Why is it that a little detergent cleans the clothing wash better than a lot of detergent? [closed]








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People are accustomed to put a large amount of detergent in the washing
machine to do their laundry thinking that if there is not enough it
won't clean the soiled clothing. But I have read that too much detergent
will not clean as well as putting in a smaller amount. Why is that?


If the clothing is really soiled, you would think that a lot of detergent
will attract more dirt and oil particles rather than a smaller amount of
detergent.




If your book stated that using a small amount of detergent would remove heavy soiling better than using a larger amount for a *single* wash, then I say it's bunk.


If your book stated that using too much detergent *on a regular basis* could result in a dirtier wardrobe, then there is a good explanation for that.


Let me use a more common but analogous process to explain: carpet cleaning. Though detergents generally work best in aqueous solution, residual, dried-up detergent still tends to bind to organics (or various types of undesirable "*dirt*") pretty well. So when one has a difficult to remove stain, they clean it repeatedly with highly concentrated detergent solutions that do not get thoroughly rinsed out of the carpet. Then, even if the stain is removed, that area quickly becomes soiled again due to the residual detergent sticking to more dirt than the rest of the detergent-free carpet.


Tying the carpet-cleaning analogy to laundering clothing is then pretty straight-forward. If one always uses more detergent than can be reasonably removed during the rinse cycle, then their clothing will tend to soil again more easily than if they had used an amount that could be largely removed during the rinse cycle. Thus, regularly laundering with too much detergent could result in a dirtier wardrobe than using a smaller amount of detergent.


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