Results of a soap study

[Marianne]

Ditto. Except I use a clear Dawn in every dispenser. Comes in pretty stinking handy in the kitchen when you have just one big pot to wash, too.

Ya, I'm interested in how the salt makes it thicker, too. ~gd did formuations like that for a big company for years if I remember correctly.

 

[valmom]

I've been doing this since those dispensers came out! I refill with cheap dish soap and dilute about 8:1 or so. Eventually the dispenser seizes up and dies, but I just buy another cheapo from the dollar store and it lasts another couple of years.

 

[hoosier]

Nifty posted his recipe for the foaming soap dispensers a couple of years ago. I believe it was a 20:1 ratio.

 

[~gd]

Ditto. Except I use a clear Dawn in every dispenser. Comes in pretty stinking handy in the kitchen when you have just one big pot to wash, too.

Ya, I'm interested in how the salt makes it thicker, too. ~gd did formuations like that for a big company for years if I remember correctly.

It is a little hard to explain, more physics than chemistry really, have you ever mixed your own salad dressing or mayo? what you are making is an emulsion. It can have two forms droplets of oil surrounded by vinegar or droplets of vinegar surrounded by oil as you add one and mix it will get thicker and thicker until you add too much and the emulsion breaks. The salt (sodium sulfate can be used too) helps stabilize a water out emulsion so you can get closer to the point that the emulsion breaks and it is thicker the closer you get to the breaking point. Have you ever seen the very thick oily soap used to get oil and grease off hands that is the other type of emulsion where the oil is on the outside.
As I read this i know it isn't very clear or easy to understand but it is the best I can do. Sorry~gd

 

[Farmfresh]

Great info ~gd!

So ... if you were making up this recipe idea how much salt would you add approximately?

 

[Denim Deb]

Should I try to remember my chemistry and ask which is the limiting reagent?

 

[Leta]

I had a couple of these ages ago that I was filling with dilute Dr. Bronner's for handwashing. Then we moved to solid (handmade) soaps, and the foamers fell apart, and I had my dad make me a couple of nice wooden soapdishes.

It never occurred to me to use one for dishsoap! What a dolt I am! That's where the greatest savings lies!

So after reading this thread, I went to Tarzjay and bought a foamer bottle of green Dawn Direct Foam. It's a nice bottle, much sturdier than the ones I had before, but, whoo doggie does the dishsoap SMELL. It just about lights my nosehairs on fire.

We are used to using Bio Pac, a less-environmentally-problematic hand dishwashing detergent that we get 5 gallons at a time (it lasts us about 4 years). It costs $60, but DH is able to barter work for it. So if I water it down by 80%, then it should last us... what, seven years? Awesome.

But, man, when I used the Dawn to wash a used Ziploc bag, did it ever work! It really does cut the grease.

A gallon of blue Dawn at the restaurant supply store costs $17. Decisions, decisions.