Now I've Seen Everything - Clorox "Coldwater" Bleach

[launderess]

Apparently the folks over at Clorox figured they did not have enough variety for LCB, so here is yet another:

http://www.clorox.com/products/overview.php?prod_id=clbcold

 

[oxydolfan1]

Didja get a load of the "HE" version??

I mean, what the...?

 

[launderess]

They Have No Shame

Yes, noticed the "HE" version of Clorox bleach as well, and like you was gobsmacked at the noive. Am really curious as to know just what is different about the "HE" version from all the others.

Did you notice on the coldwater Clorox no mention was made of germ killing/disenfectant properties? Wonder if any of these versions of Clorox are EPA registered?

Still, have to admire the moxie of the Clorox people. They recently purchased Burt's Bees brand, so wonder what is next.

 

[appnut]

I noticed all formulas of Clorox 2 are now suited for HE machines. Which wasn't alays the cae, that tuff could make lots of suds.

 

[mielabor]

What is the active ingredient?

 

[frigilux]

I believe only the institutional version of Clorox is still rated as a disinfectant/sanitizer.

Even 10 years ago, when I was dealing with catering and a restaurant, Minnesota health rules prohibited the use of Clorox for sanitization. You had to use Hilex or some other brand which was institutional.

I wonder what special witches brew makes the Coldwater version work better. And if it's just the lame "oh, this one disperses itself better in cold water", I'll wretch. I also notice they've mashed Cold Water into a single word, ala Tide Coldwater detergent. And the little blue icicle graphic looks like Tide, also. Wanna bet there's some sort of mutually-beneficial licensing arrangement involved?

 

[spoodles]

This might be a dumb question - but why do Americans have to add bleach to their laundry in the first place?

 

[oldhouseman]

Good question

Laundry soaps do not whiten whites. They tend to dull them actually. The bleach keeps them white. In the 50's, 60's and 70's there were a limited number of products on the market that always got the job done allowing of course for personal preferences of scent, softness, etc.. In the 80's alot of new things started hitting the market. I still stick with the tried and true for myself. Sure I may test some new product but most of them don't really cut it for me. Didn't Clorox always work in cold or hot water to begin with? Sure it worked faster in hot water but?? My mother used to put it in the dishwasher when she washed her tupperware items. I understand that across the pond there are laundry soaps with bleach in them. There are some here also but they just don't get the job done for me. I may try to purchase some european soaps to see the difference. What do the folks in England use?

 

[jamiel]

No, believe that standard Clorox is still EPA registered, but none of the 'offshoots' are. Some house brands still are, some are not. I was shopping for some LCB to purge my reverse osmosis system (I'm dreading the job--never done it before--it was installed in the house I bought 1 yr ago) and the instructions are literally in a ring-binder...something like 30 steps.

At the time (4 mos ago), KMart bleach wasn't, but Meijer Jump was, and A&P (Americas' Choice) was (and came from the Javex plant in Canada...)

Now Javex in Canada got bought by Clorox (from Colgate-Palmolive)

 

[cuffs054]

OK, I admit it, I was a "bleach using American" AKA: "BUA". Until I got my Danby with heater. Now I get sparkling whites. No more dull tighty whities for me!

 

[oldhouseman]

Danby

Cuffs54, I got a Danby a few years ago. HD was having a closeout sale and I picked up the washer and dryer for 200 bucks. I noticed the difference in whites but I still use a bleach product on some items (my dogs bedding in particular, yea, they get white sheets too). What modle do you have?

 

[laundromat]

Anybody remember Snowy?? Lestare??? Lestare was an oxygen bleach in a gel capsule just like Action bleach tabs but non clorine.

 

[mistereric]

i dunno...

The standard, HE and coldwater versions all taste the same to me. So it seems like a scam.

 

[cuffs054]

OldHouseMan, I think its a 500(?) I got mine at HD also.

 

[launderess]

Spoodles

Americans became wedded to chlorine bleach as it suited their laundry habits, that is using top loading washing machines without heaters. Even commercial laundries use the stuff as again machines for the most part do not have heaters, though some do heat water via steam off the boilers.

Basically Europeans knew back when Javelle water came along that chlorine bleach can damage textiles and perfered for the most part to stick with age old methods of either sun bleaching or boiling. When perborate bleaches came upon the scene, boiling was required as it takes temps of 140F and above to get the stuff going.

Given the rather short cycle times of American washing machines, LCB works quite well.

 

[DADoES]

Last load of whites I did came out VDN*, with Fresh Start, 2 oz of Sun oxybooster, in ~140°F EcoActive wash followed by cold deep wash and 2-hr soak. I *rarely* use LCB. Did a few times in the Calypso with the Whitest Whites cycle, honestly didn't see much difference against the usual regimen. Oxybooster also works well in the Calypso with the soak option.

*Very Damn Nice

 

[spoodles]

Thanks oldhouseman & Launderess

So regular original Tide for example doesn't have much/any bleach in? And what type of bleach if it does? I find the "Tide with bleach" variant being promoted as good for colours a bit odd. Isn't that a contradiction?

I got a box of US regular Tide a couple of years ago and found it left whites with a very slight brownish tinge unlike UK Ariel or Persil which leave whites really white without adding anything to the wash.

oldhouseman - UK detergents bio/non-bio versions have oxygen bleach in them (5-15% of the ingredients). You can get bottles of laundry bleach here too, but even they are just oxygen bleaches (usually with added brighteners) like Ace and Vanish but these are just marketed as stain removers.

I didn't think you could even get chlorine bleach for laundry! Over here we would use that to clean toilets!!

 

[launderess]

Eau de Javel

Or chlorine bleach is widely use in much of Europe and the UK for housekeeping purposes rather than laundry. One can find little sausages of bleach in French supermarkets, but the directions are almost always for floor washing or some sort of housework. One can also find Milton tablets for sanitising, but they are more for use in the nursery than anywhere else.

Tide with bleach as opposed to plain Tide, has a patented activated perborate bleaching system designed for stain/soil removal and keeping whites and light colours bright.

Oxygen bleach can protect and give good laundring results for colours in several ways. First oxygen bleaches neutralise chlorine normally added to tap water, this helps with fading. Oxygen bleaches also help keep colours bright by removing the dull grey cast that can appear on textiles. Since oxygen bleaches do not bleach past the dyed colour, they are normally quite safe for all colourfast laundry. Even more so in that perborate bleaches, even when activated require temps of 140F or so for really aggressive bleaching action. Most coloured laundry is laundered at 100F, which means stains and soils should shift with no damage to colours.

L.

 

[superelectronic]

Oxygen bleach

Now that's an interesting point (as ever) from Launderess - I hadn't thought of chlorinated water being a source of bleaching before...and thinking of information posted here about LCB being counteracted by oxygen-type it adds up!

20 or so years ago virtually all British powdered detergent contained oxygen bleach that could be controlled by temperature - warm (40C) washes for darks didn't activate it much. There has been, however, addition of bleach activators to make it work at the lower temperatures making standard bleach containing powders rather harsh on colours, hence the proliferation of "colour" detergents. From experience, use of standard powders definitely causes a degree of fading here even in cool/warm water. Some notice it more than others: my housemate seems to get away with it whereas I notice fading when I use bleach containing powder on darks. Line drying outdoors seems to exacerbate the problem - I suspect oxy bleach continues to act on the fabric to some extent (stains sometimes disappear during drying) and daylight activates it further (in addition to the degree of fading caused by sunlight anyway).

LCB is definitely not seen as a laundry product here, though on the occasions I have tried to use it to bleach I have been disappointed - we're led to believe it will strip the colour out but when trying to lighten the colour of something it's never had the desired effect. Spill a drop on the carpet however, and you've had it!

Al

 

[launderess]

Sunlight bleaches textiles. Indeed one of the first and by some accounts still popular method for whitening linens and or removing stains is to set dampened cloth out into the sun. Long as the cloth is kept damp, the bleaching action will continue. For this reason housewives hung their laundry out of doors in such a way that darks and colours would be in the shade, and whites in the sun.

While sunlight will bleach textiles, like all bleaching it can and will over time weaken them as well if carried to extremes.

Oxygen bleaches are neutralised by mild acids, like vinegar or lemon juice, both of which are old European housewife,laundress tricks to add at the final rinse bath for whites.

Of the oxygen bleaches, perborates are more difficult to rinse than percarbonates, however when using either, textiles should be well rinsed afterwards.

Percarbonate is called the "cold water" oxygen bleach, since on it's own without activators it wll bleach in cold water, it just takes longer. Perborate bleaches really require 120F to 140F or boil wash temps to get going. Even with activators perborates still tend to deactivate in cold water, but some bleaching still takes place, again at a slower rate than with hot water.

Oxygen bleaches in European/UK detergents also help keep mould,slime and foul odours in check within the washing machine. Some washaholics blame the rise of foul smelling washing machines on that side of the pond with the increasing use of non-bleach containing liquid and powdered detergents.

L.

 

[spoodles]

Super Electronic

I agree oxygen bleach detergents, definitely do cause fading. I just find it very odd that US detergents market their oxygen bleach as colour safe, whereas most of Europe removes oxygen bleach and brighteners for Colour detergents.

It's almost as odd as the UK being just about the only country to market non-bio as sensitive skin detergent, whereas everyhwere else has biological but perfume and dye free detergents for sensitive skin. I guess that's why we don't have non-bio colour detergent whereas the rest of Europe does have sensitive colour detergents, as part of the colour protection is down to a particular enzyme. *shrugs*
Bio detergents almost seem to be seen as bad for your skin by consumers here these days, judging by the popularity of non-bios.

My head hurts!

 

[superelectronic]

Spoodles -

I suppose oxygen based bleaching agent is indeed colour safe compared to chlorine - I note there is a Vanish powder product being advertised stating it doesn't harm colours any more than detergent, though I'm guessing it's still based on oxy bleach! Odd really...seems you need to know your bleaches!

The British detergent market is a pain for not covering all permutations equally...e.g. non-bio colour product (need to use the liquid versions and put up with optical brighteners minus the bleach). As to bio detergents, I think some people used to come out in rashes using them but then that could well be from something other than enzyme content, such as the "stronger" perfumes, so non-bio is a convenient catch-all for those looking for something less likely to irritate.

Personally, I'm looking for an environmentally friendly biological colour liquid (non-bio at low temps doesn't fill me with confidence...sometimes you get those niffy armits on shirts...and who can be bothered spraying vinegar on them or whatever old time recipe you trust in!).

Here's to more clarity in the detergent maze!

Al

 

[supersuds]

Remember it? I USE it regularly. Why, do you have trouble finding it, laundromat?

 

[launderess]

One Must Also Remember

Oxygen bleaching depends upon contact time and water temperature. Even with activated perborate bleaches, washing at temps of <110F is gives a much gentler action than say the same product at temps >140. For about ever 10 degrees temperature increases,there is about a 20 percent increase in bleaching action, or thereabouts.

European front loaders have much longer washing times than American top loaders, the main washing machines in the United States, and for which products like Tide with Bleach, CloroxII and most all other oxygen bleaches boosters were designed. Longer contact times equals greater bleaching by simple lenghth of contact time. This is why stains articles are often soaked in oxygen bleach pre-soaks or detergents to shift tough soils and stains. Even with the new "HE" oxygen bleaches, what P&G and others mostly have done is replace high foaming surfactants, with low foaming ones.

If you ever wish to see just how fast and strong oxygen bleaches are as water temperature increases try this experiment:

Place on range one large canning or boiling pot 3/4 full with cold water and add a few tablespoons of oxygen bleach, stir to disslove. Add a few badly stained or discoloured items, and then turn on the range to medium heat to slowly bring the water to a boil. WARNING: Keep an eye on the pot since as the water heats with oxygen bleach will begin to relase oxygen causing foaming and will boil over.

Stirring every now and then watch what happens as the water temperature goes from cold to warm to hot. Once the water starts boiling, turn the flame down to low and allow to "boil" for no longer than 10 minutes. By the end of the process you should have some mucky brown water, but very white textiles.

To remove the laundry from the hot pot, use tongs, a dolly stick or something to lift the hot and wet laundry into another pot or sinkfull of warm water to gradually cool down,rise. Continue rinsing with warm to cool water, or simply wait until the items have cooled enough to touch, and bung into the washer and let it take care of rinsing.

L.

 

[mielabor]

Oxygen bleach demo

With some detergents you can clearly see the effects of oxygen release in your washer. As madame L. pointed out, there is a lot of foaming during this process...