Uses of laundry detergent

Uses of laundry detergent

Laundry detergent is used by almost every household in the developed world, so its production and sale has become an important industry. One can find many different brands of laundry detergent in the shops, and each one may claim to have any number of special qualities. Each brand has its own instructions on how it should be used and what amount to use written on the container it comes in. Some brands of laundry detergent purport to be more concentrated and can be added in smaller amounts. The detergent can be added onto the laundry or to the wash water at the start of the wash, or it can be added beforehand or soon after starting the wash into a special compartment in a washing machine made for that purpose, to be flushed into the wash by the wash water. Often bleach is a separate additive to the wash, but there are laundry detergents which have bleach already blended in with them.

All laundry detergents are soluble in water so as to make the water more effective at cleaning the laundry. The detergent does its work and is needed during the initial "Wash" cycle to separate the dirt or soil out from the fabric. The purpose of the rinses which follow is to rinse the washer with the detergent residue from the laundry as well as to remove the dirt suspended in the wash water by replacing the initial wash water with fresh water.