Instant Fels Naptha, a little experiment

[vintagekitchen]

After seeing some vintage ads for Instant Fels Naptha, and realizing I not only had the day to myself, but also that I was rather bored, I decided to perform a small experiment. I wondered would it be possible to re-create Instant Fels Naptha detergent, and what the results might be.

A quick trip to the shops provided the necessary ingredients, and I began mixing.

First an entire 10 load box of Trend detergent, not a great performer cleaning wise, but it contains several ingredients I wished to Include, such as washing soda, optical brightener, whitener, and sodium silicate to protect the washer. For 1 dollar this seemed a good way to obtain all these things. As a bonus, Trend is so lightly scented as to have almost no scent of it's own.

Next 2 cups TSP to soften the hard water one must deal with in this area. (This was used only for the trial batch, as it is locally available. For any later batches STPP purchased online will be used)

Finally an entire bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap, grated to equal about 4 cups. ( the best smell on earth).

I mixed everything, for a total of about 16 or so cups. I then proceeded to blend the coarse mixture in small batches in the food processor, to reduce the coarse ingredients to a fine well blended consistency.

The end result was about 9 cups of this finely ground, lovely pale yellow detergent powder, with a gorgeous old fashioned scent, (none of the overpowering floral tropical perfume like smells of modern detergents. [this post was last edited: 6/18/2012-15:24]

 

[vintagekitchen]

Now I needed something to experiment on. I rummaged about, and found an old table topper I had meant to get rid of, which being 100% cotton and white, served my purposes exactly. I then proceeded to stain the cloth using engine grime from the lawnmower, mustard, ketchup, blueberries, and some permanent fountain pen ink.

Stains are in order left to right across the cloth below. I got a bit lavish with the ink, lol.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Half a cup of my detergent in the Daewoo Twin tub, along with hot water, provided a milky wash fluid, with just a trace of bubbles across the top, and no real suds. The water felt very slippery, and smelled heavenly. Although I am used to suds, and one normally wants suds with soap, I understand from reading previous posts by Laundress that soap combined with detergent kills the suds, so I proceeded.

I threw in some ratty old towels kept for such lowly purposes as hair dye etc, to help give some bulk to the load.

Here we are washing away..

 

[vintagekitchen]

After a 12 minute wash, (I do so miss the fast wash times of the old twin tubs),
I rinsed in the spinner, first rinse warmish, second rinse cold, final rinse cold with a splash of vinegar. I did notice the smell of the Fels Naptha was completely gone after the second rinse, sadly, but this does point to it being clean rinsing, so compromises must be allowed.

Is there anything lovelier than a line full of white laundry in the sunshine?

 

[vintagekitchen]

And here we have the results. The mustard, ketchup, and blueberries are gone completely, the engine grime is somewhat lightened, and the ink is extremely lightened. Not bad for no pre-treatment on stains I ground in and then allowed to dry into the fabric.

On a side note, the towels, while clean and not heavily scented, were not nearly as soft and fluffy as I would have liked. I believe for the next load I will try skipping the vinegar. Should this fail, I guess a rinse with fabric softener may have to follow the vinegar rinse. I was hoping to eliminate the need for softener, per the old ads for true Instant Fels Naptha.

 

[launderess]

Instant Fels Naptha "Detergent"

While containing builders such as washing soda was still mainly a soap based product. That was the reason behind the "no fabric softener" required marketing. You can test for the presence of insoluble substances and or builders in soap (washing soda, rosin, talc, borax etc...) by disloving a tablespoon or so in a good sized jar filled with hot water. After closing the jar well shake to dislove the soap in water then allow to rest for awhile. As the water cools the soild matter from the soap will settle to the bottom of the jar. You can also do this in a pot of hot water (stirring instead of shaking) but you'll have to pour off the cooled water to see the stuff at the bottom.

Many soap based products such as Ivory Snow/Flakes (washes softer than detergents) made similar claims all based upon the same fact. Pure soap never truly rinses clean of fabrics, there is always a bit of whatever fats/oils are used to create the stuff left behind which acts as sort of a fabric softener.

Also if you use pure soap for wash day without or very little harsh builders such as washing soda, TSP etc the laundry will feel softer as well. This is why many say their laundry feels softer when washed in liquid detergents versus some powders. The former lack washing soda,Zeolites and so forth.

If you want a softer wash with your homemade detergent I'd ditch the TSP in favour of STPP. Haven't used Trend in years but the powder one tried during one's college years was a BOL detergent full of fillers and washing soda. That alone would give you a harsh feeling wash.

Whenever one is mixing pure soap formulas for wash day (and one has enough of the stuff to last the duration), I go for liquid detergents over powders. Usually a small amount of liquid Tide "HE" free and gentle.

First and foremost the liquid detergent provides water softening without the harsh builders mentioned above. In the case of Tide one also gets a good cocktail of enzymes and other substances to assist with stain removal. You also have chemicals to keep soils from redepositing on the wash and from clogging up the washing machine.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Laundress

Thank you for your reply, you are always so knowledgable when it comes to such matters, I knew you would have some good advice about using a soap formula.

I hadn't really intended for this to become a daily driver detergent, just an interesting experiment, but now I am intrigued. Is there a recipe you would reccomend if I were to carry this experiment further? I do love the convenience of powder, but I see your point about the liquids as well, especially since judging by the ads even Instant Fels came in both powder and liquid versions.

I had considered at first using just grated Fels Naptha and STPP, but was afraid this would cause buildup in the washer and the fabrics, leading to the dreaded tattletale grey. However this may be closer to the original formula judging by your comment.

Lastly, you are correct. Trend is a very BOL detergent, fluffy and filled, a 1 cup formula, without much at all in the way of stain fighiting ability. I only chose it as it was so cheap for an experiment I actally expected might fail, and it was one of the only lower cost detergents with a ful ingredient list.

 

[launderess]

Hello Luv!

Drop me a message either by email or internal system with your address and if desired will send some vintage laundry soaps from my stash.

As for laundring with pure soap and or mainly soap based laundring products long as you keep the following in mind you should be fine.

First is water quality. You need plenty of hot or at least warm water if you're going to use pure soap for laundering. The more liquid or other detergent you are willing to add the worse one's water quality can be. Or, simply use phosphates to soften water *BEFORE* adding soap. There isn't a fast and hard ratio for soap to STPP ratio because water hardness varies over much of this country. In general however you can start with the recommended amount of STPP then add enough soap to one has a rich thick layer of suds that hold up during the wash.

Rinsing: If using pure soap then the first and maybe second rinse should be in hot or as warm as the fabric can stand. You want to flush out soap and soil from the fabric before the fibers contract by contact with cold water. If your water is hard then add some STPP to the rinse baths as well. The final rinses can be in warm or cold water. The commercial laundry manuals one has from the early part of last centruy give washing machine formulas (using soap for washing) where the machines did mostly all rinsing in hot or warm water. Others rinsed in cold.

It cannot be stressed enough that without proper rinsing you will get "tattle-tale" grey laundry when using soap. The off colour comes from soap and soil residue that is built up in fabric.

In olden days and even for the early part of the last century laundry was boiled after the wash when soap was used for laundering. The boiling helped open the textile fibers so soils and whatever would leach out. Since laundry was liften out of the boiling pot the gunk remained.

The other thing to remember about using pure soap is that it's best to pre-soak or pre-wash laundry first and certainly treat any stains. The pre-washing removes much of the surface soils and water based stains leaving less for the soap to deal with. Pre-treatment of stains was to insure they were removed as far as possible and to prevent them from perhaps being set by contact with soap.

 

[maytagbear]

STTP

is loads better (pun fully intended) for laundry than TSP. TSP will soften water, but it will eventually etch porcelain and is used for cleaning walls prior to painting.

I would NEVER put TSP in a dishwasher. NEVER.

Fascinating thread, Laundress and vintagekitchen!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[launderess]

TSP

Was widely sold in it's pure form and as part of packaged brand name water softeners (Climatine,Melo, etc...) for much of the early part of the last centruy, right though the 1950's or so.

From what one has read TSP while alkaline isn't nearly as bad as washing soda (could have that backwards), and if one was using the shifting of laundry method to do the wash (wringers/mangles) when used even soap it wasn't that bad. Apparently the action of wringing laundry out of the wash tubs squeezed out an or otherwise left whatever gunk and participate hard water mineral matter in the tub. Not sure why there is a difference but when modern spin drying washing machines came along that TSP laden water was "filtered" through the laundry and that wasn't a good thing.

 

[launderess]

It Really Is Amazing How Much Effort, Research And Science

Went into laundry even for the housewife's sake during the period say from 1900's through the 1950's. People believed in applying science to everything and there was a movement to lighten the burden on housewives, maids and anyone else stuck with the often backbreaking drudgery of housework.

Mind you all those women who went to college and earned degrees in home economics or even the sciences had nothing else to do. Chemistry in the big companies and universities was a man's game. Even when they did hire women it was often for less pay to do the behind the scene work.

Anywho it is really amazing to read my vintage laundry manuals where so much research was devoted to soaps. How they were made, types of, types best suited for each purpose etc... They also knew about the dangers of LCB/Javelle water and certain other bleaches such as oxalic acid.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Laundress is correct..

Ladies in years gone by truly had to be amature chemists in order to have properly washed laundry. While I don't have access to any of those lovely old laundry manuals like Laundress, I have heard a few old family recipes, including one for "laundry soap", which began as a basic lye soap, but towards the end added things like sal soda (washing soda), ammonia, and salt, if one remembers correctly. Not to mention that as laundress said, stains must be pre-treated, and in those times there were no store bought pre-treaters. The lady of the house had to be able to remember what home brewed formula to use on each and every sort of stain if she were to have clean linens for her home and clothes for her family. And as the world at large was of a more respectable turn in those days, stained clothing was not an option, for anyone. The dirty looking things one sees some people wearing now are enough to give you chills.

While I love the convenience of modern detergents and modern machines, I find it interesting to learn how things were done when housekeeping was an art, and some days it is relaxing to be able to take all the time one wants piddling around with some or another method, and to sort of transport one's self to another time. The benefit of living today, is one is able to keep the best parts of the past alive, while leaving the worst parts well in the past, where they should be.

 

[stan]

Laundress is correct

There was a lot of research with regards to soap!

Much of this was done by The American Oil And Chemists Society, some ground breaking discoveries in the 20s and 30s, with regards to fatty acid contents in specific fats, oils, and butters.
Coconut oil, was, as one chemist called it "A gift from The Gods" because of its unique cleansing ability, and it's ability to hold up in salt water.

A lot of work was done with respect to purifying crude soaps in order to remove the glycerine ( a by product of soap making )
spent lye ( lye that was not neutralized by the fat or oil ) and other impurities, that would hinder the full potential of a soap intended for laundry use!
Something now a days, that is hardly ever done, but makes a huge difference in... say just grating a bar of soap off the store shelf.

I believe that that the liquid Fels you are referring to may have been a dishwashing "detergent" that Dial came out with in the 50s while also producing "instant Fels" (soap) for laundry.

Laundress and I have had some discussions about "modern Fels" and while still useful on many stains, we were both surprised to find that it no longer contains it's birth ingredients, most importantly the NAPHA solvent! IIRC Laundress was somewhat put off that they got away with calling it Naptha... when none existed in the bar!
She will have to correct me if I misinterpreted her *LOL*

Now a word about vintage soaps,
There are a couple of things that take place as a bar of soap ages. If the soap was created as a bath soap, where some fat, and glycerin were left in ( to be conditioning to skin) what you might find ( after some years) upon opening is orange spots on the bar, or all through the bar, this would indicate that the un reacted oil, over time has gone rancid, and should not be used.
If the bar was, or is a vintage laundry bar, it probably will hold up well, because of the lack of oils remaining at the time of manufacturing, and because of the purifying process described above, however after may years what dose happen is that because of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the soap will eventually turn, or change into to a simpler compound of soda ash.
Upon examination one may find some soap in the center of the bar, but depending on it's age and how it was stored, there could be very little, with most of the bar being soda ash. All while looking externally completely normal. (usually original scent is gone as well)

Energine (trichloroethane)
Glycerine
Hydrogen peroxide
White petroleum jelly
White Vinegar
Ammonia
Small list of vintage pre treaters, and spot removers. I'll let Laundress tell witch one was, is for what stain *LOL

Happy Washing

 

[vintagekitchen]

Update..

Per the advice given by Laundress, I changed things a bit. 1/3 bar grated Fels Naptha, along with 2 Tbsp or so liquid detergent in HOT water gave a nice soft layer of suds, and in went some towels. They seemed to wash well, though next time I will try 1/4 bar fells, and 1/4 cup liquid detergent. A hot rinse, followed by a warm, and finally a cold, all in the spinner, and out to the line they went.

OMG, the softness, the just clean smell! Launderess, you were spot on with the advice of using the liquid detergent! Right now I have a load of vintage sheets washing in the mixture.

Im wondering how it would do to dissolve the Fels in water, add a splash of alcohol to keep it from gelling, and then blend that into some free and clear detergent? This would give an always ready blend, so long as it didn't seperate or spoil.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Liquid Version

A new attempt. Today I made a liquid version of the detergent. The liquid produced much softer results than the powdered version, though I didnt try it for anything extremely dirty yet. Hopefully the liquid will also have a lower risk of buildup than using pure Fels.

First I brought 2 1/2 cups water to a boil, removed it from stove, and stirred in 1 bar grated Fels. Once the soap was fully dissolved I added a splash rubbing alcohol to hopefully keep the mixture from gelling.

Once it was almost cool, I mixed it into an entire 42oz bottle of LA Aweseome wool wash. (Available at the Dollar General, the wool wash from this brand is a decent cleaning performer, but too highly sudsing, to the point of being cartoon like.)

1/2 cup of the mixture made a thin skim of suds in the washer, and got a load of towels nicely cleaned, and just soft enough. I'm fairly sure one wouldn't be able to expect extreme stain removal from this mixture, but for sheets and towels it seems to do well, and is probably better for my vintage linens than using a stronger (harsher) detergent.

 

[stan]

So let me understand..

you now have 66 ounces of working product? the 42 ounces of wool wash, and the 24 ounces of the dissolved Fels, mixed with the Wool wash, that was unscented, and clear?

Want to stay with you as you come to the end of your experiment, and see how this turns out!

 

[vintagekitchen]

Stan

While I didn't measure the finished product, I estimated it to be somewhere around 68 ounces. Though I was initially pleased with the consistency, as it has set it has become rather a thick slime, although the alcohol did prevent the soap from seperating, and kept it smooth. I'm considering possibilities as far as thinning the mixture, but I fear the addition of too much water will encourage seperation.

I'm working the next few days, but Friday I will make a test cloth like the one I used for the powder version, and see how the liquid handles stains.

As a side note, don't worry about the powder going to waste. If nothing else it will be used for throw rugs and such, where softness does not matter.

 

[stan]

I'll stay tuned in

to how this works out for you.

I'm guessing that you are, or were trying to create a laundry soap/detergent that would have the nice scent of Fels, but with some extra detergency, than Fels by itself?

I can tell you that it is difficult to stop soap from gelling or separating when melted, and mixed with water. The only way it dosn't, is if the soap was made as a liquid soap, with potassium hydroxide, (liquid soap) Bar soap is made with sodium hydroxide dose not want to be a liquid.
If you are trying to achieve what I'm "guessing", you may want to simply use the wool wash, and add a little dissolved Fels to the load, each time.

Think your O.K with what you have created so far, just may need to be shaken before each use. No sense in wasting it!
If you decide to add water to it, you may just have to use more per load, to make up for the dilution.

Also, it helps to use distilled water for dilution, no minerals to interfere.

Fun little experiment!

Happy Washing

 

[vintagekitchen]

Goal

Actually while the wonderful scent of Fels Naptha was part of my goal, the scent doesn't really linger if laundry is properly rinsed. Part of my goal was laundry that simply smelled clean, with no perfumy odor, but really I was hoping to get the softening properties of a soap wash, without the build up. Also, Fels Naptha and other laundry soaps are better for removing certain stains than most laundry detergents, hence why many use Fels Naptha as a pre-treater for stained clothing.

So basically, my goal is to get the cleaning properties of both soap and detergent, combined for the best of both worlds, as well as eliminating the need for fabric softener.

My final goal was to attempt to make a stable mixture that would be ready to use off the shelf, without requiring one to combine various ingredients at wash time. That goal may not be acheivable from what I have seen thus far. At this point, I beleive my best bet may be to go with adding grated soap to a wash, until I find a combination that gives the best results, and then work from there on making a shelf stable mixture, rather than continuing to make batch after batch of mixtures that disappoint. Even if a shelf stable mixture is never possible, I don't think I will give up on using soap in the wash, at least for my vintage linens and such.