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| Author |
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| 25 new of 54 responses total. |
popcorn
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response 25 of 54:
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Dec 27 15:05 UTC 1995 |
This response has been erased.
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mcpoz
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response 26 of 54:
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Dec 27 19:36 UTC 1995 |
Good Stuff!
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otter
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response 27 of 54:
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Dec 30 01:00 UTC 1995 |
ref #24: didja get a good shot of him?
OK, you all have convinced me. I am going to try Tide Free, but if I get a
rash on my delicate parts you are all taking a dip in an icy river,
compliments of the Itchy Otter.
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mcpoz
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response 28 of 54:
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Dec 30 02:19 UTC 1995 |
No, for some reason it never occured to me to take his picture. Lost
opportunity.
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orinoco
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response 29 of 54:
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Nov 15 23:01 UTC 1997 |
Wow...this conference really _is_ about laundry, isn't it?!
Amazing...
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rcurl
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response 30 of 54:
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Nov 16 03:05 UTC 1997 |
And, what were you expecting, dirty secrets maybe?
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orinoco
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response 31 of 54:
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Nov 19 03:46 UTC 1997 |
That's what I'd assumed from the description - a place to come clean... :)
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snowth
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response 32 of 54:
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Nov 29 21:59 UTC 1997 |
Well, gee, orin, you should've said something. I knew that for a long time!
(Dan's the ditz! Dan's the ditz! Teehee! Snowth isn't clueless for once!)
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orinoco
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response 33 of 54:
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Nov 30 03:50 UTC 1997 |
Hi....my name is Dan, and I've got a problem. I....I...I'm a...ditz! <sob>
How's that for dirty secrets?
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i
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response 34 of 54:
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Nov 30 14:41 UTC 1997 |
Wash cold with plenty of Tide and a *very* small amount of Chlorox
(about 2 oz for a full-size washer). Drip dry, do not wring, and
you should be okay. Try gentle cycle on the wash at first.
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mta
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response 35 of 54:
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Dec 1 00:44 UTC 1997 |
I confess. I'm a Tide user, too. I realy love clothes and I discovered a
long time ago that of all the detergents I tried (and I tried a lot of them)
Tide made the biggest difference in how clean my clothes seems at folding
time.
That was enough for me.
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keesan
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response 36 of 54:
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Jan 5 23:36 UTC 1998 |
We bought a 50 gallon drum of the powder (sodium alpha olefin sulfonate) that
is the basic ingredient of most detergents, and use it together with a water
softener (ours has phosphate, but you can use washing soda - sodium
carbonate). We figure a gallon of the liquid, mixed to the same concentration
as commercial detergents, cost us 50 cents. We have been selling it to
friends for a dollar (to account for inflation since we bought it tenn years
ago). It also works fine on dishes. No bluing agents,
anti-deposition-agents, bleaches, enzymes or anything else in it. Our white
shirts are gradually getting grayer, but we don't care. We wash clothing when
it looks or smells dirty, and this stuff gets out what we care about. (The
grey may be because we wash in cold water and the calcium and magnesium
combine with the detergent and precipitate out on the clothing. A hot water
wash with softener removes a lot of this grey). If anyone is interested, I
can pass on a sample and look up the address of the Detroit distributor. A
major advantage is the complete lack of added fragrance, and you can't smell
the active ingredient. It also has no peanut shells added for bulk, or
coloring agents. We have a different product for shampoo/soap (actually I
think the formula above was the shampoo, the detergent has a benzene ring in
it.) Biodegradable, made in Chicago.
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gibson
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response 37 of 54:
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Jan 10 04:33 UTC 1998 |
Is anyone familiar with laundry discs? They're 3/ $50.00, replace
detergent completely and last something like 1000 washes? I've read they
work but hate to spend $50.00 to experiment.
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rcurl
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response 38 of 54:
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Jan 10 06:01 UTC 1998 |
They don't work. Try washing without detergents at all. You will get the
same effect for much less money.
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mta
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response 39 of 54:
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Jan 10 21:47 UTC 1998 |
Is this from experience or reason, Rane? ;)
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rcurl
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response 40 of 54:
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Jan 11 08:02 UTC 1998 |
It is what has been reported by people trying them out. Also, logic tells
you that they can't do anything any other lump of anything in the wash
could do, since they add nothing to the wash. So, it is from the experience
of others plus reason.
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keesan
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response 41 of 54:
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Jan 12 04:42 UTC 1998 |
See alternative water softeners item in environment conference. We have a
friend who just received some of these disks for Christmas and might be
willing to lend them out. His mother likes them. As I wrote in under water
softeners, they may have something to do with preventing crystallization of
calcium carbonate by magnetizing the dissolved iron in the water, assuming
that they work. I have never seen or used them myself, and could find nothing
on the Internet. If your clothing is not very dirty, you may be able to just
wash with washing soda, which will react with any grease in the laundry to
form soap, which will help to get out any remaining grease. (Hot water and/or
a long soak would help with the reaction). Try about 1/4 - 1/2 cup soda.
It is very cheap and nontoxic and will not hurt the environment, but you might
want to keep it off your skin as it is drying, sort of alike a very mild form
of lye. Washing soda is sodium carbonate, will not cause algae to grow, or
hurt most fabrics. (Don't use on wool or silk). Soap is formed when an
alkali (such as lye, potash from wood ashes, or sodium carbonate) splits up
a fat molecule (which consists of glycerol and three fatty acids) into
glycerol and three sodium-plus-fatty acids, one end of which is soluble in
water, and the other in fat.
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rcurl
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response 42 of 54:
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Jan 12 08:08 UTC 1998 |
There is no effect of magnetism on the crystallization of calcium carbonate
and iron ions (ferric or ferrous) are not magnetic and, if they were, that
would have no affect upon calcium carbonate precipitation. These
"explanations" are all hand-waving and pseudo science.
However keesan is correct in describing sodium carbonate, soaps and fatty
acids, etc. Sodium carbonate is often a component of detergents (as sold
in the box, these are all mixtures), though its function is primarily to
precipitate calcium carbonate and bulk out the product. The detergents
do the actual grease removal.
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keesan
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response 43 of 54:
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Jan 12 16:47 UTC 1998 |
Magnetite is magnetic. Sodium carbonate reacts with fats to form soap, which
is a detergent, as well as serving as a water softener. That is why is dries
out your skin, it removes the fats by converting them to soap.
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rcurl
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response 44 of 54:
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Jan 12 21:10 UTC 1998 |
Magnetite is not in solution as ions. It is a solid and would have no
affect upon calcium carbonate precipitation.
There is a technical distinction between soaps and detergents. The former
are all alkali metal salts of fatty acids, while the latter are not, but
any of a very large variety of (mostly synthetic) substances that have
hydrophilic and hydrophobic sections of their molecules.
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keesan
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response 45 of 54:
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Jan 12 22:43 UTC 1998 |
We will ask our friend who owns the laundry 'crystals' to see if they are
magnetic.
While looking on the Internet for a combination washer-dryer I found Nadior
Corp., Ltd., British, which is developing technology for a microwave dryer
and an ultrasonic washer, which they plan eventually to combine as one unit.
I am sorry, I could not find anything on magnet-type water softeners on the
Internet. Ultrasonic washers are used in hospitals, don't know what they look
like or do.
I wonder if the 'crystals' are just sodium carbonate? Or perhaps concentrated
detergent? You really need very little to get laundry clean, we use a pinch
of the actual detergent (no additives) plus some water softener, so maybe they
are just selling you $50 worth of detergent. Who knows.
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keesan
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response 46 of 54:
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Jan 12 23:49 UTC 1998 |
Rane, I would be interested to see your book on Synthetic Detergents. I had
done some research before we bought our 50 gal drum of sodium alkylbenzene
sulfonate (a synthetic detergent). Shampoos are sodium alpha olefin sulfonate
or sodium lauryl sulfate. (The latter turns to a gel at our winter room
temperature). MacMillan Dictionary defines detergent as any cleansing agent,
esp. one made synthetically and resemblling soap in its cleansing action but
not in its chemical composition. Soap has a -COO- group at the end of the
long straight-chain hydrocarbon, wherease the synthetic detergents (note that
soap is a natural detergent) have -SOO3-, which makes them work better in hard
water. (Can you tell us why?) The benzyl group I think adds to the charge
on the SOO3-, making it more polar, so that the benzenesulfonate detergents
are stronger, and therefore not used on skin or hair but on clothing and
dishes. They will work if you like dry hair and skin.
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rcurl
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response 47 of 54:
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Jan 13 07:44 UTC 1998 |
I will post the reference when I'm in my office.
"Detergent" is used non-technically for almost any cleaning agent, but as
you found, it refers "esp. one made synthetically".
The alkaline earth (calcium and magnesium in particularly) salts of fatty
acids are insoluble in water, requiring softening agents in soap mixtures.
The alkaline earth salts of sulfonates, and other ionic detergent radicals,
are soluble. There are also non-ionic detergents, which are more expensive,
but work at any pH (soaps, sulfonates and similar ionic detergents will
usually not work in acid solutions).
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orinoco
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response 48 of 54:
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Jan 20 04:32 UTC 1998 |
<wonders what a microwave drier would do when confronted with zippers>
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i
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response 49 of 54:
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Jan 21 00:41 UTC 1998 |
Zippers probably wouldn't matter. (Though i'd suggest leaving them
unzipped.) An underwire bra could easily catch fire, though.
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