liquid laundry soap.

Hi everyone.

I need your advice.

I'd like to try making some liquid laundry soap. I'd like to use butcher shop fat as the soap feedstock because from what I've read, it makes good soap & also because it recycles the waste fat. I know that some folks resent soap being made from animal byproducts, but I figure that since I can't stop people from eating meat, at least I can do my part to reduce waste by recycling.

If I use potassium hydroxide to make soap, will it still turn out liquid even though I'm using lard & chicken fat etc?

Also, is there anything I can add to the finished liquid laundry soap to preserve it from going rotten? I wouldn't want the last quart of a gallon of liquid soap to be full of bacteria & algae etc after sitting in my laundry area for a month or so.

Any advice at all here?

Does anyone make liquid laundry soap here?

If you do a search, you will find a lot of information here on laundry soap, both liquid and powder. Rather than using potassium chloride, would grate down their bars of soap, add water and melt, add borax, washing soda, water with a lot of stirring. There is quite a bit of info if you search for it. People do use lard because it is so inexpensive, so your idea with butcher shop fat would be fine.

Yes, I also heard about people grating hard bars of sodium reacted soap then adding borax & washing soda, but I also read that the ingredients can eventually start to seperate and great a gloppy mess after sitting around for a while.

Since I wouldn't want to make fresh soap every week, it would be nice to have a recipe that made a months worth of soap that didn't seperate.

I'd like to make something near professional quality, so the idea of having a jug or bucket of liquid or gel laundry soap seperate & turn gloppy & slimy isn't very appealing.

The thread I read about that was about making liquid soap, and I don't think it was specifically about laundry soap, so perhaps after the borax & soda were added, they might keep the sodium soap uniformly dissolved in the water base.

I have done some research in the archives here, but does anyone here know more about this topic and the related sub issues mentioned?

For example, does anyone here know if liquid laundry soap needs any sort of preservative to stay fresh? I wouldn't want to wash my clothes & bedding with bacteria laden soap that had rotted in the bucket it was kept in.

Any more advice?

Nobody else has any advice on making liquid laundry soap?

For example, does anyone here know if liquid laundry soap needs any sort of preservative to stay fresh? I wouldn't want to wash my clothes & bedding with bacteria laden soap that had rotted in the bucket it was kept in.

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This is just my opinion but I would think anything that has a lot of water added could use a preservative.

Welder what about making a dry laundry soap? Grate the hard soap and then add Borax & washing soda? Just a thought...

As I said in the other thread, I'm as rookie as they come, so take my opinion for what it may be worth...
For what I've read, NaOH (sodium hydroxide-lye) will always make solid soap, regardless of the fat you're using (some harder than others, of course, but all solid, unless you go crazy with the water), and KOH (potassium hydroxide) will always make liquid soap.
You can make liquid soap by grating solid soap and mixing it with water. It will clean as good as your solid soap, but i's consistency will be somewhat less than pleasant, kinda mucus like.

As for the use of preservatives, I won't go as far as to say you don't need them, but I've used the liquid soap for about 3 months, and I've never noticed anything that'd suggest the growth of any kind of bacteria.

Inodoro Pereyra said:

You can make liquid soap by grating solid soap and mixing it with water. It will clean as good as your solid soap, but i's consistency will be somewhat less than pleasant, kinda mucus like.

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Yes, I've seen the recipes, but I don't really want to do that.

I would like to develop a more professional quality product, rather than simply getting by with a snotty,slimy soap.

I figure that proper quality is just a few test batches away. Starting off with shredded bars of hard soap won't give me consistant results.

You aren't the first guy to warn me of the poor texture. I'll just have to work out a proper KOH recipe, that's all.

I make the laundry soap with grated bar soap and borax and such. The stuff works great and is dirt cheap to make. I make it for family members so sometimes I have made a lot of it at one time. I have never seen any sign of it going bad. Every now and then I will shake the jug a little before using, not because it needs it just force of habit. I really don't think it could go bad with the borax in there, at least not very quick.

Bruce

I also make the laundry soap with the borax, washing soda, and fels-naptha soap. Even if it is gloppy, it still works. If you stir it every 15 minutes or so as it cools it does not get gloppy. I don't consider this just "getting by". It makes a good product that lasts and does not go bad or need a preservative. I believe that is what you asked for.

I figure that proper quality is just a few test batches away.

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I agree. And I would think, based on what I read, that KOH is the way to go.
Just keep us posted...

Pug Mom said:

I also make the laundry soap with the borax, washing soda, and fels-naptha soap. Even if it is gloppy, it still works. If you stir it every 15 minutes or so as it cools it does not get gloppy. I don't consider this just "getting by". It makes a good product that lasts and does not go bad or need a preservative. I believe that is what you asked for.

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Mom, I'm sorry if I offended you with mentioning the "gloppyness" of liquid soap made by dissolving bars soap in water. I wasn't trying to insult anyone who has resorted to this either. My apologies if I came off rudely.

I am a widows' son & have resorted to lesser means most of my life, so I'm certainly no better than anyone else.

As a relative newbie, I've never tried liquid soapmaking & have only made 3 batches of hard soap so far.

I believe you & others here that YOUR recipe gave you good results, but I also believe other folks' reports of "gloppy/slimy" results too. This is because as a biofuels student, I've noticed that two different recognised experts can get very different results using relatively similar techniques due to subtle, but significant factors, each influencing results in a particular way.

I want to try reacting KOH liquid soap, then adding borax & soda for laundry application.

I may eventually try diluting hard bars of CP soap for use as laundry soap, as I think that perhaps the soda & borax may not only preserve the freshness of the final product, but also help even out the texture somewhat as well. Basically, since I am unsure of whether the "gloppy" liquified bar soap had borax & soda added or not, I can't assume that the texture would be the same.

I actually hope that when borax & soda are added to shredded & diluted CP bar soap the product will retain even textural consistancy & long shelf life as I personally found CP reaction to be MUCH easier than HP.

HP was definately faster, but then car accidents & robberies are fast too, right?...

I cna see where you are coming from. I live in a hard water area and I didn't really feel like making liquid laundry detergent.

I am sticking to the dry mixture, although I am a bit worried about my washing machine developing lime scale issues (commercial powder contains water softeners which squirrel the calcium and magnesium away). I might look into getting the chemical that they use before I start on this journey.

For your laundry soap - why don't you just adjust a normal liquid soap recipe ? Make it as per recipe, no superfatting and add Borax and Washing Soda to the mix ? At leats you don't have to worry about it being clear, it should make no difference if it is milky or has an odd colour.

madpiano said:

I cna see where you are coming from. I live in a hard water area and I didn't really feel like making liquid laundry detergent.

I am sticking to the dry mixture, although I am a bit worried about my washing machine developing lime scale issues (commercial powder contains water softeners which squirrel the calcium and magnesium away). I might look into getting the chemical that they use before I start on this journey.

For your laundry soap - why don't you just adjust a normal liquid soap recipe ? Make it as per recipe, no superfatting and add Borax and Washing Soda to the mix ? At leats you don't have to worry about it being clear, it should make no difference if it is milky or has an odd colour.

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Exellent input, MP!

The hard water thing is exactly the kind of subtle difference that's often overlooked by one soaper who gets different results using the same recipe that another soaper uses. Other small different details may also give odd results.

The water softener is real interesting idea. I'm not enough of a chemist to know the answer to this, but aren't borax & soda going to soften the water?


Regarding making liquid soap for laundry use, that's exactly my plan, but I'll also eventually get around to reacting a batch of CP bar soap & grating it, then diluting it in water, so I can have a scientifically sound reference point to compare cleansing power, appearance, long-term texture stability & resistance to microbial breakdown. I suspect that the borax & soda added to both liquid laundry soap bases will protect both products from microbes.

Thanx!

The water softener is real interesting idea. I'm not enough of a chemist to know the answer to this, but aren't borax & soda going to soften the water?

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yes, Borax will, but it's not the same thing and I am not sure how fast it works. I have had my washing machine for 10 years in a hard water area (speak liquid rock, not tap water) and no issues, never used those Calgon Tablets.

Washing Powder contains Zeolites, which are a natural water softener. You can get zeolites at aquarium shops, but they are for ammonia removal. I haven't found a place yet which does the other ones.

If you have hard water, you shouldn't use commercial liquid detergent. They don't have zeolites in them, some use phosphates and tensides to soften the water which are both bad for the environment.

madpiano said:

Washing Powder contains Zeolites, which are a natural water softener. You can get zeolites at aquarium shops, but they are for ammonia removal. I haven't found a place yet which does the other ones.

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I wonder how well zeolites would stay evenly suspened in liquid laundry soap?

I guess that may depend on how the specific gravity of the liquid compares to the density of the zeolite. I bet that liquid soap viscosity may also influence zeolite suspention. Maybe even the issue of how finely the zeolite was ground into powder may also influence how long it stays suspended.

Simply put, the heavier the liquid soap & the ticker its' viscosity & the smaller the zeolite powder, the longer & more evenly the zeolite will stay suspended. (I think)

Sound right?

madpiano said:

If you have hard water, you shouldn't use commercial liquid detergent. They don't have zeolites in them, some use phosphates and tensides to soften the water which are both bad for the environment.

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That's an interesting point too.

I wonder how many areas in the world have hard water, but also use detergent dosed with either phosphates or tensides?

I doubt that many people living in hard water areas are even aware of that issue, let alone make their own phosphate/tenside free laundry detergent...

Oh well...

welder said:

madpiano said:

Washing Powder contains Zeolites, which are a natural water softener. You can get zeolites at aquarium shops, but they are for ammonia removal. I haven't found a place yet which does the other ones.

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I wonder how well zeolites would stay evenly suspened in liquid laundry soap?

I guess that may depend on how the specific gravity of the liquid compares to the density of the zeolite. I bet that liquid soap viscosity may also influence zeolite suspention. Maybe even the issue of how finely the zeolite was ground into powder may also influence how long it stays suspended.

Simply put, the heavier the liquid soap & the ticker its' viscosity & the smaller the zeolite powder, the longer & more evenly the zeolite will stay suspended. (I think)

Sound right?

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they don't stay suspended, which is the reason the detergent makers don't use them in Liquid Detergent.

I was going to make soap powder and add them to that, once I can find them

Here in the USA, phosphates are now outlawed for detergent use. You can get them in some detergents imported from Mexico.

They're bad for the environement in warm areas with large bodies of water. Improperly processed, they contribute to algae growth and will choke a lake or stream. In cooler areas, they're not much of an issue. They're edible, and are used in agriculture as GREAT fertilizer (hence the algae).

If you're going to use liquid soap in hard water, I would suggest getting some White King Water Softener (it's a mixture of washing soda and sodium tripolyphosphate) and dissolving that in the water before adding your soap. That way the hardness will be suspended and there will be no scum.

If you want to forego phosphates altogether (I usually do), you can add some Arm & Hammer Washing Soda to the water and dissolve before your soap. The key here is BEFORE.....if the soap reacts with the minerals, you get scum and buildup.

You also might want to add a 1/4 - 1/2 cup white vinegar to your rinse water to rinse away the last of the soap. Another advantage.....it helps soften the clothes and release the wrinkles for line dried stuff.

Mike, how do I do that for an automatic washing machine ?

I am not so worried about scum build-up, thats easily solved with vinegar. I am worried about limescale deposits on the heating elements and other parts of the machine. Thats why I am trying to source the watersoftener to mix with the powder. I am adding Borax and Washing Soda anyway.