Laundry Detergent for my HE Washing Machine

My sister in law Stephanie introduced me to the idea of homemade laundry detergent, but I was VERY hesitant to use it in my High Efficiency (HE) washing machine and (possibly) ruin my warranty. I finally was at her house in Arkansas last year when she used it on our clothes. 


She has a tub washer, but I noticed that the suds present were less than the suds in my VERY expensive store bought, low sudsing HE soap. I was even more impressed when it got my son's cloth diapers about as clean as I get them, and the clothes smelled fresh, were not hard and had no static cling- even though she does not use fabric softener or dryer sheets. 


When I got home I gave it a whirl and have not looked back.  I've been using this soap for about 8 months. This should give some of you with HE machines the confidence to try it. 


I'm making my own post because I've adjusted the various soap recipes so many times that it really is my own animal. 


There are posts out there with powdered recipes, but I prefer liquid detergent. 


My posts have metric because it's easier. I put an old soup container on the scale and pour until the weight is right. This saves time from measuring cups, oz etc. 


There are also posts out there without the xanthan gum or the stick blender, but I prefer to be able to pour my detergent without worrying about clumps gumming up the spout. I do vigorously shake for 5 seconds before I pour, but that is my ab workout for the day, so it all works out :-)


There are also posts that call for letting the soap taking 24 hours to "gel" and even then you still have to have in an open container and stir before every load. I want all this process to be over before my son wakes from his nap, including clean up. I also want it in a convenient easy to pour spout, or I knew that I would balk at using it, so this is what I do.  It works very well for me.


I start cooking the soap before I put my son down for a nap. It helps with the timing. 


Supplies:
Laundry Soap Bar ( Fels Naptha, Jabon Zote or 2 bars of any body soap). 
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda 
Borax Laundry booster
**Optional: Arm and Hammer Baking Soda 


Tools:
4 - 1 gallon Laundry Soap Containers with a pour spout that you like
2 gallon stock pot
4 gallon bucket

Immersion blender  or a blender
1 large funnel 
2 liter measuring cup with spout is rather handy. 
Food processor or high speed blender like a Vitamix or a hand grater
**Optional: Small food scale

I process many bars of soap at a time. Next time I will grate 12 so I'll only have to grate soap once/year. 


Add the following ingredients to the stock pot:
100 grams of Bar Soap  - 2/3 Fels Naptha, 1/2 bar Zote or 2 bars of any body soap
120 grams of Washing Soda (1 cup)
120 grams of Borax (1 cup)
1 liter (or quart) of water (4 cups)
1/8 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum
***Optional: 120 grams of Baking Soda (1 cup)


Let it boil for 10 min, add 2 liters of water, blend with immersion blender. Fill sink 1/8 with cold water. Put the pot in the sink and let it sit for 20 min. (Go put the kid down for a nap) 



***Tip: If you wait too long (over 60 min) the soap will gel and your stick blender won't be able to cut it. You can remelt it, but since this is a pain, try not to wait too long. 

Add 2 liters of water and blend with immersion blender. You should have almost 6 liters of soap. Transfer it all to the bucket (unless you are lucky enough to have a 2-3 gallon pot).  Let it sit for another 5-10 min. (Have a snack) 

Add 1 liters of water and blend again. Save the last liter. 


Begin transferring your detergent from the bucket to your refashioned laundry detergent containers.


Method:
I put the bucket on the edge of the sink, put the 2 liter measuring cup IN the sink and pour into the measuring cup that is sitting in the sink. (In case you pour like me (dreadful) you will have an easier time cleaning up if/when you miss. ) 


From the measuring cup, I pour into the detergent bottles with the funnel. It's best to hold the funnel up from the bottle so air can get in underneath so that the funnel does not overflow. I alternate between the four bottles so that your first bottle is as strong as your last bottle. 


When I'm down to my last 4 liters in the bucket, I add my last liter and blend again and put 1.25 liter of this into every bottle. 


Clean up is easy. Even if it spills, it's SOAP :-) 


One word on that. Good Laundry detergent, shampoo and body soap all have lots of highly saturated fat. This leaves your clothes (and skin) soft.  


Good dish detergent on the other hand strips away all oils. So you will need to use dish soap to clean off the fatty residue from your laundry detergent. I believe this fat is intentionally taken out of store bought soap so that you need more fabric softener. Zote has the most saturated fat 77%.  Fels Naptha doesn't say how much fat it has. You can tell when you cut it to put in the food processor and grind it. Also Fels Naptha bar is 5.5oz and the Zote is 7oz and usually costs less or the same. Its a better deal if you can find it. 


Frequency:
The gallon lasts about 1 month, so with 4 gallons I do this about once every four months. Not bad for $30 worth of laundry detergent. 


We have hard water, so I use fabric softener, mostly for the scent, but I'm also able to water down my fabric softener with vinegar and water 1:1:8


Cost: 
Assuming you pay: 
$6 for 76oz (2,218g) Borax, you get 17 batches at $.35/batch
$2 for 14oz (392g) Zote, you get 4 batches at $.50/batch
$3 for 55oz (1450g) Washing Soda, you get 12 batches at $.25/batch


That is $1.05 cents for 4 gallons of HE laundry detergent. 


Even if you add baking soda or don't get the *greatest* prices on your stuff, you are still way ahead. 




Usage:
I use 1 cup of soap for main wash and 1 cup for the pre wash each load. I used the same amount of detergent when I used the supposedly "ultra concentrated" HE detergent. 
I do one load of laundry every day and that load usually contains dirty diapers so I'm not cheap with the soap. Since soap is cheaper than running the washing machine, I'd rather use more soap and wash once. 


I usually let the diapers sit in prewash for at least an hour, sometimes overnight, and I throw clothes in (sometimes) AFTER the prewash water runs out or (often) ON TOP of the presoaked dirty diapers. That should tell you how well this stuff works. 



Additional cost saving tips:
Today a friend gave me a tip to buy the baking soda in bulk from Costco. It's in a 10 or 20lb bag. People put it in pools. Same thing. Somewhere on Amazon when complaining about how much the washing soda costs a thoughtful amazon reviewer suggested to have your local grocery store order you a case. Another helpful reviewer said to bake baking soda at 350 degrees in the oven for 30 min and you have washing soda. 


"Sodium bicarbonate is not stable when you heat it. Solid NaHCO3 begins to lose carbon dioxide and water around 100°C, with complete conversion to sodium carbonate by 200°C:

2 NaHCO3(s) rightarrow CO2(g) + H2O(g) + Na2CO3(s)

Remember to use gloves once you have converted it because the resultant sodium carbonate is very drying to bare skin ;) baking soda + heat trick ends up with a much higher purity product."

I haven't tried this, but I will. :-)


Good luck!