Check This: Laundry Soap (not detergent)

[launderess]

Many people probably are more comfortable with using laundry pretreaters they know, such as "Spray N Wash" and "Shout". These surfactant and enzyme based pre-treaters are effective against a wide variety of laundry stains/soils, while soaps really are great for grease,oil,wax and other sorts of stains. Fels with it's petrol content in addition to the above, is also great for lipstick, inks and other stains that are treatable via solvents.

L.

 

[bandmom]

I have made the soap he sells. I used a microplane grater and keep it in a tupperwear container. I saw the formula on a frugal website, and just had to try it.
I mix it with Roma detergent and it works fine on towels.
I have to stand back when I take the lid off, it will curl your nose hairs. I have also used it when I tried a new detergent and it was causing too many suds in the machine.
Our Kroger sells the Fels, I used it because mom did, still my favorite pretreater.

 

[lederstiefel1]

Soap

I use bar soap as a pre-treatment for stains and it works even on stains where it is not supposed to work on - maybe because it loosens the dirt better, so it can be attacked better by the detergent in the wash-water.
Also I mix my own stain pre-treatment soap according to an old recipe I found in an old book.

There are some things to keep in mind when using soap!
Hard water is poison to soap! Even when rinsing in hard water areas there must be a softener (calgon, phosphate, soda or anything like that) added to the first warm or better hot rinse!
As already said: warm (40°C) is the minimum wash-temperature, hot is better and boil-wash (100°C) is always best with soap!
Soap does not bleach any stains and so needs the use of oxygene or chlorine bleach and does give a yellow-grey appearance after a while when not used together with a brightener or blueing!
But the appearance of the washing after being treated with soap is better than with any detergent. The smell is not artificial like that of detergents. Ironing is done much faster and fabrics smooth out much better when line dried than those washed with detergent. Also the water absorbance of towels is better. And no softener is to be needed!
Here in Germany are soap-based detergents available - see link below - but they are more expensive and are not made to wash with cold water which I generally do. But with warm or hot water they can be used like all other detergents, too!

Ralf

http://www.sodasan.com/remote/home.html.en

 

[toggleswitch]

99 and 44/100ths percent pure, just like me.

My understanding is that soap removes dirt without pulling out the natural oils found in natural fibers, as over-zealous over-effective artificial detergents do.

WIth soap you don't need softener which attempts to replace those natural oils using waxy substances.

Methinks I need to get a bar of IVORY soap (all 99 44/100 % pure) and grate a bit into my washes as suds contol, for starters!

http://www.ivory.com/YourIvoryProducts_IvoryBarSoap.htm

 

[toggleswitch]

Ivory snow BTW appears to be detergent now, no longer grated soap flakes!

 

[oxydolfan1]

Sometimes I grate my old soap chips after I deem them unworthy of Body Beautiful....

I love the "Delusions of Grandeur" scent...

 

[frigilux]

I just ordered some some laundry soap (Fels Naptha, washing soda and....something else) and I'm interested to see how it does with my bath towel loads. I don't like to use softener on towel as it messes with their absorbency, but detergent suds don't want to break down in my FL'er. I'm hoping the soap product will be the solution I've been looking for: >No suds.
> Natural fiber softening

I've read posts from a couple of people who say the rinse water should be warm if using soap, otherwise.....I don't know, Western civilzation will collapse or something. No, wait. If the rinse water is cold, the fibers will contract and hold the soap. That's what it was.

Anyway, my FL'er won't do cold for the 1st and 2nd rinses. I'll have to catch the cycle after the wash and reset it so the first rinse will be warm.

 

[sudsmaster]

Just finished grating three different kinds of soap: Ivory bar, Zote laundry bar, and Island (Fijiian) laundry soap.

Results were interesting, and colorul.

Am now washing a load of bath towels with the grated Ivory ... with 33% STPP.

Will post photos and commentary in separate thread.