iheartmaytag
Well-known member
It's turning into another SCAT thread.
SCAT is fine as long as you don't mention Chlorine Bleach. "Saints preserve us."
SCAT is fine as long as you don't mention Chlorine Bleach. "Saints preserve us."
New products for laundry......
- Thread starter yogitunes
- Start date
Help Support :
Boiling
Always keep in mind the four main variables of good laundering practice: time, *water* temperature, mechanical and chemical action. When you decrease one the others normally must increase to compensate. OTOH when one is increased the others can often decrease.
Boling laundry in the days before mechanical much less automatic washing machines lessened the amount of scrubbing, beating and other manual labour involved on wash day. Stains were pre-treated (such as it was), then items would soak in cool water with perhaps a bit of soda. Next things would be placed into whatever vessel (kitchen copper, boiling pot, etc...) filled with hot soapy water and then boiled for a period of time.
Boiling in soapy water allowed the soap and the action of high temperature to lift off much of the remaining soils/muck from textiles that hadn't been taken care of via soaking. While boiling is hard on fabrics it probably was less than repeated beating, scrubbing and so forth.
The other way of doing things was after soaking was to soap everything up first, then wash in water hot as hands could bear, get as much of that soap out then place in a boiling pot. The boiling acted to help open textile fibers so they would release any remaining soils but also all that soap (which is very difficult to remove) again without all that beating/manual mechanical action.
Then along came sodium perborate and Persil.
Europeans long avoided eau de Javel (chlorine bleach) for textiles fearing it would rot/damage fine fabrics. This is quite true when you consider historically linen and hemp made up a large portion of clothing such as undergarments, bed and table linens, shirts, etc... Cotton would not become widespread until after the North American colonies began exporting the stuff to Europe, and even then with the widespread use of slave labour. Ironically cotton was not unknown in old Europe. It had been brought back from Egypt and other Middle Eastern lands during and after the Crusades. But cotton will not grow in much of Western Europe, and it never occurred to anyone to simply bring back the fiber and spin threads at home.
Anyway, with the advent of perborate bleaching systems housewives could "soak, boil, rinse" and that was it for laundry day. Perborate bleaching systems require temps >140F to become active, and are even better at boil wash temps.
Thus when semi-automatic and later fully automatic washing machines began to appear in Europe they had to do boil washes. Miele amoung others created units that had could be fired by coal or wood for heating.
Women/households that could not afford washing machines (and many could not) went on boiling laundry on ranges or in coppers right up until really after WWII when Europe began to rebuild after the war, but things didn't really take off for most countries until really the 1960's when the "boom" that had been underway in the United States since the 1950's took hold in Europe. Households then started to splash out for "mod cons" including semi and fully automatic washing machines.
The final key to all this was various European countries having to rebuild their power grids after the war and making decisions as to voltage and amperage for domestic use. New construction of housing fully wired, and or the wiring of older homes also helped.
Washing machine manufacturers began to ramp down boil wash temps during the energy crisis of the 1970's. That event also coincided with the discovery of bleach activators (TAED in Euorpe, and NBOS in United States). These chemicals gave "boil wash" results at temps <180F and even allowed perborate bleaches to become active at 100F to 140F range.
Always keep in mind the four main variables of good laundering practice: time, *water* temperature, mechanical and chemical action. When you decrease one the others normally must increase to compensate. OTOH when one is increased the others can often decrease.
Boling laundry in the days before mechanical much less automatic washing machines lessened the amount of scrubbing, beating and other manual labour involved on wash day. Stains were pre-treated (such as it was), then items would soak in cool water with perhaps a bit of soda. Next things would be placed into whatever vessel (kitchen copper, boiling pot, etc...) filled with hot soapy water and then boiled for a period of time.
Boiling in soapy water allowed the soap and the action of high temperature to lift off much of the remaining soils/muck from textiles that hadn't been taken care of via soaking. While boiling is hard on fabrics it probably was less than repeated beating, scrubbing and so forth.
The other way of doing things was after soaking was to soap everything up first, then wash in water hot as hands could bear, get as much of that soap out then place in a boiling pot. The boiling acted to help open textile fibers so they would release any remaining soils but also all that soap (which is very difficult to remove) again without all that beating/manual mechanical action.
Then along came sodium perborate and Persil.
Europeans long avoided eau de Javel (chlorine bleach) for textiles fearing it would rot/damage fine fabrics. This is quite true when you consider historically linen and hemp made up a large portion of clothing such as undergarments, bed and table linens, shirts, etc... Cotton would not become widespread until after the North American colonies began exporting the stuff to Europe, and even then with the widespread use of slave labour. Ironically cotton was not unknown in old Europe. It had been brought back from Egypt and other Middle Eastern lands during and after the Crusades. But cotton will not grow in much of Western Europe, and it never occurred to anyone to simply bring back the fiber and spin threads at home.
Anyway, with the advent of perborate bleaching systems housewives could "soak, boil, rinse" and that was it for laundry day. Perborate bleaching systems require temps >140F to become active, and are even better at boil wash temps.
Thus when semi-automatic and later fully automatic washing machines began to appear in Europe they had to do boil washes. Miele amoung others created units that had could be fired by coal or wood for heating.
Women/households that could not afford washing machines (and many could not) went on boiling laundry on ranges or in coppers right up until really after WWII when Europe began to rebuild after the war, but things didn't really take off for most countries until really the 1960's when the "boom" that had been underway in the United States since the 1950's took hold in Europe. Households then started to splash out for "mod cons" including semi and fully automatic washing machines.
The final key to all this was various European countries having to rebuild their power grids after the war and making decisions as to voltage and amperage for domestic use. New construction of housing fully wired, and or the wiring of older homes also helped.
Washing machine manufacturers began to ramp down boil wash temps during the energy crisis of the 1970's. That event also coincided with the discovery of bleach activators (TAED in Euorpe, and NBOS in United States). These chemicals gave "boil wash" results at temps <180F and even allowed perborate bleaches to become active at 100F to 140F range.
P.S. Those Chlorine Bleach Tablets Are *NOT* A New Idea
Milton among other brands have been selling them for years all over Europe. As is often the case with chlorine bleach and Europe these tablets are sold for other purposes than laundry. Milton tabs are sold as "sterilizing" for use when doing baby's bottles and so forth. Much like one finds "eau de Javel" in those little sausage like packets all over France sold in the house cleaner product section, and not laundry.
Milton among other brands have been selling them for years all over Europe. As is often the case with chlorine bleach and Europe these tablets are sold for other purposes than laundry. Milton tabs are sold as "sterilizing" for use when doing baby's bottles and so forth. Much like one finds "eau de Javel" in those little sausage like packets all over France sold in the house cleaner product section, and not laundry.
iheartmaytag
Well-known member
As Always
I thank you our Dear Laundress.
I thank you our Dear Laundress.
Thanks to Gorenje and Laundress for the great info, insights, and history....
Bleach
Maytag -
I love chlorine bleach and use it by the truck load for cleaning, I love the smell.
It's just that in the UK - we don't use it for laundry, it's not our culture to do so (I have done a handful of times)
We are identical to Solvenia by sounds of it from a previous poster - We can use bleach as a soak for white garments, but we don't usually add it to the machine.
Maytag -
I love chlorine bleach and use it by the truck load for cleaning, I love the smell.
It's just that in the UK - we don't use it for laundry, it's not our culture to do so (I have done a handful of times)
We are identical to Solvenia by sounds of it from a previous poster - We can use bleach as a soak for white garments, but we don't usually add it to the machine.
Bleach
Laundress is absolutely correct, we have the brand Milton (which is a bleach/ sterilising line of products sold for babies), have heard of some using this in laundry although not sold for this.
I've remembered we have a laundry bleach product on the UK market, called ACE laundry bleach it is sold for laundry, few buy it, and I dont think its chlorine - someone may know more.
We do have a million and one laundry additives, which is oxygen bleach - Vanish, Ariel and Ecover and theyre just 3 of them :/
Laundress is absolutely correct, we have the brand Milton (which is a bleach/ sterilising line of products sold for babies), have heard of some using this in laundry although not sold for this.
I've remembered we have a laundry bleach product on the UK market, called ACE laundry bleach it is sold for laundry, few buy it, and I dont think its chlorine - someone may know more.
We do have a million and one laundry additives, which is oxygen bleach - Vanish, Ariel and Ecover and theyre just 3 of them :/
kenmoreguy89
Well-known member
Bleach tabs of Milton are meant for hard surfaces and hard objects... in Italy as for I heard UK and elsewhere there is another similar product which has been advertised for generations (and that very few, would use as they find it useless, at least here) that is called Napisan (germicidal, disinfecting product), once it came in powder only, now even in tablets, and is everything but chlorine, rather oxy bleach indeed (that has higienizing properties) and sterilizing stuff..
Often suggested as a product for baby laundry...it also states has stain remover properties, has also along blends of enzymes infact...and that's the way it is being advertised over here lately, in the hope to raise up the sales of it.
But no bleach in it meant as chlorine...
I never personally heard about Milton bleach tabs used in laundry, but sure someone would...people do every sort of things...[this post was last edited: 9/19/2013-06:37]
Often suggested as a product for baby laundry...it also states has stain remover properties, has also along blends of enzymes infact...and that's the way it is being advertised over here lately, in the hope to raise up the sales of it.
But no bleach in it meant as chlorine...
I never personally heard about Milton bleach tabs used in laundry, but sure someone would...people do every sort of things...[this post was last edited: 9/19/2013-06:37]
kenmoreguy89
Well-known member
Regarding Ace, if it was not chlorine then it was the color safe version bleach from P&G...
Ace Gentile in Italy... Ace Gentle in the UK.
This product was born as a liquid color safe bleach to be used specifically for colors and wollens (Woolmark approved) and also included alternative uses for house cleaning ( the current formula is surfactans+ hydrogen peroxide) the product now includes a wide range of variations, including the powder and the pods...
Powder and pods are more similar to additives in their compositon, actually are sold as additives, and when the liquid is good for wollens the powders are not because of enzymes and other compounds, perborate etc.. (misleading, confusing? Yes it is), in the powder and pods is so kept the "color safe bleaching" purpose but not only, as for the liquid, the powder and pods are good also for whites of course, the powder is a great choice to integrate to a plain marseille soap liquid (surfactans only detergent/s) making of it a complete regular detergent, the powder version includes different blends of enzymes and perborate along...
[this post was last edited: 9/19/2013-06:40]
Ace Gentile in Italy... Ace Gentle in the UK.
This product was born as a liquid color safe bleach to be used specifically for colors and wollens (Woolmark approved) and also included alternative uses for house cleaning ( the current formula is surfactans+ hydrogen peroxide) the product now includes a wide range of variations, including the powder and the pods...
Powder and pods are more similar to additives in their compositon, actually are sold as additives, and when the liquid is good for wollens the powders are not because of enzymes and other compounds, perborate etc.. (misleading, confusing? Yes it is), in the powder and pods is so kept the "color safe bleaching" purpose but not only, as for the liquid, the powder and pods are good also for whites of course, the powder is a great choice to integrate to a plain marseille soap liquid (surfactans only detergent/s) making of it a complete regular detergent, the powder version includes different blends of enzymes and perborate along...
[this post was last edited: 9/19/2013-06:40]
Sanitising laundry
And another one I have remembered.
Dettol Laundry Disinfectant - This is a ultra new product, only been out about two months.
It's not a bleach at all (I don't know what exactly it is) but our Dettol brand of cleaners - and there's at least 20 variants on the market(pure disinfectant, wipes, sprays, mousses etc)is for sanitizing EVERYTHING
Its marketed purely to disinfect laundry - you put it in place of where the fabric softener would go.
One thing, it smells lovely.
I have linked the one for Australia - the UK one isn't on the UK dettol site yet???
And another one I have remembered.
Dettol Laundry Disinfectant - This is a ultra new product, only been out about two months.
It's not a bleach at all (I don't know what exactly it is) but our Dettol brand of cleaners - and there's at least 20 variants on the market(pure disinfectant, wipes, sprays, mousses etc)is for sanitizing EVERYTHING
Its marketed purely to disinfect laundry - you put it in place of where the fabric softener would go.
One thing, it smells lovely.
I have linked the one for Australia - the UK one isn't on the UK dettol site yet???
clorox bleach tablets
Has anyone tried the Clorox bleach tablets? I wish they were available growing up. The last thing I need is to spill bleach on colored items by accident. With the bleach tablets, I have nothing to worry about.
Has anyone tried the Clorox bleach tablets? I wish they were available growing up. The last thing I need is to spill bleach on colored items by accident. With the bleach tablets, I have nothing to worry about.
Clorox® Zero Splash™ Laundry Bleach Packs
Discover Clorox Zero Splash Bleach Packs, convenient laundry packs that deliver powerful bleach cleaning in your wash, without the splash.
www.clorox.com
kenmoreguy89
Well-known member
In the past there were not tablets but many powdered chlorine bleaches.
Clorox offered that too.
Way better measuring wise than tablets but of course needed to be put in moving agitating water or diluited and couldn't be automatically dispensed in machines with an automatic chlorine dispenser nor put in the average dispenser cups (meant for sodium hypoclorite)
They are still available for commercial use, and vending 1 load sizec for laundromats.
Clorox offered that too.
Way better measuring wise than tablets but of course needed to be put in moving agitating water or diluited and couldn't be automatically dispensed in machines with an automatic chlorine dispenser nor put in the average dispenser cups (meant for sodium hypoclorite)
They are still available for commercial use, and vending 1 load sizec for laundromats.
chlorine bleach
I also always use chlorine bleach on my whites. This is especially true for white underwear, socks, and t-shirts which I want to keep white.
I also always use chlorine bleach on my whites. This is especially true for white underwear, socks, and t-shirts which I want to keep white.
Bleach is NOT a new laundry product.
