little Bo-Peep cleans well and it's cheap

[mrcleanjeans]

Who's tried ammonia only?In my Frigidaire FL,I've been bugged by soapy looking water in the last rinse ,even if I cut down the dosage of soap, HE or not.The water is soft,thus the product used needs no water-softening agents in it.Ammonia worked well on EVERYTHING I've tried it on,plus rinsed right
out.My loads are not very dirty, I must admit.Of course, I wouldn't do what a relative once did, mixing ammonia and bleach.What a GAS that was.

 

[gansky1]

Love it!

Are you using sudsy ammonia or clear ammonia? I sometimes add clear ammonia to cut grease, wax, etc. from rags or clothes in addition to detergent - raising the alkali of the water this way works like a charm. Since it's rather caustic, I add a splash of white vinegar to the rinse water to neutralize the ammonia which also leaves no scent.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

right now,it's lemon scented,non-sudsy ammonia,but I've used the sudsy kind in the past also

 

[mrcleanjeans]

tiny bubbles make me feel foul

who else has had soapy final rinse water no matter what?and who's tried ammonia only?works for me

 

[kenmore1978]

ammonia

I use sudsy ammonia in addition to detergent for REALLY dirty stuff.

 

[launderess]

Sudsy Rinse Water

Mainly have the problem when using liquid detergents,not matter how many rinses. Read somewhere that this is supposed to be normal, and is caused by the surfactants used in liquid detergents. Still, I do not like it at all.

Only other time I have sudsy rinse is when I've Od'd on soap (like using pure soap flakes for bed linens and woolies), and STPP. Usually stop the washer and take everything out,then reset the machine to "rinse and spin" to get all the trapped suds rinsed out of the machine. If load is really sudsy, will take the laundry to a clean tub and rinse it there a few times to dilute all the soap out. This is faster then resetting the washer for endless rinses as the tub holds more water than my front loader ever will; and we all know rinsing is a process of dilution.

When all is said and done, but rinsed/wringed laundry back into machine and set for final "rinse and spin".

If anyone is lucky enough to have both a front loading and top loading washer, chucking the soapy wash into a top loader would work also. In fact thinking of getting one of those Avanti top loaders for soaking and perhaps rinsing.

Launderess

 

[mrcleanjeans]

the new parson's project

thanks all, But has anyone else tried ammonia ONLY?

 

[toggleswitch]

suds-less

Could not use ammonia due to cat. (Registers as urine and they will pee on stuff ammonia-washed)

However, cheap softener (pink or yellow, supermkt brand, gallon jug) in my FRIDgeMORE F/L's BLEACH dispenser works well to make load suds-free. Purposely use cheap watery stuff in that it does not add WAX or PERFUMES to clothes.

the softener in the BLEACH dispenser gets dispensed into the FIRST rinse. Subsequent rinses are crystal-clear, AND the chemical gets washed out in later rinses.

Another option for you is powder automatic dishwasher detergent. Hugely alkaline, huge grease cutter and no suds! Be careful to test with darks... I only use this as a pre-wash for whites, currently.

(Sorry if double-post. First attempt is GONE, I think)

 

[toggleswitch]

Chemistry 101

Another thought.

Water cleans, detergent/soap cleans better.... by suspending the soil in the water till it is flushed down the drain.

(which is why soaking for 30+ minutes with detergent is useless, the detergent "fails" and redeposits the muck back on the clothes.

Dont know chemically if the grease that ammonia cuts includes whatever it is that makes up "regular" laundry dirt. (body oils, flakes of skin, mud, dust, etc)

Even apart from that.... can it hold the grease/soil in suspension long enough for the wash phase to end? Would a shorter wash phase actually work better with Ammonia?

A friend used to use pine oil (with detergent) in laundromats to kill germs. It cuts the suds level and leaves a mild agreeable scent after the clothes are dried in the dryer.