Laundry soap without borax?
- Thread starter aab1
- Start date
Help Support Soapmaking Forum:
Or you can just buy washing soda. In some countries it's called soda crystals. Or you can buy the less hydrated form (same as you'd get from baking baking soda) as soda ash from a pool maintenance dealer.
I made this recipe today and it turned out great, even made my first washload with it and the clothes smell good even though I didn't use any EO:
http://www.mommypotamus.com/homemade-natural-laundry-detergent-made-easy/
Basically it's 6 cups of washing soda with 15 oz of 100% coconut oil soap superfatted at 1% that you process into a powder in the food processor. I didn't quite end up with as fine a powder as I wanted with the food processor, maybe more time would have helped, but I transferred it into my BlendTec blender (one of the most powerful blenders on the market, search "will it blend" on youtube for crazy videos showing what it can blend) which turned it into fine powder in seconds.
I'll for sure be using this for laundry from now on, and will probably try selling some to. If I end up selling it I'll get the actual washing soda so I don't have to bake baking soda all the time, thanks for letting me know I can get it at pool supply stores. Do any other stores sell it? I'm not sure pool supply stores are open in winter here.
Thanks
http://www.mommypotamus.com/homemade-natural-laundry-detergent-made-easy/
Basically it's 6 cups of washing soda with 15 oz of 100% coconut oil soap superfatted at 1% that you process into a powder in the food processor. I didn't quite end up with as fine a powder as I wanted with the food processor, maybe more time would have helped, but I transferred it into my BlendTec blender (one of the most powerful blenders on the market, search "will it blend" on youtube for crazy videos showing what it can blend) which turned it into fine powder in seconds.
I'll for sure be using this for laundry from now on, and will probably try selling some to. If I end up selling it I'll get the actual washing soda so I don't have to bake baking soda all the time, thanks for letting me know I can get it at pool supply stores. Do any other stores sell it? I'm not sure pool supply stores are open in winter here.
Thanks
Is this even needed? Baking soda is also washing well. Also you have some heat in the washing machine (is it enough to convert?)
I use both borax and washing soda. there's a green living store in Toronto called Grassroots, and they sell that kind of stuff in bulk. You could try to find a store like that in your area. Whole Foods should also have it. maybe look around online and call around to health food stores to see if they carry it.
I've read those articles about borax being toxic, but most people confuse it with boric acid, which is toxic. there are lots of articles out there, but try to avoid ones that lump borax and boric acid as the same thing, because they're not. although, you can make boric acid with borax if it gets mixed with bleach, but I don't use bleach so I don't worry about that.
I found this article to be very helpful regarding borax, but it's your own personal decision whether to use or not.
http://www.crunchybetty.com/getting-to-the-bottom-of-borax-is-it-safe-or-not
I've read those articles about borax being toxic, but most people confuse it with boric acid, which is toxic. there are lots of articles out there, but try to avoid ones that lump borax and boric acid as the same thing, because they're not. although, you can make boric acid with borax if it gets mixed with bleach, but I don't use bleach so I don't worry about that.
I found this article to be very helpful regarding borax, but it's your own personal decision whether to use or not.
http://www.crunchybetty.com/getting-to-the-bottom-of-borax-is-it-safe-or-not
The only way the washing machine would get hot enough to convert bicarbonate to carbonate is if it's one of those machines with heating elements as have been used in the recent past in the UK and some other countries. The reason we know they convert bicarbonate to carbonate (albeit slowly) is that they develop boiler scale.
If you're using baking soda with soap and getting good results, try leaving the baking soda out and I predict you'll get just as good results.
Not unless the bleach is an acid!
Similar threads
