Posted on 05/11/2011 6:31:29 AM PDT by Free Vulcan
I'm old enough to have a vague memory of clothes so white that they were called bright. This happened despite the absence of additives — the ridiculous varieties of sprays and bottles and packets that festoon our cabinets today and that we throw into the wash to try to boost the cleaning power of our pathetic machines and increasingly useless laundry soap.
Then, the other night, I experienced an amazing blast from the past. I added a quarter cup of trisodium phosphate (TSP) and otherwise "treated" nothing. The results were nothing short of mind-boggling. Everything was clean — clean in a way that I recall from childhood.
Next came my confrontation with the local dry cleaner, which I've used for years. I explained what happened and how puzzling it is that by using TSP I was able to clean my clothes more thoroughly and perfectly than his commercial service.
He was not shocked. He completely agreed, though sheepishly.
I pointed out that TSP, which is a natural element, is amazing not because it cleans — it needs soap to do its thing — but rather because it rinses, whooshing away all dirt, oil, stains, as well as all leftover detergent. Bleach whitens but it ruins fabrics, and that's not good. What is needed is a good rinsing agent that leaves clothes not only perfectly clean but also smelling fantastic. TSP does it, and that's why it has long been an essential ingredient in laundry soap.
Once again, he agreed.
Does he use it? No. And why not?
It is not "commercially viable," he said.
How can this be? It is not expensive. It is freely available at the hardware store in the paint section. If something works, the laundry service pleases its customers more. That means more business and higher profits. Isn't the goal to clean clothes well and do a good job for customers?
Yes, true, he said, but, again, TSP is not "commercially viable." He politely deferred all further questions to the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute, whose website provides no information at all to nonmembers. However, the Laundry Institute did answer my email:
It is true that trisodium phosphate produces cleaner laundry.
I occassionally post my TSP discovery here. Last September is when the phosphates were removed from all major brand dish soaps. For almost ten years, it had been banned in several states...and the makers of the soaps were tired of ‘boutique’ blends for different states. Seems they colluded a little; but, they agreed to a common stopping point last September.
I have very hard water; and, the difference was very noticeable. In addition to hard spots, the dishes seemed to have a film all over them. Research online led me to TSP (and also a bit of trivia about how dishwasher sales had spiked).
The TSP is very effective in my dishwasher. I am still on my first box (this stuff is very cheap and one box will probably last a year), which I got at Home Depot. You have to be careful, though. My understanding is that some states have actually banned TSP...and there is a ‘substitute’ on the market. The substitute is called ‘TSP’....make sure somewhere on the box is ‘Trisodium Phosphate’.
As a side note...you can also find phosphates in that giant mountain of bagged fertilizer in front of the Home Depot. If the phosphates in our laundry and dishwashers is causing problems, how long before plain old fertilizer becomes a controlled substance?
i am so relieved to have found this article. I’ve been getting more and more frustrated with my laundry and the dish soap is horrible. I’m wasting so much of it because it takes a ton to do what a tiny daub used to do.
I found it online and am angry and shocked at how cheap it is. This crap *WORKED*!!
I’m buying a case.
In 1996, top-loaders were pretty much the only type of washer around, and they were uniformly high quality. When Consumer Reports tested 18 models, 13 were "excellent" and five were "very good." By 2007, though, not one was excellent and seven out of 21 were "fair" or "poor." This month came the death knell: Consumer Reports simply dismissed all conventional top-loaders as "often mediocre or worse."
How's that for progress?
The culprit is the federal government's obsession with energy efficiency. Efficiency standards for washing machines aren't as well-known as those for light bulbs, which will effectively prohibit 100-watt incandescent bulbs next year. Nor are they the butt of jokes as low-flow toilets are. But in their quiet destruction of a highly affordable, perfectly satisfactory appliance, washer standards demonstrate the harmfulness of the ever-growing body of efficiency mandates.
The federal government first issued energy standards for washers in the early 1990s. When the Department of Energy ratcheted them up a decade later, it was the beginning of the end for top-loaders. Their costlier and harder-to-use rivals—front-loading washing machines—were poised to dominate.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704662604576202212717670514.html?KEYWORDS=washing+machines
“Consumer Reports will no longer rate top loading washing machines because with the current energy and water standards they no longer work period”
After a few years with a front load washing machine I realized I had been had. It uses less soap, but doesn’t get clothes as clean. Once while hanging clothes out on the line, I saw big dry spots on a sweatshirt...I hadn’t put too many clothes in that load. I miss having a top loader.
I’ve purchased true trisodium phosphate at Lowe’s(they only had TSP-PF at Menards) and I’ve purchased sodium tripolyphosphate online for 4.04 a pound. Even with shipping, it only came to 10.24.
“It is not cheap”
Googled it online, 1 pound for 3$ average price. (Welcote)
That’s cheap in my book!
I think the last time I bought it, I bought it at either Home Depot or Lowe’s.
I just bought a 4.5 pound box at Lowes for $9.88.
bump
Thanks, I gotta go to Lowe’s this weekend anyway and I’ll look for it.
Great post!!! (Will TSP make my hair shiny and bouncy again?)
I know that is true because I constantly have to put an additive in my pool water that makes the phosphates settle to the bottom. If fogger truck for the city comes around spraying for mosquitoes, it only takes about two days before my pool turns green if I don't treat the pool for phosphate.
The front loaders are a pain in the neck. They don’t get the clothes clean and I think they are very hard on the fabric. If you forget to put in one item you can’t open the door to throw it in. Worst of all it seems it doesn’t get the soap out. Even in the final rinse there are soap bubbles. I’d rather have an old wringer type from 80 years ago!
OK.., but you still have to flush twice!)
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Tax-chick, I do laundry using less detergent - I use detergent without any fragrances (shudder) - and add a small scoop of borax, and then add about 1/4 or 1/3 cup white vinegar to the rinse, especially for things like towels.
Also for all kitchen towels and dish cloths - I don’t use sponges - and washcloths (you wouldn’t believe how many of those I go through) I soak in hot water and Sun cleaner - the cheapie generic Oxyclean, in very hot water, until it’s cooled to lukewarm, about 4 hours.
I don’t know if I’d use TSP because we have a well and septic and some things get in the ground water.
Hanging clothes up makes them smell nice, too.
bm
Do you add it along with the soap, or introduce it during the rinse cycle?
Is TSP edible? I mean it seems, from everyone here, that it is the ultimate product! The answer to mankinds problems! All hail TSP.
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