Fels Naptha

[stan]

Has anyone noticed the thousands of homemade laundry soap concoctions on the internet? Fels Naptha, borax, and washing soda are the main ingredients, in various proportions. Some mixed in water, some just the dry ingredients alone, stored in a container and used as needed. Anyone want to take this one! come on you know you do! LOL

 

[danmantn]

Already did..anytime you use a soap, pretty much have to use hot water. While it was neat to do, I just gave it to my sister...didn't like how the clothes felt either. I love the smell of Fels, and keep it for occassional pretreating, but mainly for how it makes the room smell.

 

[launderess]

Nothing Special

Just a variation on "soap powder" recipes housewives, housekeepers, laundresses and others used for ages.

Honestly don't see how the stuff is better than modern detergents, especially since the knowledge of how to do laundry with pure soap is pretty much gone.

Using pure laundry requires plenty of clean, soft and hot water. Stains must be removed or dealt with *before* the wash, most items will require pre-soaking (in cool water), then washed in hot followed by at least one hot (or at least warm) rinse, several more warm rinses, then finally cold.

These soap recipes use mainly washing soda and borax for softening water and adding cleaning power. Personally I'd reduce the former and lessen the later while using phosphates to soften the wash and perhaps first several rinse waters.

Finally modern washing machines simply aren't designed to withstand repeated use of pure soaps. Sooner or later the things will get gunked up from all that soap not to mention how moulds love growing on soap residue.

 

[beekeyknee]

Greasy Residue

My Mom has been making that stuff for about a year now. It leaves a greasy residue in the machine and on the clothes. The clothes feel tacky, some how. Don't like it. And it separates in the jug.

 

[launderess]

There Is A Reason Why Tide

Along with other "detergents" kicked soap to housewive's curbs upon being introduced. Even P&G finally saw the light and switched Ivory Snow soap powder to a detergent formula.

Soap really is *not* the best thing for automatic washing machines, more so for front loading/H-Axis. Despite this all over Europe, especially France pure soaps such as Savon de Marseille or products with it as it's base are quite popular. Le Chat (by Henkel), amoung others sells soap flakes for use in automatic washing machines.

Problem with soap is getting all of it out of textiles, and keeping it from gunking up the washer. Suppose one could run a washing machine "cleaning cycle" using acids or cleaners designed for the purpose.

When using pure soap you have to think "old school" and try to remove as much soil as possible before the main wash. Then there is less to bind with the soap and then one can use less. As noted above this involves going back to the old school method of soaking or flushing laundry before washing. All that pre-soaking or pre-washing seems a bit excessive when modern detergents will do the thing in one wash cycle, usually without having to pre-treat or soak.

As for being "green" by using soap, I don't know about that.

Considering all the hot or warm water required, and the resources required to heat said water not to mention the amounts of it, seems like any savings by not using petrol based detergent are eaten up by using petrol, coal, or electric to heat all that water. Of course if one has solar water heating that would bring one cost down but you still are using quite allot of water.

 

[dirtybuck]

I can see soap being used as an OCCASIONAL aid for cleaning and softening some items (curtains, lace, crocheted or knit items), but as an every day driver..um, NO!

 

[gmmcnair]

You CAN use it as a daily driver if your water is super SUPER soft. I make homemade bar soaps, and I recycle the ugly ones and the overruns into laundry gel (with some added ingredients), but it takes more soap than most of these recipes call for to do a decent job even in soft water. Plus you do need at least a mild souring agent to keep residue at bay.

It also takes a good deal more of the gel than most of these recipes call for in usage. Most of these recipes call for a meager 1/4 to 1/2 a cup; I use about 1 1/2 cups of a much stronger concentration to get a good layer of suds going in my machine and keep it there.

So, while I use them regularly, and I don't have dingy clothes, rancid smelling clothes, nor a buildup in my washer, I don't recommend them to about 90% of the population. Sears Ultra Plus is cheap and good.

 

[stan]

Daily Driver

O.K since I posted this thread I decided to try it out for myself! I graded up some Fels, mixed with a little borax and a little washing soda (had all this already) ( really wanted to spike with TSPP, but didnt) decided to wash a couple of white towels, and a heavy white terry bathrobe that looked a little dingy. The bathrobe also had a few spots on it, but I did not pre treat (wanted to see how this formula would do on its own) I started to fill the washer with warm water, ( warm rinse) and while filling I poured out about 3/4 cup of the dry ingredients into a glass jar, added a little hot tap water, closed lid and shook, when washer started its agitation, poured it in and walked away. The results seemed perfectly fine to me? no residue no gummy feel? the robe and was spotless. Have been using this for a daily driver this week, and so far so good. wont recommend this to anyone just yet, other than it will do in a pinch. We shall see. If I start seeing any build up anywhere, it will get axed. Hi Mike I`m a soap maker too. Got interested years ago from a man that used to work for White King Soap in the 40s, and was able to learn some of the technical and chemical aspects from him.

 

[jim]

Fels Naptha Soap

There is a wing of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia called the Fels Planetarium. It was Mr. Fels soaps that paid for that fine addition to this museum. As a first grader, we went there by bus one morning and attended the show. I still to this day cannot get over the wonder that created in my imagination about the night skies. Thanks (albeit belatedly) Mr. Fels for your civic generosity and others directed thinking. Maybe other exceptionally wealthy persons in this country could use this an example of what a thoughtful person would do with pots and pots of money, rather than say build a casino and bilk the old folks of their Social Security Checks every month.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The other super neat thing about Fels granulated soap when it came in the green box was that on the back, where they listed the recommended amounts for types of washing machines, they used a drawing of a 33 inch Whirpool Washer-Dryer Combination to illustrate a Front Loading washer and that box first made its appearance in stores in our area in the late 60s or early 70s. Talk about time travel.

 

[wringersteve]

I made a batch of it and used it for awhile. It worked OK, but I migated back to Tide. I still use a bar of Fels-Naptha as a pre-treater and it works wonders for that. The Fels-Naptha recipe in gel form smells great, though!

 

[circlew]

Soap or detergent?

When I was very little, my mom used Instant Fels. I remember it coming in a shiny red box. Was this a soap or detergent?

She also sometimes used Gentle Fels dish detergent. These products were advertised by the famous Ruth Lyons on her 50-50 Club TV & radio show.

 

[wringersteve]

Ruth Lyons vs P&G (CircleW)

My mom used Instant Fels as well!

Ruth Lyons famously stood up to P&G by refusing to give up her "50-50 Club" noon time slot on WLW so that P&G could air their noon soap operas in its Cincinnati home market. As a result, P&G dropped its sponsorship of her show. She retaliated by taking on Philadelphia-based Fels as a sponsor. Fels products instantly zoomed to #1 in sales right in P&G's own back yard. To quote Ruth: "I'll make P&G rue the day they refused to advertise on my show!"

 

[stan]

soap or detergent

Circle W. I believe Gentle Fels was a detergent and Instant Fels was soap granules. Remember that you can not duplicate those kinds of soap products used at that time by grading up bar soap ( like Fels Naptha ) The soap flakes and powdered soaps of the day were processed entirely different than the way bar soaps are made. I`ve done it and made it work but its not the same as having the real purified flakes or granules made back then.

 

[launderess]

Fels Naptha Soap

Has most always been a "built" soap product, more like a detergent than a pure soap. At least according to the vintage bars I have some of which are marked "Purex" others older than that.

In addition to naptha (old man Fels invented and patented the process for binding the stuff to the product in such a way it didn't evaporate during long shelf storage), Fels soap contained fabric whitening agents, washing soda, glycerin, talc and some other ingredients (don't have a bar with me at the moment).

Contrasted with P&G's "white" naptha soap which was just that, a more gentle "pure" soap with the addition of naptha (later without due to the war), soaps like vintage Kirkman's Borax soap(which I have in my stash), Fels Naptha, and Octagon were considered "brown" soaps and whilst good for "heavy duty" cleaning of laundry could also be harsh on textiles and one's hands if doing laundry that way. The additon of various alkaline substances such as borax or washing soda served two purposes. One they helped with softening water. Two, it boosted cleaning power.

Granulated and later powdered Fels "Instant" was nothing more than the bar version flaked or ground down. Don't think besides that there was any major difference between them and the bar products. Fels "Instant" was invented to take on powdered detergents such as Tide that had pushed pure soap out of top dog place in the laundry. Fels advertised the residue left behind in all textiles laundered with soap was a form of "built in fabric softener".

Personally considering how dangerous naptha is (now stoddard solvent in modern Fels soaps), I should go about grinding or flaking the stuff on a regular basis. Well at least not anywhere without good ventilation and perhaps wearing a face mask.

 

[stan]

Stoddard solvent

IIRC Fels no longer contains the stoddard solvent used years ago, new versions contain pentasodium triphosphate instead. If you have old bars, I believe Laundress is right, and one should be careful upon grading. " Pure" soap and "purified" soap are two different things. Soap flakes, granules, and powdered soaps were manufactured differently than bars. Bars did not require purification like flakes or powders did. During manufacturing, flakes or granules had to be purified by re-precipitating the soap with a salt solution in order to remove impurities, such as any unsaponified fats, sodium hydroxide, glycerol, ect, Then the soap was placed on a chill roll (superseded) by vacuum dryers which removed most of the water (down to about 6-12% remaining) All this very different than producing a bar form.

 

[gmmcnair]

Stoddard Solvent

You remembered correctly; Fels Naptha no longer contains the Stoddard Solvent and it's less effective as a pretreater now.

I found a recipe for paraffin (kerosene) soap, and I made a batch of that and cut it into stain sticks. It cuts grease like the vintage Fels Naptha does, and is my typical "go to" pretreater now that Fels has changed.

 

[stan]

soap and solvent

Hi Mike. I just found a old recipe for laundry bars that calls for ammonia to be added immediately after the introduction of the lye solution, ( of course the formula has a 0 % lye discount ) Made a small batch last night, just an experiment. I`ll know more after curing. I`am interested in your kerosene soap? do you share recipes? Stan

 

[gmmcnair]

Stan...

I sent you an email with instructions.