Phophates

[beekeyknee]

I notice people have been worrying about phosphates being taken out of their d/w detergents. If a person bought an amount of non-phophated detergent and sprinkeled a bit of TSP over the regular detergent, would this not work? If so, why not. It would seem to replace the phosphate that was removed from the original.

Why is it that TSP is not susposed to be used in regular laundry detergent?. Not the environment part the washing part. I've heard that there is a fall-out when using TSP in hard water. What if you have a water softener? Wouldn't there be any fall out?[this post was last edited: 12/19/2010-09:50]

 

[toggleswitch]

I do believe you mean STPP (sodium tripolyphosphate)

TSP is normally used as driveway cleaner and such.

http://www.chemistrystore.com/Chemicals_S_Z-Sodium_Tripolyphosphate.html

 

[labboy]

TSP will precipitate in hard water, STPP will not. STPP is the product you want.

Thread 31375 has lots of great information on STPP and links to other informative articles about it. We use 1 TBSP STPP with detergent/load of laundry. For the dishwasher, when using a non-phosphated detergent, we use 1 TBSP STPP/load divided between the prewash and main wash cups then fill the cups the rest of the way with detergent.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?31375