STPP REVISITED...DOSAGING

[stevet]

Hopefully, I am not beating a dead horse here, but Eddie Toploader55 was kind enough to give me a 5 lb pail of STPP this past week and I have already given it a try and I think it is going to be a good addition to the Tide HE powder that we use in our WP Duet.

My question is this, How much is enough to use in the washer and if I do use it in the Dishwasher, what would be appropriate?

I used a tablespoon in a very large white load of clothes on Normal Cycle using the hot wash with LCB and it did a good job of removing Aero-Kroil off of a small tee shirt that I used to wipe it off but still left a shadow of tomato sauce on another shirt. But they were pretty white!

On my work clothes which are 100% cotton and also Fire retardant, I used the same Tide HE and Oxi Clean plus 1tbsp. of STPP in an even larger load of 5 work pants, 5 shirts, 2 pairs of jeans and a long sleeved sweat shirt on Heavy Duty and it seemed to pull more of the grease and oils out of the clothing. The pants came out really clean and the shirts were better than usual. Stains that were there for a long time seem to have faded a bit so maybe it does work.

Does STPP make any appreciable difference if the incoming water is already mechanically softened?

Also, if using a top loader, what would be a good dosage in that size machine?

Thanks
Steve

 

[jeffg]

The purpose of STPP is to bind to hard water minerals (calcium and magnesium), so it makes much less of a difference if you're already using softened water.

For stains on whites it's best to split large loads into smaller ones (the hot water will stay hot much longer), use plenty of water and extend your wash times (even double them for top loaders, e.g. 25 minutes instead of 12). Also wait until the last 5-6 minutes before adding LCB. For extremely soiled loads, use a second, short hot water wash cycle after the main wash cycle to bleach them.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Glad you have been introduced to STPP!

In my FLs, I use a coffee measure (2 TBS) of STPP and the same amount of powder Tide HE, but I don't have work clothes that get really dirty. If you have stains remaining, you might try doubling the amount of STPP you use.

As to softened water, I kept offering Jeff some STPP for years which he declined because he has mechanically softened water. Then he somehow heard of the benefits from someone else and tried some and found that it really improved washing performance because, in addition to binding the calcium magnesium salts in hard water, STPP also helps lift soils from fabrics by going after the bond between the two. I remember Mac talking about having to use STPP in the pre rinse for blood soiled hospital linens when the cold water temperature got so high during the summer that it was hot enough to set blood instead of rinsing it out of the fabrics before washing. Many body oils and perspiration also form acids in fabrics and STPP helps to keep the detergent and water solution properly alkaline. I find STPP, detergent and some form of oxygen bleach in 190F water keeps my undershirts from getting underarm discoloration from deodorant/antiperspirants which are very difficult to wash out because they repel water to an unbelievable degree.

 

[jetcone]

Well Tom sort of

After addressing mineral balance in the water STPP will boost the detergency of the surfactants. In the 1960's when it was plentiful and cheap some P&G formulations had 45-50% STPP in them because it was cheaper than surfactants. Cheer, Tide etc.

It took from then till now to figure out how to make enzymes perform the same way as STPP did. And today they do perform equally well as STPP in the right mixture.

So Steve you can add as much as your wallet will stand.

 

 

 

[jeffg]

"Then he somehow heard of the benefits from someone else and tried some and found that it really improved washing performance because, in addition to binding the calcium magnesium salts in hard water, STPP also helps lift soils from fabrics by going after the bond between the two."

That's true especially with greasy soils. Phosphate in any form is a good thing.

But STPP doesn't have much cleaning power. Almost all the benefit is from softened water, which allows detergent/bleach/etc to perform better. At our last place the muni water was extremely hard and STPP helped a lot, the opposite is true at our current house and we stopped using it altogether because it makes no discernible difference. Your milage may vary.

 

[mich]

@jeff..

If you ever have any really soiled, preticicully muddy or dirt covered dingy garments, you'll certainly notice a huge difference. However, in soft water, with a healthy doing of an Enzyme Based detergent, the difference isn't going to be that practically noticeable.