Fels Naphtha safety

[Kingsfarm]

made my first batch of laundry soap and used octagon bar...bought quite a few years on sale..nice and dry (hard) any objections to using THIS soap? any reason I should not use it?

 

[savingdogs]

Well I'm late for the laundry soap party but here is my two cents:

I've used the soap two years. Our skin problems went AWAY when we started using it. I find it LESS scented that anything I have bought in the store. Unless we analyze all the ingredients in store-bought Tide or whatever, it is impossible to compare which would be worse for the environment, for our skin and for our washing machines. For me personally, my machine works better, my husbands skin issue went away, I'm not plagued by the strong scents and our septic system has been doing great.

I've used both Zote and Fels Naptha.....I prefer the Fels, but Zote worked great. I heard on the BYC soap thread that Fels Naptha no longer contains "Naptha" so if that is where the solvent is, apparently people believe it is no longer in the soap.

You could use any DETERGENT bar to make this soap. Body bar would be too superfatted and could be oily on the clothes according to the soapmakers on the thread Soapmakers Help.

I've always used the liquid soap recipe so that I can do cold water washes.

When I look at the sheer volume made with one bar of Fels Naptha, five gallons, and the size of the bar it seems like the overall amount of the solvent would have to be a very small percentage overall. I would not use Fels Naptha soap to wash my body or my face, but it is intended to be a strong soap to remove stains, not to pamper skin.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Okay...newbie here. So, I have been checking out the soap making thing......threads....for laundry soaps. I am having to switch to greywater recycling, and making sopas just seems to be the natural progression of things.
Has anybody tried the soapnuts? I ordered some online, yesterday. I will give them a try, to see how they work.
Also, I had started checking out Lehmans...was curious as to how the Amish handled their daily detergent needs.

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Natural_Goods___Laundry_p_1?Args=&view_all=1


Lehmans has some pretty good merchandise....as the Amish are a low impact culture anyways. Off grid.

 

[snapshot]

Moxies! I would love to know how the soapnuts work!

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Moxies! I would love to know how the soapnuts work!

Okay...Update on the SoapNuts thing!!!! I am running my first washloads with using them. I have 3 loads today. DH work clothes (he is a machinist), my stuff (mostly spandex like drip dry things), and DH hankies, socks and undies. I rec'd the shipment of soapnuts the other day, and decided I should do laundry today...rain or no rain. Last time, used rainwater from barrels, no soapnuts. Went 11 days this time, before laundry day became necessary.
Anyway, using my two 32 gallon rubbermaid trashcans by the washer, I ran one load of wash....added 12 soapnuts (these, as directed, 6 per baggie, included in pkg), ran the first load of workclothes. Seem to smell fresh and clean. Waster is dirty, but not sudsy. I emptied it back into the 32 gal, to re-use. Ran the rinse water...(30 gal well water), rinsed the clothes and hung them out. They all look good and clean. Ditto ..repeat. Now, granted, my last load wast the nastiest. Hankies, socks and underwear. I put the wash water back in the washer, by buckets....tossing the soapnuts back in the water every time. (You must take them out for the rinse) I also added a squirt of dawn dish detergent to that wash water. It is rinsing now. I will be hanging them up shortly.
Now, my goal is to conserve the well water, as it goes too low during the summer months. We also conserve dollars, as we are on the one income, and the economy is still limping along. We also grow gardens, buy in bulk, have 3 deep freezers and 7chickens now. We drive economical vehicles which are paid off. We don't have cable ...just the net and DH's cell phones he had before we met. Everytime we tighten the belt...something else comes up to make necessary another notch. We bought this 1 acre rural property as a bank foreclosure for a really obscene offer. Bank accepted. So, we have no mortgage, no car payments, no entertainment (cable etc) except net and netflix. I have taken to using greywater on the flower gardens, herb and veggie gardens. And I limit my errands to try to get 6 weeks of 1 tank of gas....15 gallons of gas at 3.49 is still a big chunk of $$.

So, back to the soapnuts. 3 loads of laundry, @ full level ...all hanging up to dry. DH doesn't know it yet, but we will be using the soapnuts wash/rinse water to hose the chicken tractor down tomorrow. He bought a portable hand pump, electric, to make easier my need to use the rain from the barrels for chickens, laundry and gardens. After all, we can't very well add water to the well...so, plan B...rain barrels.

The portable pump, we connect all together this weekend. Hoses, fittings, all to be attached to a small luggage hand truck I had. Then, we can test it out for leaks, while hosing the chicken tractor down of poos. The best thing is.....soapnuts are non toxic..environmentally safe, and should harm no chickens.

This may be a good plan after all!! I don't mind the extra effort and forethought. I just have to do things different. No more of the "convenience" life. Although, I will use my washing machine for it's mechanical skills. It can do the grunt work for me. But, I don't use the dryer, only used it twice last winter I think. I hang things up on racks inside.

For those who are interested...I bought the soapnuts from ebay as a "buy it now" sale. 1.1 lb nuts, 1 large cotton bag, 2 small onse for the wash machine. 16.99
I don't know how many loads I will get from the 1.1 lb..but will keep notes.
If anyone would like the ebay sellers name, I guess pm me. I don't know if I can post that on here.

 

[snapshot]

That's a lot of saving you do! I think it's great! Thanks for the soapnut info!!!!!!

 

[SSDreamin]

Moxies-
I have been interested in the soap nuts for some time. Good to know they work. Can you dry them out and reuse them?
We just made one of those obscene offers on a house back home and closed a few weeks ago. Have many Amish farms near there, and several Amish stores. LOVE shopping at the Amish stores! They are not overly friendly, but used to let me pick their brain about different things, once they realized I was sincere and not some crank.
Seems like you are really putting a lot of thought and effort into things: We are just beginning, but hope to kick things up a notch once we get moved and settled.
I have checked on making laundry soap with the white Zote soap- no citronella - but so far it is cost prohibitive. Use fels naptha as a pretreater all the time right now, and really like the results.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Moxies-
I have been interested in the soap nuts for some time. Good to know they work. Can you dry them out and reuse them?
We just made one of those obscene offers on a house back home and closed a few weeks ago. Have many Amish farms near there, and several Amish stores. LOVE shopping at the Amish stores! They are not overly friendly, but used to let me pick their brain about different things, once they realized I was sincere and not some crank.
Seems like you are really putting a lot of thought and effort into things: We are just beginning, but hope to kick things up a notch once we get moved and settled.
I have checked on making laundry soap with the white Zote soap- no citronella - but so far it is cost prohibitive. Use fels naptha as a pretreater all the time right now, and really like the results.

Thanks for replying Dreamin- I think things just hit "critical" with the water rationing this morning. With just over 100 gal well water use this past 36 hours, I hit red silted well water coming from the tap, this morning. Bright orange. Almost made me want to cry I have been trying so hard to conserve water...but, even those efforts don't seem to be enough without any rain to replenish the well.

As far as the Soapnuts go....I really think they will be a good investment. I am not totally ready to convert to soapnuts, exclusively.....and have the yet un-opened bottle of commercial detergent in my cabinet. I bought it before I had ordered the soapnuts though. And I like that they are non-toxic...and we can use the wash/rinse waters from the laundry to hose down the chicken tractor. After that, it will be on the ground and filter back through the soil to the well...I hope. The ground is so very dry here in places. Just on our 1 acre of land. Hurricane Irene is at our doorstep, but it is not looking favorable for us to be getting any rain from it. We are 125 miles inland from Charleston SC as it is.

Soapnuts- Costwise...It will depend on how any loads I can get from the one bag of 1.1 lb. Yes, they are supposed to be removed from the little bag and dried after every load/s
or, make the 2 bags and alternate...perhaps? I will just write down my loads I get from them....before they become in-effective. The little card brochure says "5 loads per baggie of 6 nuts." But I think that depends on how dirty your clothes are...etc.

This is just an experiment for me. If Soapnuts turns out to be a good product...green, non-toxic, re-cyclable, good cleaning abilities, worth the money, hopefully cost effective.....I will switch. Right now, if I were just to use my commercial detergents...the greywater seriously needs filtered before I re-use it on anything. I don't even like the fact that it must re-filter itself back through to the well..as 1 acre is not that much ground space.

It is all a learning experience for me.....and even for fiance.

 

[SSDreamin]

Moxies-
I have been interested in the soap nuts for some time. Good to know they work. Can you dry them out and reuse them?
We just made one of those obscene offers on a house back home and closed a few weeks ago. Have many Amish farms near there, and several Amish stores. LOVE shopping at the Amish stores! They are not overly friendly, but used to let me pick their brain about different things, once they realized I was sincere and not some crank.
Seems like you are really putting a lot of thought and effort into things: We are just beginning, but hope to kick things up a notch once we get moved and settled.
I have checked on making laundry soap with the white Zote soap- no citronella - but so far it is cost prohibitive. Use fels naptha as a pretreater all the time right now, and really like the results.

Thanks for replying Dreamin- I think things just hit "critical" with the water rationing this morning. With just over 100 gal well water use this past 36 hours, I hit red silted well water coming from the tap, this morning. Bright orange. Almost made me want to cry I have been trying so hard to conserve water...but, even those efforts don't seem to be enough without any rain to replenish the well.

As far as the Soapnuts go....I really think they will be a good investment. I am not totally ready to convert to soapnuts, exclusively.....and have the yet un-opened bottle of commercial detergent in my cabinet. I bought it before I had ordered the soapnuts though. And I like that they are non-toxic...and we can use the wash/rinse waters from the laundry to hose down the chicken tractor. After that, it will be on the ground and filter back through the soil to the well...I hope. The ground is so very dry here in places. Just on our 1 acre of land. Hurricane Irene is at our doorstep, but it is not looking favorable for us to be getting any rain from it. We are 125 miles inland from Charleston SC as it is.

Soapnuts- Costwise...It will depend on how any loads I can get from the one bag of 1.1 lb. Yes, they are supposed to be removed from the little bag and dried after every load/s
or, make the 2 bags and alternate...perhaps? I will just write down my loads I get from them....before they become in-effective. The little card brochure says "5 loads per baggie of 6 nuts." But I think that depends on how dirty your clothes are...etc.

This is just an experiment for me. If Soapnuts turns out to be a good product...green, non-toxic, re-cyclable, good cleaning abilities, worth the money, hopefully cost effective.....I will switch. Right now, if I were just to use my commercial detergents...the greywater seriously needs filtered before I re-use it on anything. I don't even like the fact that it must re-filter itself back through to the well..as 1 acre is not that much ground space.

It is all a learning experience for me.....and even for fiance.

Sorry to hear about the well. I worry a great deal about that- DH says we will put in a large cistern soon, to funnel all the rain we've been getting into. Knowing our luck, it won't rain a drop after it's set up Do you have any options for water delivery? Around here, there are a couple non-potable water services( we live close to a big NASCAR racetrack- they supple to the campers there), maybe there is something like that by you! Just have to figure out where to store it( that won't cost an arm or leg!). On my way to the vet, I saw a farm with several dozen food grade 55 gallon drums for sale, for ten dollars each. Really wanted to stop, but figured I'd look pretty ridiculous with drums tied to/hanging off my little car I would post a question about possible solutions on here. The knowledge of the people on this forum blows me away!

I am enjoying this learning experience. Actually, for me, it's like going home. I grew up on an 80 acre farm. Going shopping for 'the things my step mother refused to make herself' occurred once a month. Everything else was supplied by our farm. DH is 100% city boy, though he did summer at an uncle's farm once or twice and loved it. He is funny to watch/listen to sometimes. I have to point out that things take time- he thinks that if the grocery store is advertising homegrown this or that, our garden should be producing that item in abundance as well! He talks tough about eating the chickens and heifer if they don't produce, but he spoils them all rotten! I am thankful, despite all the ups and downs, that we have chose to pursue this path for ourselves and DS: Every step forward gives us such a good feeling of self empowerment
Hope you get the well situation squared away soon

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Hi Dreamin! Oh, believe me, we have been researching any and all options since it ran low last August. We will be building concrete rain cisterns, and also adding gutters. But, it will all take time, energy, $$, etc...and fiance wants to build more then one....capacity 1,000 gals each. But, as we need rainwater now, I have bought the trashcans. They will suffice for now.

We assembled the portable pump yesterday. After a few initial false starts, leaks etc.....finally got it going. Hosed out the chicken tractor, and it worked fabulously!! I am pleased.
The tractor is poo-less again. I hated to wait as long between hosings, but, at the same time......really bothers me to use drinking water from the well, to hose off chicken poo.

No alternatives for water here. I would rather do what we are doing though. Think about it, we all need clean safe water to drink. But, our clothes, our gardens, and other chores around the house...can use rain water or grey water. We still need to take the one 55 gal drum left on the property and re-purpose it. It will be the filter for the laundry grey water eventually. That stuff we used yesterday....was black..and ..greywater. Fiance thought the rinse water was the original wash water...but I had that in the other bucket..the black one. Yes, some greywater definitely needs filtered.