Undo
I spend a lot of time undoing things that are done because of federal regulations. You know, taking the flow restricter out of my shower heads; turning my hot water heater temperature higher than the recommended temps; putting real exhausts on my car; hoarding regular light bulbs. That sort of thing.
I’m not sure how to put more phosphates in my dish detergent though.
December 18th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I thought you could buy trisodium phosphate
at your local Lowe’s. Just add that to your
detergent.
December 18th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Interesting suggestion, Mike. A lowes search for ‘tri-sodium phosphate‘ does show stock. Hmmmm? I wonder how adding a bit of tri-sodium phosphate to laundry detergent, which has sucked at cleaning for years now, would work?
.
December 18th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
That’s exactly what you do. It replaces the phosphates that were removed years ago. Makes your detergent work. Or, uh, so they say.
December 18th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Of course using tri phosphate or just about anything else in a manner inconsistent with what is on the label is against federal law… A misdemeanor in most cases but a felony in quite a few… I have never quite been able to tally how many federal misdemeanors it takes to make a felony. Very easy to inadvertently create 3-4 felonies a day. Or a lot more if you do not care…
December 18th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
sodium tripolyphosphate
December 18th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Class A firefighting foam concentrate is basically industrial-strength detergent. If you go with Phos-Chek WD 881, it even smells like oranges. And, loaded with phosphates. Runs somewhere between $12-15.00 per gallon, and can be had on the GSA schedule for about which such things matter. Get it in 5-gallon jugs or larger. That would be a lot of dishes.
Not to be confused with any of the protein, alcohol-resistant, or otherwise Class B (film-forming) foams, of course.
I’ve washed my truck with a few splashes of Class A foam in a bucket of water – brush & rinse & go. Works fine; should do same for dishes. PPE in the laundry seldom needs detergent added due to enough surfactant left from work to do the job.
Caveat: I can only vouch that U.S.F.S. ‘approved & qualified’ Class A foams would be non-toxic and biodegradeable.
December 18th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Websearch for it under TSP. Easiest place to buy in bulk is any shop that caters to house painters. They us it to wash down walls before painting them.
December 18th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Can anyone point to a place that would show a nefarious criminal, not myself, how much TSP to mix into my…errr…his dish washing soap?
December 18th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Adding a phosphate salt to you detergent will not make it wash any better, you need a long aliphatic ester of phosphoric acid to act as a detergent.
Don’t waste phosphates, we’re running out of them faster than we’ll run out of oil!
December 18th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Get some TSP at your local big box home repairs store I am going to have to play with the ratios, but my powder diswasher soap is crap now. switched to the gell which works a bit better but it costs more. http://www.bing.com/shopping/10621-TSP-1lb-Hvy-Duty-Cleaner/search?q=Tri%20Sodium%20Phosphate&p1=%5bCommerceService+scenario%3d%22o%22+docid%3d%22540AA27538320AF35006%22%5d&wf=Commerce
December 18th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
The Tsp I bought had the consistency of salt. I ran it through a coffee grinder to get a flour or coke like consistency… According to my research this stuff formerly made up to 9 percent of the detergent. I use a 10 percent ratio just for simplicities sake….
December 19th, 2010 at 12:10 am
First double check that the TSP you buy is really Tri-Sodium-Phosphate, and not some eco-“TSP-Cleaner” faux replacement.
Then note that TSP is mostly soda ash — about 92-93% as I recall. So you only get 7% or 8% elemental phosphate in any measure of TSP.
I seem to recall that phosphate-containing dishwasher detergents contained 3% to 8% phosphorus. So if you used a powdered detergent, 1/2 to one measure of TSP per measure of Finish/Cascade ought to do it.
Or buy your dishwasher detergent from a restaurant-supply vendor — the commercial-use formulations aren’t subject to the Phosphates ban.
OR decide if you believe the tests of a “consumer” organization that has found 4 particular phosphate-free detergents that are “very good”.
Or start checking closeout stores and places that don’t shift stock quickly to get NOS pre-reformulation stuff.
Finally, call up your sewage treatment plant and ask them how much phosphate gets through their process to be released back into waterways…
December 19th, 2010 at 7:36 am
Or wash em by hand the old fashioned way. Dawn liquid still kicks ass. 🙂
Eventually the post phosphate formulas will catch up, and in the meantime you can have a fun family activity.
December 19th, 2010 at 9:36 am
I used to get TSP at Home Depot to mix with bleach and water to spray on the asphalt roof shingles on my house to eliminate mildew. Worked well, made the dark streaks on the roof disappear, so that the roof looked like new, but HD doesn’t have the TSP anymore. Don’t know what I’ll use next time the mildew builds up, probably just bleach and water.
December 19th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
I’ve found detergent products from Mexico that are not only less expensive but clean ‘as desired’. Check the Family Dollar/Dollar General type stores. The labels are in Spanish, obviously, but if you want cleaners that work despite the eco-weenie warnings and prohibitions you’ve got to shop like a third-worlder.