Laundry Cleaning products

Laundry cleaning products are detergents and surfactants formulated to meet a variety of stain and soil removal, bleaching, fabric softening and conditioning and disinfectant requirements under varying water, temperature, and usage conditions. These products are either general purpose or light duty cleaning agents suitable for washing all types of fabrics and clothes.

Laundry cleaning products come in various forms, such as detergents cakes, liquids, powders, gels, sticks, pumps, sprays, sheets and bars. Detergents cakes are typically general-purpose laundry cleansers that can be used all types of clothes and fabrics. liquid detergents have found to be effective on oily soils and for pre treating stains and soils. Detergent powders are especially effective in lifting out and removing clay and ground-in dirt. light duty detergents are used for hand or machine washing applications of lightly soiled and delicate fabrics.

Types of laundry Cleaning products

On the basis of form and usage, the laundry cleaning products can be categorized into following types -

• Detergent powder
• Detergent cake
• Laundry liquid
• Stain and odor eliminator
• Fabric Softener

The laundry cleaning products market also include various types of laundry cleaning aids that include fabric softeners, enzymes, conditioning agents, dry-cleaning fluids, brightening agents, and more. Laundry aids help and contribute to the cleaning action of laundry detergents and offer special functions and benefits.

A brief description of the different types of laundry cleaning aids is given below

Bleaches - Two types of bleaches (chlorine and oxygen) are available in the market as laundry cleaning aids that are used to help remove stubborn stains and whiten and brighten fabrics. Bleaches convert the soils into colorless, soluble particles, which can be removed by detergents and carried away in the wash water. liquid chlorine bleach (generally in a sodium hypochlorite solution) can also be used to disinfect

Boosters - Improve the stain and soil removal, brightening, buffering and water softening properties of detergents. Boosters are used in the wash along with the detergent to improve the cleaning performance.

Enzyme Presoaks - Enzyme presoaks are used for soaking items before washing to help remove difficult soils and stains. When added to the wash water, enzyme presoaks improve the cleaning performance of detergents.

Fabric Softeners - Fabric softeners are laundry-cleaning aids that are added to the final rinse or dryer to make fabrics softer and fluffier. Fabric softeners reduce the static cling, drying and wrinkling time and make ironing easier.

Prewash Soil and Stain Removers - Used to pretreat heavily stained and soiled garments. These cleaning aids have found to be especially effective on synthetic fibers.

Starches, Fabric Finishes and Sizing - These are laundry cleaning aids that are used in the final rinse to make the fabrics more soil-resistant and make ironing easier.

Water Softeners - Water softeners are added to the wash water or rinse to inactivate the minerals of hard water. Water softeners are useful products for improving the cleaning action of detergents in hard water.

Laundry Cleaning products - How they work?

Water, which is primarily used for cleaning, has a characteristic called as surface tension. Under the surface of water, every water molecule is surrounded and attracted by various other molecules. At the surface, however, these molecules are surrounded by only those water molecules, which are inside water. As the molecules at the surface of water are pulled inside the body of water, surface tension is created. This tension causes the water to bead up on surfaces and as a result of which wetting of surface and hence its cleaning performance slows down.

To achieve effective cleaning, the surface tension thus created should be reduced so as to make water spread and wet the surface. The laundry cleaning products are formulated using one or more surfactants to achieve effective cleaning. Surfactants in laundry cleaning products also impart some other important cleaning functions, such as loosening, emulsifying, and holding the soil in suspension until it can be rinsed away. Today, the surfactants used in detergents are made from various types of petrochemicals and oleochemicals.

Laundry Cleaning Tips

• To achieve effective cleaning performance, it is most important that you use a laundry-cleaning product that suits your fabric and wash method. Different types of laundry cleaning products are available in the markets that are meant for different applications. So carefully read the ingredients to know what a particular product is meant for.
• As some clothes special care like dry-cleaning, which cannot be done at home. These clothes should be sent to dry cleaning for better results.
• Another important laundry cleaning tip is to understand the proper water temperature. In majority of cases, hot water gives better results, however not all clothes can be washed in hot water. Generally white fabrics and most linen do best in hot water, while colors or multi-colored fabrics will bleed while some may shrink or wrinkle.
• Before washing clothes always pre-treat the stains to achieve superior results.
• Although most people wash delicate fabrics by hand, these can be washed in washing machine using right product and method. It is important to make sure that you sort your delicate fabrics by color and fabric type. Next, use a laundry detergent specifically formulated for delicate items such as Ivory Snow.