liberatordeluxe
Well-known member
I can't comment on Tide as we don't have that in the UK. The nearest to Tide is Daz. Daz powder is good at rinsing but the liquid well after 15 or so rinses i gave up and just gave the towels away lol
Water Softners
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liberatordeluxe
Well-known member
Are soap based products worth a try instead of using regular laundry detergents? I know there is one company that makes soap based detergent just for water softners. Would it be worth using something soap based rather than detergent?
hoovermatic
Well-known member
When I had a twin tub I used to use soap flakes. It has its pros in so far as they rinse out very easily and leave the clothes feeling and smelling really lovely. However, I found stain removal poor and and needed to do a lot or pre-treating as well as using much higher temperatures than I would normally use to get decent cleaning. They also create acres of suds because the water is SO soft - that caused real suds lock problems so I stopped using them.
Assuming you are using a front loader I would avoid it to be honest.
Assuming you are using a front loader I would avoid it to be honest.
beekeyknee
Well-known member
Powders seem to work better....
for us. We have a year old Culligan that's set to "0" grains of hardness. With liquids I have noticed suds in the rinse water of my Maytag A806 which uses a pretty good amount of water. It spins at top speed for a Maytag and things come out pretty dry for this type of top loader. And of course it has the 1 min. spray rinse.
I do love the water softener. Much less detergent. No mineral deposits anywhere and soft skin after a shower. I only use a tiny amount of detergent in the D/W.
for us. We have a year old Culligan that's set to "0" grains of hardness. With liquids I have noticed suds in the rinse water of my Maytag A806 which uses a pretty good amount of water. It spins at top speed for a Maytag and things come out pretty dry for this type of top loader. And of course it has the 1 min. spray rinse.
I do love the water softener. Much less detergent. No mineral deposits anywhere and soft skin after a shower. I only use a tiny amount of detergent in the D/W.
"It has its pros in so far as they rinse out very easily
Regarding soap flakes and one is not sticking one's oars into someone's wash water, but...
Just because forth vanishes at once when using soap at the first rinse that does not always mean the suff is gone.
What happens is simply fresh water with it's new mineral content causes the froth to go as the "cleaning" power of soap is now gone. Of course if one was washing you'd add more soap to compensate for this to bring the cleaning power back up.
A true test of if soap is totally rinsed from fabrics is if the water no longer appears milky, but clear. Even then soap never totally rinses free of fabrics and always leaves a slight residue, this is why items washed with pure soaps tend to feel softer and fluffier than detergents.
A small amount of vinegar added to the final cold rinse after several hot or warm ones will help remove the remaining calicum and other minerals from soap trapped in fabric. If done too soon however the acid in vinegar will combine with the fatty acids in soap and form a residue that will turn rancid and cause laundry to develop a whiff.
French housewives/laundresses had another age old method to "strip" soap residue from textiles and leave them whiter. They boiled items with one or more cut up lemons, then rinsed well.
Regarding soap flakes and one is not sticking one's oars into someone's wash water, but...
Just because forth vanishes at once when using soap at the first rinse that does not always mean the suff is gone.
What happens is simply fresh water with it's new mineral content causes the froth to go as the "cleaning" power of soap is now gone. Of course if one was washing you'd add more soap to compensate for this to bring the cleaning power back up.
A true test of if soap is totally rinsed from fabrics is if the water no longer appears milky, but clear. Even then soap never totally rinses free of fabrics and always leaves a slight residue, this is why items washed with pure soaps tend to feel softer and fluffier than detergents.
A small amount of vinegar added to the final cold rinse after several hot or warm ones will help remove the remaining calicum and other minerals from soap trapped in fabric. If done too soon however the acid in vinegar will combine with the fatty acids in soap and form a residue that will turn rancid and cause laundry to develop a whiff.
French housewives/laundresses had another age old method to "strip" soap residue from textiles and leave them whiter. They boiled items with one or more cut up lemons, then rinsed well.
