Every laundry shop uses liquid detergents and liquid detergents are the key to a good laundry effect. However, many laundry shop owners and customers have such confusion when they use liquid detergents: do more detergents mean better? If you add too little, you will be afraid the clothes won’t be cleaned thoroughly. If you add too much, you will be worried about the cost and it may also bring unexpected problems.
Truth
Whether the clothes are washed clean or not is not simply proportional to the amount of detergent used. Excessive usage of detergents not only causes waste and increases costs but also plants hidden risks in the rinsing process. Foam residue can lead to incomplete rinsing of clothes. Over time, this may cause the clothes to turn yellow and stiff, and even trigger skin sensitivity, damage the texture of the clothes, and also affect customer satisfaction.
Common Cognitive Misunderstandings
❑ More foam = Cleaner?
Misunderstanding: many people habitually believe that abundant foam is a symbol of strong washing power, while less foam makes them feel that the washing is not thorough.
Actually, the core of washing and decontamination lies in the coating, emulsifying and dispersing effects of surfactants in laundry detergent on dirt. It has no direct relation to the amount of foam. Poor foaming property does not mean weak decontamination power.
Modern good detergents are neutral and mild formula, environmentally friendly and easy to float. Many high-efficiency detergents instead actively suppress the bubbles and pursue the design of little foam and easy to rinse. This is precisely to reduce the number of rinses, save water, electricity, and time, and reduce the residue risks.
If there is too much foam, the inner drum of an industrial washing machine will be piled up with a mountain of foam, which will act like an “air cushion” to block the effective friction between clothes. Without enough physical friction, the decontamination power (especially when dealing with highly adhering oil stains) will be greatly reduced. As a result, if there is too much foam, the defoamers will be used.
❑ Thicker laundry detergent = Higher Concentration = Better Effect?
Misunderstanding: When seeing a thin detergent, some people might think that it must have been mixed with water, and the washing effect will definitely not be ideal.
Actually, the thickness of liquid detergent does not equal the concentration of its active ingredients.
It is the active substances in the detergent (mainly surfactants) that truly break down stains during the laundry process. The “concentration” we refer to should be the percentage of the active substance in the laundry detergent.
The thickness of the detergents is mainly realized by thickeners (sodium chloride, cellulose derivatives…). These thickeners are low-cost and play almost no positive role in the decontamination process. They merely change the appearance and feel of the liquid detergent. A bottle of thick detergent may have much less active ingredients than a seemingly thin but well-formulated detergent.
Learn to read the ingredient list: Instead of looking at the consistency, pay attention to the “active ingredient content” (or total active ingredient content) on the product label. This is a more reliable indicator for measuring washing power.
❑ Longer Washing Time = More Thorough Removal of Dirt?
When facing stubborn stains, people always think prolonged laundry time can make the clothes cleaner.
- Truth
The washing time is not the longer the better. Excessive washing time, especially under vigorous stirring, can cause unnecessary wear and damage to the fibers of the clothes, accelerating their aging, deformation, and fuzz.
The combination of mechanical force (friction, dropping) and chemical force (detergent decomposing stains) is the most efficient in the early stage of washing. When the dirt is fully decomposed and wrapped, the benefits brought by extending the soaking or washing time decrease sharply.
- Right Methods
Pre-treatment
Before the clothes enter the washing machines, directly apply the detergents (or professional stain remover) to the stains. Let it stand still for a few minutes, (or even longer, like 10 minutes to 15 minutes), making the detergents fully penetrate and decompose the stains.
Partial rubbing
After pretreatment, rub the key stained areas by hand appropriately to enhance the stain removal effect through physical friction.
Suitable programs
Put clothes into the washing machines and choose standard programs according to the fabrics and degree of dirt. Intelligent industrial washing machines, like Kingstar wet cleaning machines can edit different washing programs for different fabrics, and wash all kinds of clothes reasonably.
Secret of Saving Materials and Being Effective
❑ Follow the product instructions
This is the most accurate and worry-free method.
Carefully understand the recommended dosage of different detergent manufacturers. If necessary, have the chemical material manufacturers come to the site for guidance. If conditions permit, an intelligent liquid detergent distributor can be used in combination with a wet cleaning machine to achieve quantitative addition, which is more scientific.
❑ Water volume and the amount of clothing
If there is a large amount of water, or a lot of dirty clothes, the dosage can be adjusted to approach the upper limit of the recommended amount as appropriate.
When the water volume is low, the number of clothes is small or the clothes are relatively clean, the usage can be close to the lower limit or even slightly less.
❑ Status of the foam (For low-foaming products)
When using low-foaming and easy-to-rinse laundry detergent, the foam should be significantly reduced or disappear after rinsing 1-2 times. If there is still a large amount of foam after rinsing many times, it is very likely that too much has been used. Reduce the amount used next time.
❑ Water quality
In areas with harder water (where there are more calcium and magnesium ions), the amount of detergent used may need to be slightly more than the recommended amount (as some active substances will combine with the ions in the water), but it is still necessary to avoid excessive use. It can be considered to use water softener in combination.
❑ Pre-wash
For partial stubborn stains, investing heavily in pretreatment (directly treating the stain with a small amount of detergent and rubbing it) is far more effective and economical than blindly increasing the amount of detergent or extending the washing time in the entire bucket of water.
Laundry detergent is not “the more the better”. Only by having a scientific understanding, avoiding misunderstandings and using the right amount can a good decontamination effect be achieved and the amount of detergents be saved.
