"Chat"ting with Brent-Aucoin and Youngstown Dishwasher

Ooh good topic here.

1. Calgonite--apparently is still available in Canada. A "dollar/salvage" store around here (Detroit) sells it--a Benckiser (Electra-Sol) product I think. It's labeled as "low-phosphate"--I guess it's just an old-skool non-enzyme dishwasher detergent.

2. My family was big into the detergent business--my grandfather was a chemist who did some early work on surfactants for a soap company in Cincinnati (not P&G) right after WW2--he'd take home samples of early detergents for my grandmother to try. She'd show the other ladies as they "did the dishes" after a dinner party the wonders of these new detergents. Of course they'd marvel at it!

She said as she was remembering that they hadn't really gotten the fragrance working very well and that the detergent worked great but smelled like a public washroom

3. My dad worked for Monsanto (that grandfather got him the job back in 1962) and so my mom often used All (by that time they'd sold the business to Unilever) but the more interesting thing was going with my dad in the family Valiant to Robins Chemical in downtown St. Louis to pick up 25# bags of their commercial laundry detergent--I seem to recall it was called "Sterox" (rich in Monsanto tripolyphosphate!) for her and the neighbors (she'd take orders from all the neighbors). She'd dump it into a barrel next to the washing machine (1963 Kenmore 70 in coppertone) and dose it out with her Kenmore poly measuring cup

4. When I was between jobs in 1992 I got some contract work for Monsanto to research EPA filings for areas around their phosphate plant in Columbia, Tenn and some of their competitors in Pennsylvania, Illinois and others.

5. My roommate in college's mom was a water plant operator on Lake Erie. I was a business major, he was geology, and we'd get into debates over whether you could use phosphates in detergent or not. I actually would bring detergent from home where you could use phosphates (btw when Fresh Start still had phosphates...that detergent rocked) but he was committed to non-eutrophication

Tks for the memories!


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Post# 87665 10/8/2005 at 09:18 (6,768 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes Hi Brent, I have an unopened bottle of "Chat". It was packed inside my Youngstown dishwasher, never having been hooked up or used. Ive yet to do any restoration on it. "Chat" appears to be an early product such as Jet-Dry, to eliminate spotting on dishes. Alas, all the contents in the bottle is dried up....

Post# 87666 , Reply# 1 10/8/2005 at 09:21 (6,768 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes More of the graphics........

Post# 87667 , Reply# 2 10/8/2005 at 09:21 (6,768 days old) by unimatic1140 (Minneapolis)
Checkrate/Likes Hey thanks Jimmy, I was really wondering what chat was myself. How much were you suppose to use?

Post# 87668 , Reply# 3 10/8/2005 at 09:22 (6,768 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes Directions of use.........

Post# 87672 , Reply# 4 10/8/2005 at 09:23 (6,768 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes Hi Robert, your dishwasher looks great. Mine has all the same things wrong with as yours, and it was never even used! Oh well, maybe I will tackle a restoration on it sometime. Good luck with yours.......

Post# 87673 , Reply# 5 10/8/2005 at 09:25 (6,768 days old) by unimatic1140 (Minneapolis)
Checkrate/Likes *1st Liquid* Wow, so it looks like Chat was the very first liquid automatic dishwasher detergent.

Post# 87674 , Reply# 6 10/8/2005 at 09:32 (6,768 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes This was also inside the dishwasher when I picked it up.......

Post# 87675 , Reply# 7 10/8/2005 at 09:36 (6,768 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes Directions of Use.........

Post# 87676 , Reply# 8 10/8/2005 at 09:37 (6,768 days old) by filterflo (Chicago Area)
Checkrate/Likes Handy pour spout.........

Post# 87693 , Reply# 9 10/8/2005 at 11:35 (6,768 days old) by gyrafoam (Wytheville, VA)
Checkrate/Likes Jimmy that "Calgonite" package is very cool. I remember it from my childhood, however I don't remember "Chat". Maybe it was a regional sales thing. Thanks for sharing!

Post# 87698 , Reply# 11 10/8/2005 at 12:34 (6,768 days old) by brent-aucoin ()
Checkrate/Likes Jimmy, Thanks so much for posting your Chat and Calgonite free samples! They are wonderful! I just love that name brand...."Chat"...! Brent

Post# 87700 , Reply# 12 10/8/2005 at 13:02 (6,768 days old) by peterh770 (Marietta, GA)
Checkrate/Likes I see patent numbers! I think Jetcone might add Calgonite to his list of detergents to re-introduce!

Post# 87746 , Reply# 13 10/8/2005 at 21:16 (6,768 days old) by maytagbear (N.E. Ohio)
Checkrate/Likes *Ohhh..Jet....* I would be deeply happy if your next chemical challenge would be to re-create Calgonite. I have a feeling that Calgonite would hold it's own against the modern enzyme dishwasher detergents (and they are good.) I was SO disappointed when Calgonite went off the market. Before then, Ma humoured me by alternating between Calgonite and Cascade. Lawrence/Maytagbear

Post# 87694 , Reply# 10 10/8/2005 at 11:39 (6,768 days old) by westytoploader ()
Checkrate/Likes Very interesting...love the vintage Calgonite! IIRC, wasn't Chat soap the detergent of choice for the Kaiser water-powered dishwasher?

Post# 87753 , Reply# 14 10/8/2005 at 21:51 (6,768 days old) by jetcone (Schenectady-Home of Calrods,Monitor Tops,Toroid Transformers)
Checkrate/Likes *Peter* You read my mind! Today I just read up on electrolytic additives that boost surfactant abilities! Science comes to Doctrine! Calgonite shouldn't be too hard to reproduce,there are usually less combinations of chemicals in DW detergent as you are dealing with one type of surface and one type of soil. Am I getting technical?? Maybe I am reading too much. jet

Post# 87847 , Reply# 15 10/9/2005 at 10:40 (6,767 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes Old Calgonite in the late 40s and early 50s was nothing like the same product in the mid to late 50s. Early dishwasher detergents were little more than water softeners because low sudsing surfactants for detergents, indeed detergents themselves were not perfected until after WWII. ALL for washing machines was a byproduct of Monsanto's search for sudsless dishwasher detergents. Synthetic detergents were a product of the search for soaps made without grease which was needed for explosives during the war. And it was not until much later that dishwasher detergents began to really improve. A company that my father represented figured out the way to incorporate chlorine in a dry machine dishwasher detergent. The formula was so sensitive to moisture that it was packaged in 1 pound coated steel cans. The friends with whom we shared this detergent over the years said that it made even the old Apex and top load GE dishwashers clean like they never had before. It probably would have even helped the cleaning of the Youngstown, but I do not know that we gave any to those owners. The chlorine in it removed the coffee and tea stains from Melmac cups which was a really big deal in commercial kitchens. We really surprised a friend who sent us a meal when mom was sick. She sent along a Tupperware pitcher of iced tea and the container was stained brown from years of holding tea. We put it through a soak with the stuff and the friend thought we had given her a new container.

Post# 88042 , Reply# 16 10/10/2005 at 08:17 (6,766 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)
Checkrate/Likes Ooh good topic here. 1. Calgonite--apparently is still available in Canada. A "dollar/salvage" store around here (Detroit) sells it--a Benckiser (Electra-Sol) product I think. It's labeled as "low-phosphate"--I guess it's just an old-skool non-enzyme dishwasher detergent. 2. My family was big into the detergent business--my grandfather was a chemist who did some early work on surfactants for a soap company in Cincinnati (not P&G) right after WW2--he'd take home samples of early detergents for my grandmother to try. She'd show the other ladies as they "did the dishes" after a dinner party the wonders of these new detergents. Of course they'd marvel at it! She said as she was remembering that they hadn't really gotten the fragrance working very well and that the detergent worked great but smelled like a public washroom 3. My dad worked for Monsanto (that grandfather got him the job back in 1962) and so my mom often used All (by that time they'd sold the business to Unilever) but the more interesting thing was going with my dad in the family Valiant to Robins Chemical in downtown St. Louis to pick up 25# bags of their commercial laundry detergent--I seem to recall it was called "Sterox" (rich in Monsanto tripolyphosphate!) for her and the neighbors (she'd take orders from all the neighbors). She'd dump it into a barrel next to the washing machine (1963 Kenmore 70 in coppertone) and dose it out with her Kenmore poly measuring cup 4. When I was between jobs in 1992 I got some contract work for Monsanto to research EPA filings for areas around their phosphate plant in Columbia, Tenn and some of their competitors in Pennsylvania, Illinois and others. 5. My roommate in college's mom was a water plant operator on Lake Erie. I was a business major, he was geology, and we'd get into debates over whether you could use phosphates in detergent or not. I actually would bring detergent from home where you could use phosphates (btw when Fresh Start still had phosphates...that detergent rocked) but he was committed to non-eutrophication Tks for the memories!

Post# 88511 , Reply# 17 10/12/2005 at 16:46 (6,764 days old) by timonator ()
Checkrate/Likes *one has to wonder* how much other "unopened" stuff u have around there LOL

Post# 88520 , Reply# 18 10/12/2005 at 17:15 (6,764 days old) by mrcleanjeans (milwaukee wi)
Checkrate/Likes *get it bright with Calgonite* Unquestionably,The 12% phosphate Calgonite,which was replaced by the inferior 8.7% Calgonite Formula 211 was my very favorite DW detergent of all time,making dishes and glassware sparkle and GLEAM unlike ANYTHING I have ever used.