tight drum container is probably a very good idea for storing it for a long time. A plastic garbage can with a tight fitting lid might be a good option.

STPP is, I believe, still a component of many dishwasher detergents, and for the past five years I and others have suggested that people unable to locate STPP try using an ounce or two of dishwasher detergent as a laundry booster. People have reported back success with this approach. I would caution that if the dishwasher detergent also contains chlorine to use it only on whites.
 
Lest I forget...

Those of us in arid border states also figured out that imported Mexican detergents often still contain STPP (listed by its Spanish name, "trifosfato de pentasodio"), and that these clean quite well. Unfortunately the HE versions of these detergents are very difficult to locate, although Ariel has started selling its "Bajaespuma" ("low foam") version for front loaders in some areas of the Southwest in the past year or so. But it's still not available in the SF Bay Area, as far as I can tell. I understand it's available in LA and some parts of Texas. But if you use a traditional top loader and enjoy lots of suds, Ariel, Roma, and other Mexican brands might be fun to investigate.

Eventually some US detergent manufacturers might catch on that there are some lost sales to Mexican brands due to the phosphate issue. Whether this prompts them to provide phosphated versions for those areas of the country that still don't ban phosphates is another question.
 

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