Instant Fels Naptha

[supersuds]

In another thread, angus was reminiscing about how "when all the phosphate nonsense started, Purex's Instant fels got a bit of a shot in the arm since it was a soap so could tout that it was a no phosphate product. But again it didn't do that well. Soap was more difficult to use and with the energy crisis almost upon us and everyone being exhorted to use cold water, that rendered soap for laundry pretty much useless."

I recently got a box of Instant Fels on fleabay and found angus was right.

 

[supersuds]

Here is the side panel with all the propaganda. I love the part about a "in soft water" a soap can clean just as well as a detergent. What if you don't have soft water? They don't say.

Also note than the ingredients don't have anything resembling naphtha/mineral spirits/Stoddard solvent, or whatever you want to call it.

 

[supersuds]

For completeness, here's the back of the box. I like the detailed instructions about sprinkling the soap in gradually, then maintaining a two inch layer of suds. Back to the Forties!

Sorry about the glare.

 

[launderess]

Have A NIB Of Fels Instant As Well

But it has sat sitting in my stash for years untouched.

Regardless of what the box says I'd kick things up a notch and add STPP to the wash and first rinse water.

Have to see if one kept the article or bookmarked but apparently during the 1950's though perhaps late 1960's or so there were still those that marketed doing wash with soaps vs detergents. The piece stated that for normally soiled bed linens and or lightly stained general laundry soap was equal to the cleaning power of detergents, especially when hot water was used.

What the article did not mention and what many of us know today is how hard it is to get soap out of washing. That was the "built in fabric softener" of Instant Fels powder. Anything laundered in soaps feels softer because there is always some residue of the various fats/oils used to make the stuff on fabrics. At the time these comments were being dreamed up fabric softeners were mainly suspensions of tallow in water. Well tallow and other fats/oils are what you use to make soap.

 

[aamassther]

As i was growing up, we used Instant Fels as our main laundry soap. Our water was mechanically softened well water. we augmented with Snowy and/or Roman Cleanser, and Miracle White. Whites still had that tell tale grey. After reading the ingredient list, I understand why, It's loaded with washing soda. It wasn't until we had a 3 yr stint in England that our clothes actually looked clean. Persil Automatic of the late 70's, is my favourite detergent ever. In one wash everything was white again.

 

[launderess]

Miracle White

Powder IIRC was mainly washing soda as well, so you had quite a dose of the stuff in your washing. *LOL*

 

[aamassther]

We used the liquid version. I think that was much like Amway's Smashing White, which contained phosphorous, IIRC

 

[circlew]

My mom used this product for several years in our old Westinghouse FL, before Salvo.

Always liked the red and green box, as it made me think of Christmas.

 

[polkanut]

My Grandma Baumann used Instant Fels in the laundry, and Ivory Snow for washing dishes with a bit of Stanley Degreaser.  Her laundry always had a grayish color, and her dishcloth was always orange from so much soap residue.

 

[abcomatic]

gray clothes

I had a friend in college who I talked into using Fels Naptha in hard water. What a mess, soap curd and gray clothes. I knew that it would happen that way and it did. He went home and him mom was furious. lol I loved it. Gary

 

[stan]

Well John

What are you going to do with it?
You gona try it out on a dirty load LOL
Or is it for display ?

 

[aamassther]

From the looks of some of our clothes growing up, I would put it on display! Lol

 

[supersuds]

"You gona try it out on a dirty load LOL"

Yeah, from what you guys are saying I'll have orange washcloths and tattletale gray!

 

For the moment, I have an opened box of Duz ("It's the soap in Duz that does it!") to use when I have a yen for a soapy wash. It does (duz?) leave things nice and soft and as far as I can see, cleans okay for ONE wash....I haven't tried using it exclusively, though. So I'll keep the Fels intact.

 

BTW I also ended up with a box of Miracle White that was bundled with something else I wanted (All with Bleach Borax and Brighteners). It has no indication at all of what's in it...