Why I Now Buy Laundry Detergent

We used for years homemade laundry "detergent". I thought I was saving us so much money.

In theory I was.

But our clothes were not "clean".

I didn't learn why, or more precisely how, until a few months ago.

Before Mr. Z was born I decided to cloth diaper, and while I was searching for a eco friendly detergent I found this.

And some pins on Pintrest on how to make cloth diaper "detergent".

Now, I am not a chemist, and I hated my chemistry classes, (except Thermodynamics and P-Chem, but I am just crazy).When on one of the cloth diaper facebook groups I am in, they were being very adamant that Rockin’ Green and other “Cloth diaper safe detergents” were just a bunch of water softeners and were not actually cleaning the diapers. I needed to do some research of my own.

The group had an article that one of the admins had written about the differences between soap and detergent. It got me thinking, and led us to switch cloth diaper detergents and our regular laundry detergent.

Now, I feel the need to let the world know that sometimes store bought is just better.

First, we will start with a basic property of water - surface tension.

The way the water molecules bond with one another, creates tension. I am sure you have noticed a bead of water on a hard surface. That bead is created because the water molecules have a greater attraction to each other than to the other surface. The tendency for the water is to stick together and not bind or mix with other objects (think of a water skipper "floating" on water) is called surface tension and is caused by the forces of cohesion.

To clean, we need to make the water “beads” spread out, or become “wetter”. (Wetting is a chemistry term that basically means to reduce the surface tension). Reducing the surface tension of the water allows for it to interact better with the cleaning agent.

Here is where the difference between soap and detergent is important.

Soaps are salts of fatty acids, usually made from animal or vegetable fats. Detergents are chemically engineered surfactants, which were developed due to a lack of vegetable and animal fats during WWI and WWII. A surfactant changes the way water molecules interact with each other, reducing the surface tension and causing the water to more easily interact with other particles.

The chemical structure of soaps makes them easily affected by the mineral content of the water. In hard water, the interaction of the salts of fatty acids (soap) with the minerals create insoluble compounds - soap scum. This same interaction is what causes, after multiple washings, ‘detergent build up’. Detergent build up is really soap scum on your clothes, towels, and cloth diapers! ( On cloth diapers it causes a whole world of problems.)

Detergents are very similar to soaps, both are surfactants. The difference with detergent is that it is less likely to interact with the mineral content of your water, and therefore less likely to form soap scum.

Let’s look at what is in homemade laundry soap; Borax, Washing Soda, Oxi Clean, Fels Naptha.

Borax is Sodium Tetraborate, and is advertised as a water softener.

Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate, and is advertised as a detergent booster. Upon further research, it is also a water softener, as it reacts with the minerals in hard water, to help prevent the “detergent” from bonding and creating soap scum.

Oxi Clean is an oxygen based cleaner and stain fighter.

Fels Naptha is a stain fighter, but also the main ingredient is SOAP.

So, water softeners and stain fighters and soap. In theory it would work great to clean laundry, but when you only use a TABLESPOON of “detergent” it isn’t going to do anything. Maybe using a  normal about of homemade detergent would work, but then you are taking your dirt cheap “detergent” and making cost more equivalent to store bought.

Here are some numbers for you:

According to my previous post on homemade detergent, it cost $35.66 to make a batch for approximately 960 loads, which is about 4 cents a load. If we increase the amount of detergent to a normal store bought detergent level ( level 2 on a common scoop) it is about equal to 8 tablespoons. That takes our 960 load detergent down to 120 loads, and the cost up to almost 30 cents a load! Which is very close to the cost per load of store bought detergents. (Here is a list of some common detergents and prices)

Now, you might say, “Well it has been working on my clothes just fine. I don’t understand the big deal.”

The ‘Big Deal’ comes down to absorbancy. The average person doesn’t need their clothes do be doing much absorbing. But to those of us who cloth diaper, absorbency is HUGE!

I am going to run a little experiment for you. I have some cloth diapers we are not using right now, and I am going to take half and wash them 100 times with my homemade detergent. The other half I will wash 100 times with our regular laundry detergent (just the detergent no additives). Then we will use them to clean up a controlled amount of liquid, and we will see how the absorbency is different. I am hypothesizing that there will be a noticeable difference.

I hope this helps someone to understand the differences and why maybe you should just buy detergent.

If you are looking for a great more in depth explanation between the differences, go here.

Sources:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/cleanerchemistry/a/how-soap-cleans.htm

http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingswork/f/detergentfaq.htm

http://www.cleaninginstitute.org/clean_living/soaps__detergents_chemistry.aspx

http://www.20muleteamlaundry.com/about/what-is-borax/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax#As_a_water-softening_agent

http://www.armandhammer.com/fabric-care/laundry-boosters/Products/arm-and-hammer-super-washing-soda-detergent-booster.aspx

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

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

http://www.oxiclean.com/in-wash/landing.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fels-Naptha

http://www.purex.com/products/laundry-enhancers/fels-naptha