launderess
Well-known member
Liquid Laundry Detergents
Are pretty much taking over everywhere, and not without some good reasons.
Most persons simply do not get laundry so soiled as say years ago when many pepople were engaged heavy work and or wore clothing for several wearings. Today's laundry is more likely soiled by body soils/oils, food stains, and perhaps the odd ink or some such. For all of these stains a good liquid laundry detergent with TOL surfactants and enzymes will work very well, and has the advantage of being near neutral pH. The old powdered laundry detergent formulas with heavy doses of caustics such as washing soda, borax, phosphates, and so forth, worked mainly by mechanical action and swelling textile fibers to release soils. Today one can literally soak a load of the most grimy laundry clean with little or no mechanical action.
The absence of caustics means that laundry washes softer and requires less rinsing and no "souring". Using enzymes instead of caustics for removing soils means wash temps can be 120F to 80F and still give good performance. This not only saves energy, but prolongs textile life, as not many things these days can withstand repeated hot, much less boil washes. From one who irons shirts and linens, am here to say warm water washes does make ironing easier as things do not emerge a constricted, wrinkled mess from the machine, as what happens with hot water.
As surfactants have progressed, what we are seeing is much of the water found in previous liquid detergents, and still in many of the middle and low shelf products, is being taken out. Hence the "X" concentrated craze.
Am doing some bed linens now in a product called "Linen Wash", which is a liquid detergent designed for fine and antique linens using cold or warm water. It was hard for me not to set the temp dial on my Miele to 120F or 140F, my usual range for linens, but we shall see. Added some Bi-O-Kleen "Bac Out" liquid enzymes just to be on the safe side, as the Linen Wash has none.
Are pretty much taking over everywhere, and not without some good reasons.
Most persons simply do not get laundry so soiled as say years ago when many pepople were engaged heavy work and or wore clothing for several wearings. Today's laundry is more likely soiled by body soils/oils, food stains, and perhaps the odd ink or some such. For all of these stains a good liquid laundry detergent with TOL surfactants and enzymes will work very well, and has the advantage of being near neutral pH. The old powdered laundry detergent formulas with heavy doses of caustics such as washing soda, borax, phosphates, and so forth, worked mainly by mechanical action and swelling textile fibers to release soils. Today one can literally soak a load of the most grimy laundry clean with little or no mechanical action.
The absence of caustics means that laundry washes softer and requires less rinsing and no "souring". Using enzymes instead of caustics for removing soils means wash temps can be 120F to 80F and still give good performance. This not only saves energy, but prolongs textile life, as not many things these days can withstand repeated hot, much less boil washes. From one who irons shirts and linens, am here to say warm water washes does make ironing easier as things do not emerge a constricted, wrinkled mess from the machine, as what happens with hot water.
As surfactants have progressed, what we are seeing is much of the water found in previous liquid detergents, and still in many of the middle and low shelf products, is being taken out. Hence the "X" concentrated craze.
Am doing some bed linens now in a product called "Linen Wash", which is a liquid detergent designed for fine and antique linens using cold or warm water. It was hard for me not to set the temp dial on my Miele to 120F or 140F, my usual range for linens, but we shall see. Added some Bi-O-Kleen "Bac Out" liquid enzymes just to be on the safe side, as the Linen Wash has none.
