The Mysterious Soap Nut

[Tweek]

This was mentioned in another thread, and I thought it interesting. If you have more information about soap nuts and their various uses, please post it here.

 

[BeardedCrow]

I don't know anything about the subject, now intrigued...

 

[Abysmal Vapor]

http://www.dailydump.org/what_are_soap_nuts So you wanna try cleaning your glass with it ?

 

[Enchantre]

Ah, I just sent a PM with links...

Okay, for the whole class:

These are what I use: Soap Nuts

Here's a Wiki article: Sapindus

I've used them for over five years now... I throw a half dozen in a cloth or net bag, toss it in the washer with the clothes. I might still use Oxyclean or a pre-spotter (an eco brand) if needed.

I have a front loading washer, and my sack of soap nuts will do three loads.

 

[Tweek]

Thanks Enchantre! Do you find these work just as well as regular detergent? Seems almost too good to be true! Any negatives that you have encountered?

 

[RUDE BOY]

Boy the things you can learn about on FC. Whoda thunk !

 

[Tweek]

I love the name...Soap Nuts

 

[treeman]

I've used them but to be honest, for me to get decent results I had to fill my machine to about half the level of clothes I would wash with ordinary washing powder, resulting in using a lot more power washing clothes so I quickly lost interest. Good idea though.

 

[Enchantre]

I think it will depend entirely on how hard/soft your water is (we have rather softish water here), and what kind of soil you are dealing with. Soap nuts work best in warm/hot water.

I do pretreat any sort of grease stain (bacon grease, usually), often with dishsoap. It's probably not going to get out grass stains, or wine, without a little more help.

What we have discovered, is much less contact dermatitis, less lint, and normal "body odor" type soil washes out completely. Clothes smell "fresh" without any sort of perfuminess.

 

[BeardedCrow]

But couldn't you blend soap nuts with detergent so that you're using less detergent but still using nuts?

 

[Enchantre]

Yes, you can. You can also boil down the nuts to make a "soap" liquid that you can use for general cleaning, laundry pre-treating, etc. [Link:] You can even wash your own hair/skin with it. It is that safe.

This isn't the best article that I've linked above, but the comments are Great, like This One!!

 

[Ansel]

i have seen people using them in south-east asia

 

[mvapes]

Wow, simply switching the name up amazingly changes the your thought process -

Nut Soap?

 

[BeardedCrow]

Interesting!

I always disliked the harshness of shower soap, maybe a blend would work.