Wash & fold detergents, soaps, etc.

[benscheidt]

Please tell me what are the best laundry soaps, detergents, bleaches etc... to use for Wash & fold. I've been told to use an alkalai and a sour, or just use P&G products. I'm not sure what is the best & I want my wash & fold laundry to look better than anything that Mrs. John Doe or her cleaning lady can use at home. Any other special touches that you might use, please share. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Susan

[ewr1]

We use Surf, Clorox, Snuggle, Clorox 2, Wisk, etc.

[PeterH]

I try to avoid Tide. I have had a number of people tell me they are allergic to Tide, so as a rule, I avoid P&G products. Lever products are very good, usually at a more resonable price.

-ph

[TKLaundry]

Actually we use Tide with bleach. We ALWAYS ask each new customer if they have an allergy to Tide both on the form they fill out and by verbally asking if they have any allegy to Tide. We only have one drop off customer who is allergic and in her case we use Wisk. I tried one of those detergents that my soap supplier sells for Wash Dry & Fold and I found we used a lot more and the clothes didn't come out as clean looking.

Dave

[TKLaundry]

Oh Susan I forgot, we use Clorox 2 on the lights or whites when there are colors involved, straight bleach when the whites don't have any color. Depending on the time of day and what day of the week and how soiled the clothes are we have been known to soak the whites for from a half hour to up to 2 hours (again if time and machine availablity permit) in order to get the whites looking good again. Obviously on weekends we don't soak anything while mid week during the day we are more apt to soak longer if needed.

Dave

[ndennis]

Hi This is FYI. If you are using the normal coin-op machines this info is not of much help. If you have machines that are card programable and or microprossers, Using peroxide bleach at 60-65 degrees C will do wonders for your whites. Peroxide bleach is a very safe bleach on colours. I have washed football jumpers, dark cloroured shirts and once a month i wash about 70 black 10 foot trestle cloths using peroxide. I use it when washing feather duvats, jackets and sleeping bags. NOTE USE no more than 1/4 of a cup of peroxide. The peroxide should be technical grade 50% ww in water.
Hope this is of some use and help.

[LEEHUSTON]

Peroxide is an excellent bleach, but how do you handle it, in 55 gallon drums? Who do you buy it from. As for detergents their are some great products available from institutional detergent manufacturers such as UNX chemical or Ecolab or WSI. These people make institutional professional detergents that wash beter than most store brands and usually cost less. I use and excellent detergent called TAME from UNX and a very heavy duty detergent called LT SPECcial from the dame company that we use on only heavily soiled uniforms and work clothes. Sams is not the only place to get the best stuff, dry a detergent distributor if you can get one to service you.

[LEEHUSTON]

Seeing alot of suds is not an indicator of whether a detergent is good or not. Most professional detergents are low sudsing for good reason. Store brand detergent companies put alot of suds in to make people feel good. That is why people are always oversudsing the machines in the laundromat! People tend to use too much of the distributor detergents because they try to add enough to get suds like they see with Tide and other brands. But the proof is in the cleaning, if you don't see cleaner results or the same results for less money then there is no reason to change.

[ndennis]

Lee I have been saying for many years in posts here and elsewhere that the use of commercial grade chemicals is cheaper in the long run and better results are obtained. I will try and put a detailed explanation on how and what chemicals I use within the next few days. Us poor old guys do not always function as well as the young'n's, and takes twice as long to do half as much.