I own a discount grocery store, and a supplier gave me a new product, a super concentrated liquid laundry soap. I am going to use this at my home before I commit to buying a shipment.
This comes in just a normal laundry bottle with the bigger cap, but the issue is, to wash a load with this new soap takes only 1/2 an ounce.
I have a bad feeling that if left the way it currently is, I will come home to a basement filled with soap bubbles, after someone forgets they dont need as much soap. However comical that might be, I want to avoid it.
My question is, could I “cut” the soap, or unconcentrate it. Turning my one gallon of soap into a 55 gallon drum? If so, what would I use to do this?
Water, presumably, since it would dilute in the process of washing anyway.
Or you could use a marker pen on the cap to indicate how much (or how little) is needed for a normal load, or find some container of the right size to use for the purpose.
Why does the container have a bigger cap? Anyway, whatever its size, is there a half-ounce line around the cap? Those laundry bottle caps always have a line on them so you can use them to measure it out, right?
If you dilute the stuff, I think it would be important to use distilled water. If your water has any dissolved minerals in it, that will interact with the detergent and turn it into soap scum before you even get to use it.
(Also, if you dilute it like that a substantially long time before you use it, like cutting the entire gallon into a 55-gallon drum, I would wonder if that will seriously affect the shelf life of the product. IANASC [I Am Not A Soap Chemist.])
There are more of these concentrated products out now. My wife buys tiny containers of deodorant which claim to be as much as a full size container at 2/3 the price. The problem is that she still uses just as much of the concentrated stuff as she did before.
I smell a brilliant marketing ploy: Concentrated means a great saving in shipping cost - no question. But some/many of the buying public will do what my wife does and carry on using it at the same old rate, thus increasing sales. Brilliant…
I suspect he means the cap is the typical one found on liquid laundry detergents. IMO he used “bigger” as a synonym for “oversized”. Almost all caps are 3 or 4x larger than they ought to be if the actual intent was to measure out the product properly rather than to encourage using 4x as much thereby increasing sales.
I just measured my generic mainstream store-brand HE detergent cap. Filled comfortably full but not to the brim it holds 2/3c liquid. The correct dosage for my machine is 2 tbsp = 1/4 capful. Filled all the way to the brim it’s 5x oversized. Compared to some brands this cap is on the small side.
Yes, some manufacturers put an embossed line or two in there someplace. Color me skeptical that too many people don’t fall for the trap and overspend on detergent to the manufacturer’s profit. As detergents have gotten more concentrated and machines have gotten more efficient this packaging situation has gotten way out of whack.
Hardly the greatest crisis facing the American consumer / homemaker, but deceptive packaging is a pet peeve of mine. (Don’t get me started on the 12 (soon to be 10) oz “pound” of coffee! :mad:)
IANA SC either, but I bet the OP will also have to deal with separation if he mixes a big batch that sits for a long time.
OTOH, ref the above, I suspect he needs to dilute it 3-4x. Meaning the typical 1-2 qt container turns into 1-2 gallons of premix.
The manufacturer doesn’t have the product retail ready, by that I mean with this batch they gave to me they just threw it in the containers they had laying around for the normal unconcentrated stuff. I assume when/if they go retail with it, they will have an appropriate bottle and cap.
You could always decant some of it into an empty laundry detergent container and try diluting that portion, rather than doing the whole thing at once. If it works, great, and if not, you haven’t lost much.
Yeah, I see it with dishwashing liquid. They’re all “Ultra” or 3x or something, but in practice, everyone just uses the same size squirt as before. So you end up using more soap in the long run, and getting charged more.
My washer’s soap dispenser is pretty small, much smaller than the cap on my detergent, so no way to overfill. If your washer doesn’t have a dispenser, I suggest you get a measuring cup for the maximum amount you want put in the washer, and explain to all who use the washer that this is the only measure to use.
OTOH, I have one of those irritating greener-than-thou Euro uber-efficient clothes washers. Not exactly my first choice; it came w the house.
The soap dispenser can hold about 3 *cups *of liquid detergent. The prewash dispenser holds another 2 cups’ worth. And as I said above, the correct dosage is about 2 tablespoons (= 2/3rds of a quarter cup). Now *that’s *a setup for misusing detergent.
Their excuse is that after the machine starts they fill the dispenser with water to dilute the concentrated detergent before sending it into the tub. But they could have done that in a hidden chamber, not the big open-topped basin I add a comparative smidgen of soap to.
Actually, I do that myself with my liquid detergent.
I pour some into a glass jar (former peanut butter jar), and fill a separate half-gallon former milk bottle with water. I take these with me to the laundry. I fill the jar with water, diluting the detergent. As I put the clothes into the machine (it’s a top-loader), I pour a little of it onto the clothes after every few garments go in. So it’s already diluted and somewhat distributed before I even put my quarters in.
(This also saves me the trouble of lugging the entire detergent jug around with me.)
I’ve been diluting our liquid clothes washing detergent for years, now. I began doing it when my wife bought a big jug of it at Sam’s Club and it advertised that it was twice as concentrated. Save Money! Use Half as Much! But, the measuring cap was the same size. I saw the problem immediately.
We still had the old container, so I filled it half-way with the new detergent and the rest of the way with water (we have a Reverse Osmosis water system, which is what I use for this). I didn’t tell my wife that I had diluted it, but I did tell her that I filled the smaller container because it would fit on the shelf better and was easier to handle.
As I have said, I’ve been doing this for years, and haven’t seen a problem. The clothes seem to be as clean as before and we use less. Now, this is in a old top loader, so I am not sure if the new HE washers would be as accommodating, but for me, it seems to be the way to go.
I am not sure I would dilute it 55 to 1, however. That is starting to sound like you’re heading for homeopathic levels.
