Laundry soap for delicates

[DeeAnna]

Sephera -- I'm afraid I hijacked your thread with my digression about borax and laundry butter. This isn't related to your question -- pleas accept my apologies!

 

[earlene]

"...So it might be FAs produced during the chemical reactions, which help stabilize the whipped nature of the 'butter'? That's a fun fact (if I am understanding you correctly.)...."

The recipes I'm finding on the internet for laundry butter call for adding borax (and washing soda) to pre-made bar soap that's been dissolved in water. Here's one: http://www.ibelieveicanfry.com/2014/12/homemade-laundry-butter.html If that's how laundry butter is usually made, I really do think the borax is breaking down the finished soap and the fatty acids are helping to thicken the mixture.

***

I don't make laundry butter -- and now that I've been looking at various recipes, I doubt I ever will.

Based on the info from the above link, there are only 1.2 grams of actual soap added to each load of laundry. (My basis -- she says to use 5.5 oz of soap to make a 2 quart batch of laundry butter and use 1 TBL butter per load of laundry for a total of 128 loads.)

I use roughly 5 grams of soap each time I take a shower -- how can I get a load of grubby laundry clean using only 25% of that amount of soap???? Even if I use twice that amount of laundry butter, that's still less than half the soap per load of laundry than I would use for bathing!

So first thing, I don't see there's remotely enough soap added per load to do much if any cleaning. And if some of the soap has been turned into fatty acid by reacting with the borax, that reduces the miniscule amount of soap even more.

Here's a report from one user who is not pleased with laundry butter: http://somedaywewillsleep.com/i-used-my-own-laundry-butter-for-12-months-and-heres-what-i-learned/

And here's a blog post from another user who insists the butter works, but also recommends pretreating stains before washing. While pretreating stains is not a bad thing, if a person has to pretreat most stains to get good results, that's telling me the pretreat is doing the cleansing, not the laundry butter. http://ladybugwrites.com/2016/02/03/homemade-laundry-butter/

This is the recipe I use with my own 0% CO bar soap made expecially for this. It does say 1 TBL. I probably use about that per load, maybe a bit more, maybe a lot more, depends on the load itselt. I always divide part of it into 2 parts; one part goes into the pre-wash & 1 part goes into the main wash. I wipe the spoon off onto a rag or towel or some piece of laundry in each load (to prevent waste & clean off the spoon.) I always use pre-wash. And I always use a second rinse. I always use warm water wash with cold rinse. My washing machine doesn't have the warm/warm option, or I would use that. I have never like cold/cold for laundry.

The reason I use extra rinses and so forth is because long ago I read an article by a large hotel laundry manager about how to keep hotel linens clean, white, fluffy and absorbent. This was the gist of it: Hot water, minimal detergent (not excessive as it builds up in the fabrics), extra rinse (to remove excess soap), NO fabric softeners (they inhibit absorbency and also build up in the fabric over time). So that's the way I wash all my clothes. Except for the Hot/Hot, as it is not an option on my machine, so I settled for warm/cold.

For 10 or 15 years previously I used my own homemade powdered laundry detergent using Fels Naptha &/or other bar soaps finely grated and mixed with washing soda, oxiclean, & Borax. I found the Fels Naptha to be far too strong and colors faded quickly. But it was good for really grungy laundry (heavy-duty dirty workclothes, etc.)


To quote our Infection Control Nurse at the hospital where I worked most of my Nursing career: 'Friction is the most important part' of hand washing. She was speaking of removing unwanted germs in the context of Infection Control, of course. But the same is true for dirt and grime. Soap and warm water facilitate cleaning, but without friction it is not nearly as effective. I have found that to be true in laundry as well as hand washing. When I hand wash laundry, which I often do while traveling, I can absolutely confirm that soaking in soapy water will not get a washcloth with make-up clean, but hand washing with friction does remove the make-up from the wash cloth extremely well. (My grand daughter can't seem to remember to use make-up removal pads.) So it's not just the soap in the washing machine that is doing the cleaning, the machine itself is helping as well.

Of course for fine delicates as the OP plans to wash, one doesn't want vigorous agitation as one does for towels. And a gentler soap as well. In my youth I used to hand wash all of them in special soap from Victoria Secret. But I am no longer young and no longer wear such fine delicates. I wash it all in my regular laundry butter now and am happy with the result.

I am making a laundry soap to wash wool and silk.
I decided of 33% Palm oil, 33% Olive, 33% coconut. 0% super fat. Adding a dash of turpentine, and borax at trace. How much borax per pound goes in at trace? What does Borax do to the soap? I understand it softens the water.

In this recipe I also use one teaspoon of salt, and sugar per pound.

I will be doing CP OP. Is that a good idea?

What can I do to make an extra hard bar.

sephera, I am curious how you will be washing the wool and silk using this soap. Is it bar soap you will make, then grate it into a powder? Will you be hand washing your delicates?

When I was young I used specialty soap for delicates that I bought at Victoria Secret, but it was a liquid. Occasionally I also used Woolite, which came as a powder. But I preferred the liquid from Victoria Secret.

Long ago I stopped bothering with fine delicates and hand washing my undies unless I am staying in hotels without laundry service. Now I just use dish washing liquid or hotel shampoo to wash my undies when in those situations. Or at home, I just use my regular laundry butter in the washing machine.

But I don't wear silks any more and never washed them myself anyway. They went to the dry cleaners. Woolens are another item I rarely bother with anymore, so I am probably no help with how well any of these water-based cleaning soaps would work for wool. My extent of using wool is felting it, which is probably not what you want to happen to your woolens.

If you go to the Borax site (and others), it states that Borax boosts the cleaning power of your laundry detergent (or soap). My guess is that it does that by softening the water.

What can you do to make an extra hard bar?
1. Use a higher lye concentration (less water) and you will get a harder bar sooner. I don't think it changes how hard the bar is at the end of cure, though. I believe it just speeds up the process.
2. Salt is supposed to help harden bar soap. I cannot verify that I have noticed a great difference, but I do it sometimes anyway. (1/2 tsp ppo dissolved in water before adding the lye to the water)
3. Sodium Lactate is supposed to harden soap and minimize shrinkage. (usage recommendations vary - check the lye calculator MMS for correct amounts for you particular recipe) More info here.

 

[Steve85569]

I use a 50:50 coconut oil:lard soap with a -2 SF for delicates. The vast majority of our laundry soap has dry borax added to it at about an equal weight. DW does that part and never uses a set of scales to do it.
Our everyday laundry soap is 100% coconut oil with a -3 SF.

I use sodium acetate to harden nearly all of the soaps that I make in concentrations from 4 to 9% with the water. Sodium acetate is produced by reacting vinegar with lye to neutralize the acidic nature of vinegar. The label will tell you how much acetic acid is in the vinegar. There are other threads discussing the math and chemistry requirements.

Avoid using sodium citrate ( vitamin C) as a chealator since that material is very thirsty and will keep the resulting soap soft for a longer period of time - resulting in a longer cure time requirement.

 

[sephera]

Hi Earlene to wash delicates I just lather a bit of soap on my hands run through the water, and rub stains directly with the bar with some water and lather up. Dunk and swirling the garments. I also have to look into making liquid soap... For this purpose. I find grating is annoying as I use cold water and doesn't dissolve.

Yes thanks for the insight. I have thought in the past to use alot of soap but the job of soap is to break surface tension of the water and allow water to do the cleaning.

Sorry not sure where to ask this. If you make soap with - 1% or - 2% lye discount. Dies the excessive lye eventually react with air to neutralise and eventually becomes 0%

Hi I am fairly happy with my Soap. 30% Coconut, 30% Palm, 30% Olive, 10% Soy at 0% Super fat. It's very lathery foamy and stays foamy for a while. Like small mountains of foam! If you keep lathering. This would be good for bath and shower soap. I may rebatch half and add extra oil for bath soap. I am very happy with foam.

 

[Susie]

Avoid using sodium citrate ( vitamin C) as a chealator since that material is very thirsty and will keep the resulting soap soft for a longer period of time - resulting in a longer cure time requirement.

Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, not sodium citrate, nor citric acid.

 

[sephera]

If soap is made with lye excess like - 1% does it eventually go to zero after leaving it long enough?

 

[DeeAnna]

It should. Excess lye when exposed to air will react with the carbon dioxide to make sodium carbonate -- washing soda.

 

[sephera]

What's people opinion who have used 100% coconut soap vs 100% coconut liquid which cleans better for heavily soiled laundry. Which is more gentle. Does anyone have a surfactants formula for detergent?

Also does any have any ideas on getting rid of mould from towels.

 

[Susie]

Chlorine bleach will remove mold from towels. It is the only thing that will.

 

[earlene]

Also does any have any ideas on getting rid of mould from towels.

Depending on how stained, if stained, getting mold/mildew stains out is very difficult or impossible. But cleaning is easy.

Soak for 10 or 15 minutes in a weak bleach solution if badly moldy, then wash in the hottest water you can using laundry soap and bleach using the cotton towels setting (or similar setting) in your washer. I suggest a double rinse cycle to fully remove all soap residue. Avoid fabric softeners with towels as they inhibit absorbency.

 

[sephera]

Hi All what do you think of this article, saying not to use soap. http://butterbeliever.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-soap-diy/

 

[DeeAnna]

"...what do you think of this article, saying not to use soap..."

What about the article do you have concerns about, Sephera? Why not share what YOU think first and then ask for our feedback? You ask very general questions about things like this, but you are not explaining your concerns or point of view.

You asked this: "..100% coconut soap vs 100% coconut liquid..."

What do you mean? I don't get it.

 

[earlene]

Hi All what do you think of this article, saying not to use soap. http://butterbeliever.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-soap-diy/

I had not seen this before and although I don't want to be disillusioned about my preferred laundering method, it does make curious.

But I am also curious if one would get similar results soaking detergent laundered clothes. Just wondering.

Well I am currently traveling so I don't have all the necessary stuff to try this out using the suggested ingrdients, but I do have vinegar. So I am leaving a load of clothes soaking in water with vinegar for the day, just to see what it looks like when we get back from Death Valley tonight.

It's probably an inconclusive experiment however since I have washed these clothes in detergent only twice this trip and before that my home made laundry butter for several months.

So one could argue that the results would be skewed by the mixed laundering methods of said clothes prior to the soaking.

But then I also wonder since the homemade laundry soap I have used for over a decade already contains washing soda and borax, if this 'stripping' wasn't already occurring on a regular basis anyway. Wondering.

 

[dibbles]

I wonder about this too. To Earlene's point, I'd like to see the results of 'stripping' laundry only washed with commercial laundry products as well. I don't think I have anything here that has only been washed with one or the other - I use both commercial and what I've made. One thing that got my attention was the reference to soap scum building up inside the washer, and I really wonder if that is true.

I found this interesting, until I got to the bottom and saw that Young Living laundry soap was the most highly recommended choice, and she is a Young Living sales person. YL and DoTerra both put my skeptic radar on alert. I'm not bashing, and mean no disrespect to the YL fans. I just can't buy into the hype.

 

[sephera]

It's saying the striping mixture of*washing soda,borax, and*Calgon water softener.

I washed a medium soiled not stains silk blouse with Dr bronner's, delicates detergent, borax, eucalan, and my own soap.

I found the delicates detergent to be least stripping of colour. But most of them cleaned the same.

But to clean stains and body oiled collars and cuffs you need soap regardless.

Yes I would like to see the stripping experiment done on commercial detergent. I am looking into buying concentrated soap nuts liquid or environmentally friendly liquid laundry detergent from the health store. On the essential oils note I do have a bottle of Doterra laundry liquid it cleans fairly well in the front loader. I use 5ml to 10 ml for medium load. But I want to try and formulate my own.

I have used soap once in my new front loader for woollens. I made a liquid from soap flakes and added some lanolin.

I am worried about using soap and vinegar rinse in my new front loader...

But I don't think any reminder soap scum in clothes which is just oils is harmful it just oil that has become unsaponofied.

http://www.french-handlaundry.com/orvus_vs_soap.htm extensive article on soap vs detergent FYI. The website is running a hand laundry service using soap flakes so they will push the soap angle but seems balanced.

 

[earlene]

Well, I am not going to go out and buy Calgon water softener. I am just not going to do it. Washing soda and borax are already in my homemade product, anyway.

Speaking of borax, today we went to Death Valley National Park and stopped at the 'birthplace' of the Twenty Mule Team Borax company's brand - the team of 20 mules that pulled the wagon of borax gathered from the Valley floor where the borax had deposited over time.

It was quite interesting after spending all my life either watching the commercials on TV or using the product. I knew about Borax soap, of course, but I didn't realize that it was the suggestion to make soap with borax that saved the company. I learned that today in Death Valley.

 

[sephera]

On another note the lanolin from Eucalan has made a mess of my favourite Angora Cardi. I must use delicates detergent only next time.

 

[sephera]

I tried this striping method of washing soda and borax with just a pair of wool socks that I only have used soap to wash. The water did become muddy and cloudy. The was some solidy stuff floating in the water. I am not sure it it was colour run.

I'm going to experiment more.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I am not going to go out and buy Calgon water softener. I am just not going to do it. Washing soda and borax are already in my homemade product, anyway...."

Calgon water softener used to be a zeolite product from what I understood from my searches. Zeolite is a mined mineral and is a very good water softener. Nowadays the Calgon water softener product appears to be expensive washing soda. So you're right to save your pennies, Earlene.