Washing Soda - Uses?

Washing soda is also known as calcium carbonate (Na2CO3).

My experience with washing soda has been a relatively positive one. Washing soda is a good addition to the laundry process as it both softens water and enhances detergents ability to clean. Washing soda is effective in my experience on grease so I utilize a solution of it to pretreat stains to good effect. Washing soda can also be utilized in cleaning around the house such as cutting through soap scum in a bathroom or removing coffee ring stains from coffee pots.



How do you use washing soda?

All of the above . . . mixed with sodium bicarbonate (4 parts) to washing soda (1 part) - excellent for degreasing grill pans and stove tops.   Also neat 2 tablespoons to 1 tablespoon detergent for scouring cotton - amazing the difference it makes to the colour and softness.   Also used sparingly to alter the pH of a natural dyebath using leaves etc to alter the colour - doesn't always work, but sometimes makes a dramatic change.    Permanence of colour can also be a problem - e.g Oxalis cornuta (soursob) makes a neon yellow that changes to a neon orange - think safety vests - but neither is lightfast - great pity!
Edit:- to add - keep it away from wool in large concentrations

It works well for the electrolysis technique of removing rust from metals.

I have used it to sterilize the floor of the pigeon motorhome. In spring, with the thaw, the low quality but non herbicide hay comes out (it's like layer cake with pigeon poop and ash layers and 6" base of hay), and the pigeons get relocated while the pigeon "tractor " airs out. Once the hay is out, I sprinkle ashes, clean, then baking soda. That baking soda goes on a new compost pile, one with a lot of spruce branches and oak leaves (acidic) and by the second year, tomatoes love it.

I sometimes put a treatment of Epsom salts on as well, because the metal floor is covered in plywood and the Epsom salts will draw moisture even better than baking soda, and having acidic soil, everything needs magnesium.

Both are bought by the 50 lb bag.

Also baking soda is good for dusting the truck interior carpeting to keep down doggy odor. Shop vac the dusting

I’ve seen it used in making Asian noodles. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve eaten them in different parts of Asia and they are pretty tasty.

I was once served pasta cooked with baking soda, or so they said later.  The pasta was quite soapy tasting, leading me to wonder 30 some years later if it was really baking soda that was accidentally put in the pasta.  There were 30 of us eating meals together, and pretty much everyone left the pasta un eaten.  Later fresh pasta was supplied, but we had finished our dinners and we had another class to go to.  There was some discussion about the soapy noodles, but the course we were taking was a lot more interesting than someone’s mistake….

But how come those noodles were so soapy?

I did a little internet searching and found  recipes for home made ramen that said baking soda in the pasta water made them chewy like ramen.  And some discussion about adding washing soda instead of baking soda too.  But apparently baking the baking soda changes the chemical make up of the molecule, or do I call it a crystal?  I don’t know, but you end up with the identical chemical formula as washing soda.  It drives a hydrogen off.  But the warning was not to use washing soda in food because the manufacturing process is different for food grade “washing soda” than non food grade  washing soda and impurities are allowed in washing soda that are not allowed in food grade products.

When I have nixtamalized corn with baking soda, slipped the seed coat and rinsed well, it still had a hint of soap.  

I don’t mean to draw the thread off topic here by any means.  I was confused by the suggestion of using washing soda to cook noodles.  Did some research and I remain confused.  I wanted to add a note of caution alongside the idea of eating washing soda.

I would imagine the pasta was boiled not baked -- I wonder if this then applies that the two sodas are the same

There are recipes for making shortbread cookies with baking soda and I think they all taste salty. (Since I was a child, I always made shortbread with wheat flour, rice flour, fine sugar and butter.)

[quote=Thekla McDaniels]I was once served pasta cooked with baking soda, or so they said later.  The pasta was quite soapy tasting, leading me to wonder 30 some years later if it was really baking soda that was accidentally put in the pasta.  There were 30 of us eating meals together, and pretty much everyone left the pasta un eaten.  Later fresh pasta was supplied, but we had finished our dinners and we had another class to go to.  There was some discussion about the soapy noodles, but the course we were taking was a lot more interesting than someone’s mistake….

But how come those noodles were so soapy?

I did a little internet searching and found  recipes for home made ramen that said baking soda in the pasta water made them chewy like ramen.  And some discussion about adding washing soda instead of baking soda too.  But apparently baking the baking soda changes the chemical make up of the molecule, or do I call it a crystal?  I don’t know, but you end up with the identical chemical formula as washing soda.  It drives a hydrogen off.  But the warning was not to use washing soda in food because the manufacturing process is different for food grade “washing soda” than non food grade  washing soda and impurities are allowed in washing soda that are not allowed in food grade products.

When I have nixtamalized corn with baking soda, slipped the seed coat and rinsed well, it still had a hint of soap.  

I don’t mean to draw the thread off topic here by any means.  I was confused by the suggestion of using washing soda to cook noodles.  Did some research and I remain confused.  I wanted to add a note of caution alongside the idea of eating washing soda.[/quote]

From the recipes I've seen, when they use baking soda they heat it first, which changes it to washing soda. And good point to use food grade sodium carbonate.

Wow, these are all really great uses!
I do add it to each load of laundry.

But, I have used it for many years to boil deer and elk skulls.
These are known as European mounts.
Generally done outdoors.
A two-step process, that first removes meat and tissue and then turns the skull a chalky white.
Care must be taken to keep the antlers out of the boiling water, which is quite the job with a good-sized elk.

I second the use of washing soda as an electrolyte for electrolytic rust removal.  I de-rustificated a Joyce-Cridland locomotive jack in a plastic trash can, using washing soda and a battery charger (and some cheap stainless kitchen implement or other as the sacrificial electrode).  The jack looks more or less like the one in Fig. D 244, here:
https://archive.org/details/JoyceCridlandJacks1914/page/n5/mode/2up
As I recall, it is the 10 ton rated model, though it might be the 15 ton model.  I've used it a couple of times.  It has a "toe" down low, and a pad up high.  As I recall (this was 25 years ago), I had to pay for 130 pounds of retail scrap from the salvage yard, so that's a better match to the weight of the 15 ton unit on this catalog page.  Or, maybe the scrap scale wasn't very accurate for "small" weights!

Also, a saturated solution of washing soda makes what was historically known as "suds", used as a water-based coolant when machining (turning or milling) certain metals.

Lastly, and I haven't tried this yet, but mixing natron (washing soda) with quick lime (calcium hydroxide) will make a strong base (sodium hydroxide - lye) which can be used when making geopolymer cements.  Geopolymers can be used for everything from making waterproof linings of cisterns and conduits to making high temperature refractory materials.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pyramidtexts/5936327538/in/photostream/
Playing with geopolymer chemistry is on my list of projects.  I've borrowed Davidovits's geopolymer book from my local university library several times, but haven't yet sprung for a hard copy of my own.  I am not enough of a chemist to know what I am doing with this.  But, if you need to make lye from reasonably "safe" ingredients, this may be an option.  Not that slaked lime is exactly "safe", but safe-ish, anyway.

Mike Barkley wrote:It works well for the electrolysis technique of removing rust from metals.

I forgot, it can be used to make a chelating rust remover like evapo-rust.

The recipe is:

40 grams washing soda
100 grams citric acid
one liter of water

I'll convert it to quarts etc one day. Recipe comes from a cool youtuber, who I cannot remember at this time.
But it is a cool non toxic way to remove a lot of rust with little damage to your parts.

Jason

about the pasta with baking soda---- (quoting mechanism is acting odd)

I often use baking soda to cook noodles. The same stuff I bake with. I usually use about 2 teaspoons for a full pot of pasta (think packet of spaghetti), and because the pasta I want more alcaline always goes into some sort of Asian soup or dipping sauce (ramen, chuka soba, etc etc), the pasta is thoroughly rinsed afterward. If you don't rinse it, you'll get a mouthful of slithery soapiness like a homemade pretzel but way worse.

Jason Learned wrote:

I'll convert it to quarts etc one day. Recipe comes from a cool youtuber, who I cannot remember at this time.

Jason

Kevin Olson wrote:

Jason Learned wrote:

I'll convert it to quarts etc one day. Recipe comes from a cool youtuber, who I cannot remember at this time.

Jason

Yes. That is the guy. Thank you

Jason Learned wrote:Yes. That is the guy. Thank you

Jason -

You're welcome.  I think I first saw it on the "Wood by Wright" channel, in which he cleaned up a plane sole, and the show notes pointed to this video.

I have some citric acid and washing soda waiting in my "paint room" - the stash of household and automotive chemicals.  I need to remove surface rust from a couple of metal plane bodies, a milling machine knee crank and 2 cross cut saws (a one-man buck saw and a 2-man felling saw).  The cross cut saws might be able to be wrapped (carefully!) wet in a plastic drop cloth, or perhaps in a length of plastic sewer pipe (rolled around a bit from time to time).  The plane bodies and knee mill crank can just get dropped into a bucket or whatever.

If it's as good a solution (no pun intended!) as it appears to be in this video, I can never buy Evaporust again!

Kevin

If I recall correctly (code for don't trust this with your life), when I worked at the outdoor pool in my hometown, we had soda ash on hand to adjust the pH of the water.

I'm a beekeeper. It's the very best thing to use when cleaning clothing or equipment that has propolis or beeswax staining. It saponifies the fats which then dissolve. One of my aims for this winter is to get a large enough plastic tub with a good lid so that I can whole beehive boxes (mine are polystyrene) so I can strip the residue back for a fresh coat of paint and reuse in the spring. I've not tried it before but my understanding is that they need about a week in a cold water bath, followed by a hose off to remove any final residue. The wash water can be used for multiple cycles.

I stumbled onto a video not only explaining a bit about washing soda but also how to make it.

It is pretty straight forward!

Washing soda is hands-down the best way to get blood out of anything (provided it hasn't been washed and dried already, though even then it can still lighten the stain even if fabric softener has been used).  Just add like a teaspoon or more to a sinkful of cool water and let it go for a few hours.  I've used it mostly on cotton and cotton-poly blends, and it works on heavy fabrics just fine.  I've never tried wool or finer fabrics that might be damaged (like silk or rayon), but I think they'd be fine.  

I'm thinking that since it's such a great rust remover, it works on the iron in blood and that's what gives it such miraculous power.

I have recently been testing the mixture of washing soda and hydrogen peroxide to create a sodium percarbonate solution. I have been utilizing 1:1 parts in order to make essentially an 'oxygen bleach'.

My first test was on some small spots of mold that had developed behind my bathroom molding that I am replacing. I applied the solution, let it sit for a few minutes, then wiped it off with water. I did two applications like this and I am incredibly pleased.

My next test is as a laundry presoak for stains. I am expecting to need to dilute the solution to prevent unwanted color bleaching so I'm going to try and do it on something I won't mind 'ruining'.

Alkaline chemicals can be used both for cleaning and food. But of course, the purity and concentration are different for different purposes.

NaOH/ lye/ caustic soda/ sodium hydroxide: a very strong alkaline, so strong it is able to dessolve very stable hairs (keratin protein) as a drain cleaner (up to 50% NaOH). When food grade lye is used in a low concentration solution (3-4% NaOH) to coat dough surface, it hydrolyzes proteins to amino acids for Maillard reaction, giving pretzels the characteristic dark color.

Na2CO3/ washing soda/ sodium carbonate: tenderize meat, neutralize acidity, making noodles smooth and chewy, does not release CO2 in cooking. Use no more than 0.6% of flour weight.

NaHCO3 / baking soda/ sodium bicarbonate: tendetize meat, neutralize acidity. When used in cooking, CO2 is released, resulting in the airy and fluffy texture in baked or steamed goods. Use 3-5% of flour weight.