Thanks all for the recap. I’ve bought a defoamer in a local swimming pool/spa chemical supplies store. We’ll see how it goes when I have enough laundry to run some tests again, and I’ll report back.
Which reminds me, over 20 years ago, I’ve heard from neighbors who came from Europe that they used to have a product named, if I recall correctly, “Aqua Best”, which was a foam suppressant to be used with laundry detergents. Do they still sell anything like that in Europe? Is it popular or is it used by folks who for one reason or another are used to adding it to the laundry whether or not the detergent is already low sudsing?
Rich: when you first mentioned it might be silicones which might also be foam suppressants, I was thinking that if there is enough detergent to clean the clothes and remove the coolant smells, then I’d be set, I don’t need to see the suds. Many years ago I read somewhere that there are several different ways to make laundry detergents low sudsing, and some compounds don’t make *any* suds despite the fact that they clean extremely well, while other compounds make varying amounts of suds that need foam suppressants, which work reasonably well by raising the surface tension of the water but only at the interface air/water (probably because they are “oily” or less dense than water in any case) during the wash cycle but may not be as good at controlling the suds during spin, for example, causing a suds lock. In any case, I wasn’t thinking of titration where the amount of detergent is just enough to remove the oils, I was thinking of course there would be more detergent than necessary, but not enough to make a layer of suds. Anyway, the funny thing is that when you said that they were not supposed to be foam suppressants, but just oil, I immediately thought “oh, heck, then yes, I’d put more detergent until I saw suds” which is a weird thing for me to base my thinking on.
