First let me preface this by saying that I am definitely on an eco-friendly bent. Teflon soaps are indeed fascinating but they are way too expensive and do really bad stuff to your body and the natural world. I have also abandoned the Cats. Sorry Jack! Will be focusing on eco-friendly amphoterics, and nonionics. These go together good. Never really had much use for the anionics.
Speed 2 is an eco-friendly nonionic surfactant/detergent. It also is a plant derivative. More concentrated then Ecover it seams. Today I did a side by side test. I put one tablespoon of Ecover in one gallon of water in one bucket, and one tablespoon of Speed 2 in one gallon of water in another bucket. A brand new sponge in each bucket. Ecover hardly put out any sudz. It did give me adequate slip however. Speed 2 gave me wonderful sudz, and about 20% more slip. So I guess you might say Speed 2 won. Yet the Ecover IS a great product. I will use in my route work nine tablespoons of Ecover to three gallons. Then I will add the same amount in clear ammonia. For Speed 2 I will use six tablespoons of it to three gallons of water and the same in ammonia for my route work. This gives me incredible speed and perfect sudz with most times no bleed.
wow, that seems like [B]a lot[/B] of soap. I use just a squirt of ecover for 2.5 gallons of water. If I add too large a squirt, I end up with ridiculous bleed (and suds). But I don’t use ammonia- maybe that’s the difference for me.
Guess you’ll have to call me a soap head! But thats OK. I don’t do drugs and only drink one cup of coffee in the morning. So I have to have ‘some’ fun.
Alex. You mentioned bleeding. Something I hate to do. But that was a very insightful thought! A simple test I follow for this is to soap a large part of the window, then run a small squeegee down the middle. There will be a fine line of delineation (actually two) separating the dry glass from the still wet glass. If there is no bleed this line will be perfectly sharp. And I do mean perfectly sharp like the edge of a razor blade. Totally straight. But if your solution bleeds you will be able to watch the solution ‘move over’ to the dry area. By noticing how quickly and how far it moves you can determine how badly your solution is bleeding. I have seen some solutions just reach out like hungry little fingers. Then I have seen some other solutions actually ‘retract’. Tell me that isn’t bizarre! This “retraction effect” is what I call “negative bleed”. I observed it once when toying with a cationic. Never could find that cat again. Must do some tests on bleeding. By the way. Bleeding is also greatly controlled by the hydrophobic/hydrophylic balance of a glass surface, and the humidity of the air, along with the surface tension of the water which is altered by the detergent/chemical.
One more thing. If you’re reading this Jack;… bring back the cat. You are creative in all that you do. I just liked that cat.
Ok Folks I did some testing with Speed 2 from Henry this week.
I compared Speed 2 to Reg Dish soap and Ecover. The Speed 2 creates more sudz then ecover and less then Soap.
The Speed 2 works great it has great slip it leaves a nice shine to.
The ratio I used was a small cap full per gallon with all 3 products.
I will be doing some more testing over the next few weeks with different ratios of product to H2O and adding product such has (alcohol,ammonia,) to see how the Speed 2 response to other additives. So far the product seems to perform very well.
[MENTION=507]Henry[/MENTION]
Cat is back!
Steve is like me. Chair to use as step stool. Paddle ball for waiting while water dries. Lamp to spotlight glass and look for defects. WFP & Wagtal.
Thanx for the cat Jack! That old guy in shorts didn’t cut it. Glad you’re buds with Steve. We do have a little community. And Jim. You guys have given me so many more ideas. This soap thing has really made me think. I did create a ‘soap’ for the Window Cleaning industry many years ago. The name was brought to market but not the formula. It exists to this day. Chris sells it and many other distributors. This experience taught me a great deal about developing commercial products. The truth is it is not easy. It is also necessary to abandon good prototypes sometimes because they cost too much to bring to market. If you couldn’t make enough money off a window job you wouldn’t do it right? Product development is exactly the same way! So;…
As I have been looking at different formulas like teflon and silicone soaps, I have come across some unbelievable proto-soap blends. But how much do YOU want to spend for a three to four gallon bucket of cleaning solution, that you will be dumping down the town sewer in four hours? If you are like me you might spend a buck if you are truly in love. Otherwise its off to the supermarket for some Dawn or a call in to Alex for some Ecover. That Speed 2 that I discovered which is based on a very similar chemistry as the Ecover, would cost too much to bring to market as a commercial product. So where do we go from here? Is this just entertainment for weary minds? Does it have any value? Please come back to me guys. I really want to hear what you have to say.
