No more over-sudsing!

[andic29]

I recently had dinner with a friend and her husband. They are both PhD's in biology and chemistry, respectively. The husband is a tenured professor and does a lot of research with the oil industry and others.

Somehow we got on the topic of detergents and I was lamenting having to give up Wisk (Im trying to replace Tide now that all of the "original" scents match and are stinky) because it was just too sudsy no matter how little I used. If I used less than 2 tablespoons on a large (I have a 5.2 cu. ft. machine) normal soiled load, nothing would come out clean but if I used more, then I was having to rinse excessively.

Here are some pics.. the first one is a medium load of really dirty clothes, with 2 tablespoons of Wisk. We have very hard water and this is the only detergent (aside from Vaska which I dont use anymore) that I have this issue with. The second one is rinse #4 and the third one is rinse #8 with a tablespoon of fabric softener.

I showed him the pictures on my phone, then he went out to his car and came back with a little bottle that he said to use. It's a 2 oz bottle of something he's been working with lately.. it contains: Isopropyl Myristate, Bis-Vinyl Dimethicone Copolymer and Dimethicone. (not sure what the percentages are) He didn't say exactly what it was or what he was using it for (His wife mentioned that he was doing some formulating for the cosmetic industry at the moment) but he said to use a few drops and that my sudsing issues would be solved without compromising performance or results.

I tried it and holy cow it worked! The water was a little milky but there were hardly any suds and none if I paused for about 30 seconds and let it sit. The true test will be a load of diapers on the sanitize cycle with the Wisk, if anyone wants to see pics I'll take some and post them.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Congratulations!

The dimethicone is a known bubble burster. Products with its action first made their appearance in preparations that burst gas in the stomach. So you could always use Gas-X when you run out of this preparation. Similar preparations go under the name of simethicone.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Isopropyl Myristate

Is a modified siliconic synthethic oil, siliconic synthethic oils have been used for ages as defoamers and in "controlled suds" detergents.

Oils generally are a good way to defoam, cooking oils as well to some extent...of course synthethic oils works better and you need less, these same chemicals are also often used as lubricants and or protective coatings.
Dimethicone is another siliconic oil.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defoamer
Defoamers doesn't seem readily available as a plain chemical for laundry, except for detergent makers, but they're pretty much the ones for carpet cleaning and they'll work just as well, they come both in powders and liquids...
[this post was last edited: 1/23/2015-18:20]

 

[andic29]

I thought the same thing about defoamers and the gas gels so being the nosy nelly that I am, I called to ask. He said many detergents use those ingredients on their own, but in very low concentrations (hence why most HE detergents still produce suds)because they have "undesirable" effects when used in too high a concentration.
He said carpet defoamer and gas gels aren't very good for washing because the same carpet isnt being shampooed everyday whereas laundry is washed once or multiple times a week and that those ingredients on their own will eventually leave an impermeable, to water, layer that would take multiple washes with lots of soap and very hot water to get rid of. The liquid he gave me has two other "proprietary" ingredients that keep a layer from forming but still knocks out suds.
He used a bunch of science-y/chemistry words that I didn't quite follow but that was pretty much the jist of it.