I decided I no longer want to use antibacterial hand soap, so I went out looking for a replacement to the Dial Antibacterial Foaming hand wash I’ve been using. I like the foaming action of the Dial bottle so I just bought a refill pouch for another brand, Method. However, I discovered once I got home that the Method soap is not for use in foaming dispensers. I Tried it anyway and sure enough it doesn’t work because it’s too viscous. So I watered it down to about 1 part soap to 10 parts water and it works fine. My question is, will it still sufficiently clean my hands at that concentration or is too diluted to do anything but make my hands smell faintly soapy?
Numbers don’t really help without knowing how concentrated the original formula is. Does your foam still feel slick in your fingers? Then you’re fine. I water my Suave shampoo ($1 a bottle) down about 1/2 and 1/2 with water for my Dial foaming dispenser - but it might have far more water per ounce in it already.
Out of curiosity, why no love for antibacterial soap?
Because most of them are made with triclosan, an antibiotic implicated in making many strains of bacteria antibiotic-resistant. Most people don’t need antibiotics in their soap, and using it all the time is just speeding up the evolutionary adaptation of bacteria to these drugs.
Note that you can get alcohol-based antibacterial soaps and “sanitizers,” which don’t have this problem (it seems unlikely that bacteria can evolve a defense against alcohol).
Some of the Softsoap refills are not antibacterial. We use the aloe vera one, and have successfully used it in a foaming dispenser (made by Pampered Chef - it uses about a 4-1 water/soap ratio).
We use Method soaps at home. No triclosan or other disinfectants.
Unfortunately, they don’t offer refills for the foaming soaps. Seems strange as a stroll through their website makes them look like a bunch of granola-eating types with a penchant for clean (and I mean this in a very positive sense) and you’d expect them to be offering refills so we don’t have to keep tossing empty bottles into the trash.