How to Make Laundry Soap

[picaro]

You will need:

- 1 bar of soap
- borax  / sodium borate
- washing soda / sodium carbonate / soda ash

http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap2.htm

[kola]

I use baking soda and white vinegar.

[Puke]

I buy it from the store. Ahh, the ease of modern life.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Don't let him fool you Ivy.  I hear he churns his own butter.

[Bald Eagle]

I use baking soda and white vinegar.

Sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid

Not sure what that's going to get you except carbon dioxide and a solution of sodium acetate to soak your clothes in.

Washing soda (sodim carbonate) is at least basic enough to begin to hydrolyze some of the greases that may be present in the laundry into real soap.

Borax is only in there to protect the fabric     http://www.borax.com/detergents/laundrycare.html

The problem with real soap (alkalai metal salts of long-chain carboxylic acids {fatty acids}) is that hard water (high concentration of calcium and magnesium salts) can precipitate out the soap - covering everything in soap scum and effectively neutralizing the soap by literally taking it out of the wash water.

Modern detergents were designed to overcome the problem of water hardness because alkylsulfonates don't precipitate out as their calcium or magnesium salts - they remain soluble, and so can function as a surface-active agent (anionic surfactant).  There are also non-ionic and cationic surfactants.  Most non-ionic surfactants are going to be found in low-sudsing formulations, and the cationic surfactants are typically used as fabric softeners, Lysol-type disinfectants, and anti-fogging products. 

There are naturally occurring compounds called saponins that form a thick lather - thus the reason why this plant is called soapwort:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapwort

Also called "Bouncing Bet" or "Sweet William"

The key to washing is either an effective surfactant to remove grease and dirt from the fabric surface, allowing it to be rinsed away, or a high water temperature to melt the grease and allow dirt and other soluble compounds to dissolve and be rinsed away.  Or both.

Dry cleaning is just doing laundry with organic solvents.  If I dipped a sock in Crisco, I could use a little bit of warm water and surfactant, a lot of hot water and scrubbing and rinsing, or just dissolve the grease out by spraying the sock down with chlorinated brake cleaner - which is [conventional] dry cleaning solvent.  Hell, in theory, you could press the sock between layers of newspaper in the hot sun and let the paper absorb the melted grease out of the sock - you're just using a hot solid to partition the grease into rather than hot water.  Or put the sock under high vacuum and vacuum-distill (evaporate) the grease right off the fibers - just like hanging it up to dry.  Except that dirt and salt don't evaporate at temperatures below which the sock itself would vaporize.

It's not what you do, it's how you do it, WHY you do it, and how efficient the process is.

[Puke]

The most fascinating post on laundry I'll read all year! 

[Jim Johnson]

The most fascinating post on laundry I'll read all year! 

Yea Buddy, wait till he tells ya how they ties them little ropes on them bars a soap...  has something to do with soaponification.

I'll bet the factory looks like a World Federation Calf Tie'n event.   

[kola]

that aint butter he is churning.



heehee
Kola

[NJLiberty]

I have found it unnecessary to turn it into a gel. It is quicker and easier to make a powdered version.

You simply grate the bar soap on the side of the box grater with all the points on it It reduces it to a fairly fine "powder." Then I put that into a large mason jar with the borax and washing soda, put a lid on it and shake it to mix it up. We use one tablespoon per load of wash. You can add baking soda to the wash on an as needed basis, or simply add it to the powdered mix itself.

It dissolves fine in the water here, hot or cold, leaves no residue and gets the clothes just as clean as regular store bought detergents.

George

[dalebert]

I have found it unnecessary to turn it into a gel. It is quicker and easier to make a powdered version...

What about for front-loaders that normally require the special HE detergent? Do you need to do something differently?

[porcupine kate]

The high efficiency front loaders use 1/4 of the water that classic top loaders do.  My machine recommends that you use HE detergent but the manual says you can use the regular stuff also.  You have to use only a third of the regular amount for a single load.  Approximately a tablespoons worth.  Check the manual for your machine. 

[dalebert]

Well, I don't know about my landlord's machines. Not sure where the manual is. My last machine manual insisted I use high efficiency type detergent. It didn't provide an option for using regular detergent. It said not to. In fact, I can't imagine why it would even suggest using HE detergent if all I had to do was use a smaller amount of regular detergent.

[J’raxis 270145]

High-explosive detergent?

[porcupine kate]

High efficiency detergent.  It is low sudsing laundry detergent for front loading washing machines because they use so little water that regular detergent won't rinse out and the build up of suds wears out the washing machine faster or will make it run for 6 hours to try and get the suds out.

[J’raxis 270145]

Yeah, I gathered, but "HE" makes me think "high explosive."

/ I like my answer better...