What is wash residue? How can I prevent it?
Residue forms when undissolved minerals in hard water, such as calcium and magnesium, mix with the soda ash in powdered detergents and produce calcium and magnesium carbonate. These carbonate deposits are not harmful to you, they just make your clothes look terrible. Powdered detergents like our Ultra Powdered Laundry do not contain water softeners and therefore have more difficulty in dealing with hard water conditions. Residues occur most commonly on cottons (although residues can form on other fabrics as well) and are more visible on darker, solid colored items. Typical factors in the formation of residue (in order of importance) are hard water, not putting the detergent in first and allowing it to mix with water before adding your clothes to the wash, and overloading your washer. Any one or a combination of these factors can result in residue problems. To counter residue problems, the first thing you should do is make sure that you add detergent first to your wash basin and let the
