can someone tell me about a no rinse laundry soap?

Tide, Surf and other "synthetic" detergents at the time were engaged in an arms race with soap products for laundry day.

Tide and these other "detergents" were rapidly displacing soap for wash day due to various reasons. The whole "no rinse" thing was a war between soaps and detergents.

If you read above adverts carefully it is clear they are aimed at women who used semi-automatic washing machines (to wit, wringer washers).

As anyone familiar with using such machines or even doing washing by hand with soap one has to rinse things twice, thrice, or more. If all traces of remaining soap, dirt, hard water minerals etc... were not rinses away result sooner or later was tattle-tale grey wash.

Detergents OTOH do not react same way with much and hard water minerals, thus usually one rinse is sufficient. Tide and others kicked things up a notch suggesting things didn't need to be rinsed at all. For a housewife using a wringer washer not having to rinse things several times saved hours of labor.

Soap makers got their own back by also focusing on how involved Her Indoors was with wash day, hands in water etc..., but they touted how their wonderfully rich soaps were gentle to hands thus avoiding "wash day red hands" which were a frequent complaint. Detergents then were rather caustic which took a toll on people's hands.

www.old-time.com/commerci...

Lever Bros. Persil was still at this late as 1950's into 1960's.

Ironically the same makers of detergents (Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Lever Bros.) who were slagging soaps by singing praises of their "no rinse" detergent also made laundry day soaps (Duz, Persil, etc..). They were hedging bets as while detergents hade made significant gains on wash day, many still clung to soaps. So said companies poured R&D and P&R money into making wash day soap products that argued against detergents.

In end of course detergents largely won out. Soap products that remained into 1960's and 1970's were adapted for use in automatic washing machines. Ivory Snow and Fairy Snow come to mind. However under lying message was still same; detergents where harsh, while their rich soap products were not.

All this bloody palaver aside answer to OP's query is no, there isn't a wash day detergent that is "no rinse" for normal laundry. P&G knew then (or soon found out) that not rinsing laundry regardless of what is used for washing causes all sorts of problems. That campaign quickly and quietly died out across the board.

There is a product for washing woolens or silks called Eculan that can be "no rinse", but wouldn't recommend it for every day cottons/linens laundry.

eucalan.com...


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Post# 1171169 2/4/2023 at 07:24 (454 days old) by thedrycleaner (walton)
Checkrate/Likes hello fellows, can someone recommend a no rinse laundry detergent? I use a ww washer for my customers clothes and I would like to wash them at times without having to use a rinse tub. everythikng that I find is all that modern aroma therapy stuff and the environ-junk. is there an old fashioned no rinse that I could use? thanks Bill

Post# 1171170 , Reply# 1 2/4/2023 at 07:27 (454 days old) by gizmo (Victoria, Australia)
Checkrate/Likes 2 You have to rinse. No such thing as a no-rinse detergent that actually works.

Post# 1171188 , Reply# 2 2/4/2023 at 12:20 (454 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes 1 I remember ads for Tide in early 1950s shelter magazines that said you could skip rinsing back when using wringer washers meant rinsing in set tubs. Unlike soap, synthetic detergents did not leave film on clothes. That ad campaign did not last long. As highly alkaline as Tide was, it probably produced rashes and caused irritation if left in clothes. Today unrinsed fabrics would contain enzymes that could prove irritating. In the early 70s when enzymes were first added to detergents TIDE XK produced rashes around the waist band when the enzymes were not completely rinsed out of the elastic in underwear.

Post# 1171193 , Reply# 3 2/4/2023 at 13:23 (454 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)
Checkrate/Likes *Thanks Tom* That's interesting information and makes me wonder if, even with two rinses and the addition of a "sour" (i.e. Fabric Softener), I'm still experiencing some irritation from maybe my tidy-whities. I tend to use foreign detergents that have some form of phosphate in them for better rinsing but I've been using some enzyme products, Biz, for better cleaning and as an alternative to Chlorine Bleach which has been demonized by most these days, including the guy who pumps out all of our septic tanks in my area. Maybe I should ditch the enzyme products and use only Peroxide bleach from now on. We'll see. View Full Size

Post# 1171212 , Reply# 4 2/4/2023 at 15:57 (454 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes Ken, did you know that the way those dispensers on the Duomatic worked was by an electric heater that heated the air in the reservoir to displace the amount of product selected? Maybe get some STPP and use less detergent. Best of luck.

Post# 1171236 , Reply# 5 2/4/2023 at 19:11 (454 days old) by DADoES (TX,�U.S. of A.)
Checkrate/Likes 3 � Photos... < > Photo 1 of 4 View Full Size

Post# 1171288 , Reply# 6 2/5/2023 at 15:18 (453 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes Thank you, Glenn, for finding these.

Post# 1171382 , Reply# 7 2/6/2023 at 10:22 (452 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There�s a Lady on Stage)
Checkrate/Likes 4 Tide, Surf and other "synthetic" detergents at the time were engaged in an arms race with soap products for laundry day. Tide and these other "detergents" were rapidly displacing soap for wash day due to various reasons. The whole "no rinse" thing was a war between soaps and detergents. If you read above adverts carefully it is clear they are aimed at women who used semi-automatic washing machines (to wit, wringer washers). As anyone familiar with using such machines or even doing washing by hand with soap one has to rinse things twice, thrice, or more. If all traces of remaining soap, dirt, hard water minerals etc... were not rinses away result sooner or later was tattle-tale grey wash. Detergents OTOH do not react same way with much and hard water minerals, thus usually one rinse is sufficient. Tide and others kicked things up a notch suggesting things didn't need to be rinsed at all. For a housewife using a wringer washer not having to rinse things several times saved hours of labor. Soap makers got their own back by also focusing on how involved Her Indoors was with wash day, hands in water etc..., but they touted how their wonderfully rich soaps were gentle to hands thus avoiding "wash day red hands" which were a frequent complaint. Detergents then were rather caustic which took a toll on people's hands. www.old-time.com/commerci... Lever Bros. Persil was still at this late as 1950's into 1960's. Ironically the same makers of detergents (Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Lever Bros.) who were slagging soaps by singing praises of their "no rinse" detergent also made laundry day soaps (Duz, Persil, etc..). They were hedging bets as while detergents hade made significant gains on wash day, many still clung to soaps. So said companies poured R&D and P&R money into making wash day soap products that argued against detergents. In end of course detergents largely won out. Soap products that remained into 1960's and 1970's were adapted for use in automatic washing machines. Ivory Snow and Fairy Snow come to mind. However under lying message was still same; detergents where harsh, while their rich soap products were not. All this bloody palaver aside answer to OP's query is no, there isn't a wash day detergent that is "no rinse" for normal laundry. P&G knew then (or soon found out) that not rinsing laundry regardless of what is used for washing causes all sorts of problems. That campaign quickly and quietly died out across the board. There is a product for washing woolens or silks called Eculan that can be "no rinse", but wouldn't recommend it for every day cottons/linens laundry. eucalan.com...

Post# 1171400 , Reply# 8 2/6/2023 at 13:02 (452 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes From the start, Maytag instructed users that only detergent should be used in their automatics. On page 10 of the owner's manual for the AMP machine is the instruction, "use only non-soap detergents in your Maytag Automatic Washer."