soap scum in shower

[robtr31]

Daughter told me she has soap scum in shower not big time but it's there more then before, and before I could say any thing , we can deal with it because we like the soap so much.

I super fat at 6% measure in grams . do u think its super fat or nature of the beast , I use coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, caster oil in my soap 1 and in other I add some lard , and use soap calculator

my thinking with soap scum maybe I need to lower super fat some , soap is basically a wash product correct me if i'm wrong .

any suggestion more than welcome

thanks rob

 

[mel z]

No need to lower your superfat. You will still be using soap. Soap makes soap scum.

Just have to clean it once a week and all is well.

If going for all natural cleaning, a little baking soda and vinegar mix will clean darned near anything away, including soap scum.

 

[savonierre]

Soap scum seems to be worse on plastic tubs and showers, if you clean it well and wipe it down after every use, that should take care of the problem..

 

[DeeAnna]

Soap scum is the insoluble soap compounds that are created when a sodium soap reacts with magnesium or calcium in your water to make a calcium or magnesium soap. Softened water has less calcium and magnesium, so you'll get less soap scum with soft water. The cure is to clean regularly as others have advised, go for softer water, if that is an option, or (heresy!) use a detergent based cleaning product.

 

[AngelMomma]

I struggle with soap scum in our shower as well. I'm just glad its a smooth shower/tub and not tile with grout......that would be awful. Just a few days ago I had the kids try straight Borax as a paste by just putting some on a slightly damp cloth. Its almost a dry cleaning process. I was surprised at how good it worked. And you know kids. If its not easy its not happening when it comes to chores......at least my kids anyway. Hahaha!!!

 

[lsg]

Here is my absolute favorite soft scrub recipe. I use it for the bathroom and the kitchen.

1/4 cup borax
½ cup baking soda
½ cup washing soda
½ cup liquid soap
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
30 drops tea tree EO
15 drops lemon EO
15 drops peppermint EO

Mix together dry ingredients. Mix together liquid soap and e.o.s, the add white vinegar and mix well. Add liquids to dry ingredients and stir. Store in covered container.

 

[mel z]

OOOH, I'm trying lsg's recipe for cleaning. That will clean anything I bet, and smell good too, while being antibacterial! Lovely aroma cleaning, yes, that will make it fun.

 

[AngelMomma]

I'm going to use that too! Thanks. I have seen something like that before but forgot to bookmark it. I just don't like using those strong smelling cleaners much anymore. They really make my head hurt even with putting the vent fan on in the bathroom on from before I start using them.

 

[judymoody]

Here's my favorite soap scum buster:

1 part vinegar to two parts Dawn (or generic equivalent) dish detergent in a spray bottle. Works great.

 

[lsg]

I can't take credit for the original formula which came from the "Crunchy Betty" Blog. The name of the original formual is "The Best Homemade Bathroom Cleaner Ever." I added the Borax which makes it work even better for me. By the way, I love this site:

http://www.crunchybetty.com/the-best-homemade-bathroom-cleaner-ever

 

[Candybee]

You can also use just baking soda and water. Simple. Leaves a clean scent without a 'scent' smell.

 

[AngelMomma]

I can't take credit for the original formula which came from the "Crunchy Betty" Blog. The name of the original formual is "The Best Homemade Bathroom Cleaner Ever." I added the Borax which makes it work even better for me. By the way, I love this site:

http://www.crunchybetty.com/the-best-homemade-bathroom-cleaner-ever

I LOVE crunchy betty!!!

 

[robtr31]

thanks for all the replies and will pass on the recipe for the absolute favorite soft scrub for cleaning the tub , better yet when I visit next i'll make 2 batches and giver one, they didn't mind the scum as much as they didn't want hurt my feeling and not get anymore soap ,i just laught:lolno:
thanks all
rob

 

[Robert]

Daughter told me she has soap scum in shower not big time but it's there more then before, and before I could say any thing , we can deal with it because we like the soap so much.

I super fat at 6% measure in grams . do u think its super fat or nature of the beast , I use coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, caster oil in my soap 1 and in other I add some lard , and use soap calculator

my thinking with soap scum maybe I need to lower super fat some , soap is basically a wash product correct me if i'm wrong .

Are you saying she got more scum after she started using a particular soap, and that she didn't get as much scum previously? If so, then let's figure out why. What soap was she using before?

It is conceivable that superfatting contributes to scum. I've even observed that oilier skin leads to more scum. The scum is produced mostly by lime soap, but it can also entrain other fatty materials. If the soap is weaker than was being used before, leading people to use more of it to do the same amount of washing, they'll produce more scum. If they just plain like the soap more, they may use more and produce more scum; consider that a success!

 

[Robert]

Here is my absolute favorite soft scrub recipe. I use it for the bathroom and the kitchen.

1/4 cup borax
½ cup baking soda
½ cup washing soda
½ cup liquid soap
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
30 drops tea tree EO
15 drops lemon EO
15 drops peppermint EO

Mix together dry ingredients. Mix together liquid soap and e.o.s, the add white vinegar and mix well. Add liquids to dry ingredients and stir. Store in covered container.

It'd work better if you left out the vinegar. Alternatively you could make an acid-style cleaner based on vinegar and leaving out the alkali.

The only value to vinegar in a mixture with baking soda etc. would be if you mixed it on the spot to generate fizz.

 

[lsg]

Robert, I have used this formula quite successfully for a long time. I have experimented with it and tweaked it, so I know it works whether it agrees with a chemical theory or not. As I stated before, we would love to have you come up with some formulas that we can test, instead of being told how wrong our ideas and contributions are.

 

[MOGal70]

I have noticed that for me and my hard water, the bars with a higher percentage of hard oils produce more scum than the bars with a small percentage of hard oils. So you might ask her if she notices more scum with one bar over the other, I can see in the sink as I rinse my hands and after a shower by looking for a scum ring around my fingernails.

 

[Robert]

Robert, I have used this formula quite successfully for a long time. I have experimented with it and tweaked it, so I know it works whether it agrees with a chemical theory or not.

Have you tried leaving out the vinegar?

As I stated before, we would love to have you come up with some formulas that we can test, instead of being told how wrong our ideas and contributions are.

OK, here's a simple one for cleaning soap scum: Washing soda, just plain. It's what I've used, although not frequently because the water here is "soft". Usually I add some bleach to the water because I'm cleaning fungus off the tile, not primarily scum, but I'd leave the bleach out if I were cleaning metal. Sodium carbonate or bicarbonate also enhances the antimicrobial effectiveness of hypochlorite bleach.

If you can get sodium hexametaphosphate (sodium polyphosphate glass, soluble), that's even better for soap scum, and nonalkaline so milder to your hands as well. You might be able to pick it up in 25 or 50 lb. bags. However, it frequently comes in slow dissolving crystal form that can scratch up your hands and cloth. They're hard xtals to mill down, too, but if you mill them finely enough (or recrystallize them quickly into small enough xtals) they're great for water "softening" bath salts.

The issue with phosphates in cleaning was feeding algae from the sewage. However, if it's only hobbyists, that won't be enough people doing it to have a meaningful impact on the sewage phosphate content, certainly compared to what goes down the toilet normally. Interestingly enough, no jurisdiction I know of ever banned or limited their use in toiletries such as bath salts, presumably because that was such a minor use. However, Calgon products have little of it these days because of its expense.

 

[ewenique]

My experience has been different. Once we stopped using detergent based body washes and shampoo in the shower, soap scum has been minimal. I had to do a couple major soap scum cleanings after the switch to my homemade soaps only in the shower. Once the soap scum was gone, it really hasn't come back. We have hard water.

 

[Robert]

My experience has been different. Once we stopped using detergent based body washes and shampoo in the shower, soap scum has been minimal. I had to do a couple major soap scum cleanings after the switch to my homemade soaps only in the shower. Once the soap scum was gone, it really hasn't come back. We have hard water.

Were those liquid washes? Or were they solid soap substitutes like Dove, Caress, or Olay? If they were liquids, that's peculiar, but if they were solids there's a good explanation:

Soap-substitute bars frequently use binder-emollients that make up a large part of their contents: paraffin in the case of Olay (although they also make a soap version last I checked), stearic acid in the case of Dove/Caress. This material can plate out on surfaces regardless of how "soft" the water is. It tends to make a "neater" deposit than soap scum does, plating out more evenly and looking like a Simoniz job on the tile, tub, and basin where they catch soap dish runoff, and if it could be coated evenly all around, you might even like the effect, but otherwise it tends to look like a spill/run of wax in those spots.