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angus

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While home and sidelined with the flu this week, I needed to get some groceries. So off I went to the "Comnpare Supermarket" in Bridgeport (their motto - "calidad, precio, servicio"). I must have been starting to feel better at that point since I made sure to stop in the detergent aisle. IN addition to the normal bags of Ariel, Foca, Roma, I found bags of "Rinso Intelligent". Apparently it is made in El Salvador by Unilever and of course is loaded with our favorite substance - STPP!! It is a lovely blue powder with pink and green flecks. Smell is a bit strong and sweet, but delivers excellent cleaning. Final results are fine if you are line drying, but with things dried in the dryer, residual scent is too much for me. I would keep some on hand for occasional use. As with all detergents of this type, it either doesn't suds much at all or generates mountains of suds - and I can never tell which it will be. I just find it hard to judge dosing. It does rinse farily well though, and the cost is $2.99 for a 500g bag
 
any international stuff out there...

that is unscented? I loved the performance of Ariel but the scent was too strong even with a second rinse. DW HATED it, made me rewash the load in Tide. If I could find an unscented version I would buy in a heartbeat - stpp additive ROCKS!
 
I've Told Ya

Just buy STPP straight and add to your favourite detergent, scented or unscented. What part of "there is nothing special in these (Spanish) detergents besides phosphates" don't you all understand? *LOL*

Again, not one laundry detergent chemical additive gives the performance of phosphates. Tide delivers a superb white wash, but at the cost of tons of bleaches, OBAs, polyacrylics, and other stuff I'd rather not have in my detergent.

There are some very effective commercial laundry detergents that are mainly washing soda, STPP, and surfactants. Simple though the be, they kick in the cleaning department for whites and colourfast laundry, especially that soiled with greasy and or oily soils.

L.
 
STPP

Has long been a noted standard for commerical laundry use. Most of the products contain it in some amonuts. Old laundry managers (yes me too) know if you want a good detergent buy one with stpp in it.. It you want to make a detergent good add stpp to it. It also helps when adding it to the bleach cycle too.. Chlorine or non it helps all around.. It is a must in washing heavy soil loads , surgery work, and kitchen towels. it is also one of the most cost effective prodcuts you can use .
 
Ahem - I consider myself a farily expert launderer and I also have my stash of pure STPP from the Chemistry Store. However, sometimes it is just fun to find a new product and dabble a bit. That's all...
 
I also went to the Chemistry Store and orded a bucket of STPP can't wait to get it and give it a try. How much do you usually add to an average load? Terry
 
ooooh you are going to love it! My whites have never been whiter!

Although I swear it fades darks, it it GREAT on whites and pastels!
 
Oh I can imagine that you would have a few pastels there Toggles....I cant cast a stone since I wear a pink shirt and I look pretty hot in it if I do say so myself. See real mens do wear pink!
 
It's also one of the most environmentally un-friendly things you can use ;-) Hence the reason it's banned in European detergents.

Seriously, how dirty are people's clothes that they need to add more junk to their detergent?
 
Depending upon diet, there are more phosphates coming out of one's rear end than would be found in an average phosphate containing detergent. Besides being a natural product of the human body, phosphates are added to all and sundry types of foods from processed to meats. Sewage systems in both the United States, and Europe have had to deal with large amounts of phosphates in waste water, regardless of any bans with laundry products.

As for adding more "junk" to one's detergent, one does not require huge heaping cups full of STPP, only one to two tablespoons will do nicely. Also when using phosphates, the amount of detergent used can be scaled down by one-third to one-half, again depending upon phosphate dosage.

Last night did the family wash, and like many homes the socks here are used as "slippers", with people running around in their stocking feet. Well suffice to say there is much ground in dirt and dust (no matter how much one vaccums and dusts, the stuff does not go away), on those socks. Washing with some STPP turns the wash water a horrible grey, but the socks come out brilliant white. Why? Because of the wonderful job phosphates do in suspending soil to keep it from redepositing on to the wash.

Am not sure the vast amount of subsitute chemicals used to replace STPP are any better than just using the former in the first place.

L.
 
While I don't know for sure....

But I would imagine that STPP is not legal in California (at least for a detergent additive); not with all of the EPA B.S. that it flying around these days.

I do have a bucket and never use the stuff (... yeah right!)

I got it for the suds. With a front loader, I was tired of using low suding detergents.

I initially purchased Roma and the suds were good. With a 1/4 cup of STPP, there is so much suds, I just stop what I'm doing just watch the clothes swishing inside -- only had a suds lock once; that was exciting! I have really hard water, so the suds are not long lived, and with fabric softener (which I learned from previous threads here at AW.org.), all the suds dissapate in the first rinse.
 
STPP and phosphated laundry detergents are perfectly legal in California. That because the state is basically arid, with little runoff of phosphates into major waterways. The major water pollutant in California and other arid western states is nitrogen, not phosphate. For pristine water bodies like Lake Tahoe, the solution has been to divert ALL wastewater from the lake. Easy enough to do, since there's only a minor elevation hop to surmount to pipe the junk to a lower elevation for proper treatment.

In many areas of the Southeast, as well, the major pollution problem is nitrogen - from massive pig factory farms, for example. Remeber that over your Easter ham.
 
I agree with you, Mme. Laundress - I have often wondered if that phosphate ban craziness that took place in the early 70's was an overdramatic knee jerk reaction - yes we had pollution issues but as always a ready scapegoat was needed and it was found in phosphates. I recall that overnight all of our supermarket shelves were stripped of all detergents. Literally for a while the only thing you could get was Ivory Snow, Instant Fels and Duz Soap - not to mention those awful things like "Ecolo-G", P.F.D (Pollution Free Detergent), Bright Water, and well, you get the idea. Meanwhile, commercial establishments were still permitted to use phosphated products and as you pointed out, our busy little bodies and certain industries (fertilizer) for one, continued to hit the waterways with the "dreaded chemical".

And I have always said that the chemicals they substituted were probably worse than what they replaced. When you think about it, if STPP allows us to use less detergent and we are only using small amounts of STPP anyway, perhaps that is a solution - after all you can get to the living room through the basement as well as through the front door...

Long live STPP!! And as a man who loves to wear all and any shade of pink - it does keep those brights bright!!
 
Not true!

While I can't speak for the rest of Europe, on the UK mainland at least, phosphate detergents have not been banned. Although nowhere near as common nowadays compared to years gone by, there are still plenty to choose from if you know what to look for. Branded phosphate detergents I can think of off the top of my head are Persil and Surf tablets, Ariel and Dreft handwash powders, Footprint Ecological powders and Aquados Simply Eco-Smart tabs. The supermarkets' own label detergents vary, but many of these are packed with phosphates too (over 30% in some cases). Check the packaging closely and you'll see what I mean.

Speaking as someone who cleans carpets and fabrics for a living, the phosphate vs. chemical cocktail debate is one I find particularly interesting. Some of the newest products I use in the running of my business are composed almost entirely of phosphates, and unlike traditional chemicals do not contain detergents, OBAs, enzymes, solvents or fragrance. These products are therefore claimed to be safer for both the environment and the user, and are designed not to leave residues behind after cleaning. All I know is that they clean far better than conventional chemicals, and drastically cut resoiling. And yes, I have tried adding a scoop to my laundry on numerous occasions, with great results!
 

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