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I was curious, and found the ingredients for a 1992 bar of zest from an eBay photo. It was a mix of soap with the detergent sodium cocoglyceryl ether sulfonate
by jcampbell1 4y ago
I was curious, and found the ingredients for a 1992 bar of zest from an eBay photo. It was a mix of soap with the detergent sodium cocoglyceryl ether sulfonate. The current recipe is all soap but they added a couple of chelating agents: Pentasodium Pentetate, and Tetrasodium Etidronate. The problem with the new recipe is these chelating agents suck. The only thing that can jail Mg/Ca2+ faster than soap scum forms is sodium triphosphate, but that is no longer allowed and doesn’t belong in bar soap. It makes no sense that they changed the recipe.
Detergent products have gotten so bad that I have started mixing my own. I add STP to laundry and dishwasher powder and I never rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. They come out sparkling. The whole phosphate thing is overblown. Phosphates promote algae growth, but the algae also breaks down loads of other contaminants. The problem can be mitigated with a simple fountain in the discharge pond.
Removal of STP from everything is great for plumbers as pipes are now all lined with sticky soap scum which means periodic snaking.
- WalterBright 4y agoWhat is STP?
- jcampbell1 4y agoSodium triphosphate. It surrounds the Mg/Ca ions so they can’t transform the soap to soap scum which makes glasses cloudy and wastes soap.
- WalterBright 4y agothank you. I'm glad it isn't the STP you add to your oil-burning engine. P.S. Do you mean sodium tripolyphosphate?
- selimthegrim 4y agoYes they are the same.
- WalterBright 4y agothanks! I ordered some, am going to try it out.
- exmadscientist 4y agoThere are a few industrial detergents which haven't been reformulated (or at least not noticeably). Alcojet [0] does a fantastic job in the dishwasher... but I don't recommend it in the laundry. Turns out modern dyes are colorfast against a lot of things, but not this stuff! It is rather expensive, but for irregular use (machine-cleaning or special-stain problems), that's not an issue. And, yes, it's loaded with trisodium phosphate. [0]: https://www.alconox.com/product/alcojet/ https://www.alconox.com/product/alcojet/
- selimthegrim 4y agoTSP (Na3P) is a different, very harsh cleaning product
- jcampbell1 4y agoAlcojet has bleach. Adding phosphates to dishwasher powder ends up at the same place except my generic Target powder has sodium percarbonate (oxyclean) instead of chlorine. Alcojet uses a shit ton of STPP, MSDS says 25-41% by weight. I have been mixing closer to 10%. Also Alcojet is STPP not TSP. TSP is as alkaline as lye.
- Zircom 4y agoWhere do you buy the STP?
- jcampbell1 4y agoAmazon https://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Tripolyphosphate-Super-Cleans-Grade/dp/B01JDX5ASQ/ https://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Tripolyphosphate-Super-Cleans-... I did some research and it has benefits from as little a 2%, and the top performers use 35%. Not only does it chelate hard water, it effectively turns any oil on your dishes into soap.