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| Homemade washing soda. Note the graininess. Compare to the baking soda picture below. |
Washing soda, also known as soda ash or sodium carbonate has many uses, from acting as pH stabilizer in pools to acting as a water softener to removing calcification in water heaters to making lye pretzels. Washing soda is a beneficial item to have around the house, especially if you want to make homemade laundry detergent, as it is one of the main ingredients. However, washing soda isn’t always so easy to come across (especially if you’re living in a far out place like I do).
Fortunately, washing soda is fairly simple to make at home, not to mention frugal as well. For example, you can get a 12 lb bag of Arm and Hammer baking soda for the same price as a one pound of fancy washing soda from Thrive Market.
Homemade Washing Soda
Ingredients
Baking Soda
Instructions
1. Fill a wide baking dish with baking soda.
2. Heat in the oven at 400 degrees until all the baking soda becomes washing soda. Occasionally mix it so that this process happens faster and more uniformly.
3. Use as needed!
See- told you it was simple! 1 ingredient. 1 step.
The difference between baking soda and washing soda is water and carbon dioxide. Seriously. Baking soda’s chemical makeup is NaHCO3 (1 sodium, 1 hydrogen, one carbon, and 3 oxygen molecules). Washing soda’s chemical makeup is Na2CO3 (2 sodium, 1 carbon, and 3 oxygen molecules). When baking soda is heated up to high temperatures, it breaks down to become washing soda, water steam, and carbon dioxide.
By cooking your baking soda, you can easily and safely get washing soda without needing to travel to far flung places to buy it, and you can make as much as you need at a time and don’t need to lay out a lot of money on buying washing soda. (If you buy baking soda in bulk as I do, you can make washing soda especially cheaply.)
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| Baking soda on the left, washing soda on the right |
So how do you know if your baking soda became washing soda? Baking soda and washing soda look different, feel different, and taste different. If you make your own washing soda, you’ll be able to tell in an instant which baking soda has become washing soda and which has not yet.
But if you don’t believe me that you’ll know immediately, the differences between the two are this:
Washing soda is grainy, baking soda is powdery.
Washing soda is dull and opaque, baking soda is crystalized like salt and reflects light, i.e. it is semi shiny.
Washing soda is separate grains, baking soda clumps together.
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| Baking soda. Note the differences between how it looks and how the above washing soda looks. |
Now, what do you do with your newly made washing soda?
Save it for tomorrow when I’ll teach you how to make homemade laundry detergent!
Have you ever bought washing soda? Have you ever seen it in a store? How does the price differ between washing soda and baking soda? According to Amazon.com, washing soda is three times the price of baking soda. If you’ve bought washing soda, what have you used it for?
For a rudimentary fixer you can use saturated salt water solution.
It'll take a day in room temperature, or about 2-4 hours in slightly elevated conditions.
Can u heat it in a microwave or convection oven
You should be more worried about the heat given off by the oven then the carbon dioxide given off by the sodium bicarbonate. Individuals making them are not hurting environment comma big conglomerate companies are the ones that are hurting the environment.
People if you want to make your own washing soda but are worried about the cost of running your stove, do it in the winter. The heat you create will directly aid in heating your home. This is of course meaningless if you live in a climate that never requires you to warm your home.
I would NOT taste this stuff ! Washing Soda has a PH of 11 which means it is very caustic to skin, lungs, nose, etc. Also toxic.
You put it in a washing machine, not up your nose, or in a crack pipe, get a grip😷
Ugh! In an ultra tired moment I began mixing my dishwasher soap I added Borax, Citric acid and BAKING SODA. I made a large amount and hate to pitch it, do you think I can heat those three ingredients together in the oven, and turn the baking soda to washing soda when the Borax and citric acid have been incorporated? Bugger! HELP!
Roast chicken.
Roast chicken.
There are many advantages of making your own washing detergent: you know what goes in it. There's a lot of chemicals in products that you just don't know what they are doing to the environment and the impact on you. Also you are reducing waste by not buying plastic bottles all the time.
There are many advantages of making your own washing detergent: you know what goes in it. There's a lot of chemicals in products that you just don't know what they are doing to the environment and the impact on you. Also you are reducing waste by not buying plastic bottles all the time.
How about this and do the math. A 4# box of baking soda at Walmart BOUGHT YESTERDAY, cost me $1.98. I ran it through my ELECTRIC oven yesterday for 1.5 hours at a cost of .1785 cents. Based on 11.9 cents a kWh. Total cost? $2.1585 or lets just say for sgg $2.16 or a total cost per ounce of 0.0337265625. Compared to buying Washing Soda from Walmart at $3.24 for 55 ounces or a cost per ounce of 0.0589090909090909
I saved money
Is there any method of converting baking soda into soda ash without using oven? It's for my research so I really need an answer. Thank you
Is there any method of converting baking soda into soda ash without using oven? It's for my research so I really need an answer. Thank you
Speaking of getting a grip, perhaps it'd be a bood idea to read through the comments before telling someone else to get a grip. The OP was referring to a previous comment above in which someone tasted it figuring it was a way to test if it had converted to washing soda or not. You might want to put down the crack pipe next time before commenting… lol
Speaking of getting a grip, perhaps it'd be a bood idea to read through the comments before telling someone else to get a grip. The OP was referring to a previous comment above in which someone tasted it figuring it was a way to test if it had converted to washing soda or not. You might want to put down the crack pipe next time before commenting… lol
I wonder if being at a higher altitude would affect that?
I wonder if being at a higher altitude would affect that?
400 degrees F, not 200. I think it’s 200 degrees Celsius.
Hmmm what about the sun? Will putting it out in Texas heat for a day convert it. 100% energy efficient? Some foil? Idk just thinking..
Are we seriously complaining about 1lb of CO2?
Are we seriously complaining about 1lb of CO2?
“Which I am talking about” links back to your claim to fame of having degrees in both electrical and chemical engineering, which is not anything to be disregarded as to one’s intelligence quotient and each subject’s level of difficulty. However, when you used the modifier “which”, as in you knew which you were talking about, which would mean? Are you are speaking about which field of engineering you’re discussing? What is the chemical composition of washing soda or what level of electricity…heat… wattage…degree…conductivity…convección or the path an electrical current would take or is needed to bring forth the resultant chemical reaction? Whew! I know they could both be broken down into a gazillion, million, trillion, other nanotechnology terms or bits of information. As appreciative and respectful as I am sure that the majority of readers are on this blog post, our eyes tend to glaze over with the “pedacitos”, #unnecessary details, of the whys and wheretofores of washing soda…baking soda….baking bread….soda pop…or was it breaking bad…and POP goes the weasel? You see, Good Sir, we have a
great deal of laundry to get washed; and in addition, we have so many other less glamourous tasks as homemakers,
domestic engineers, to complete while bearing in mind that Cleanliness is King. It certainly does helps to prevent those nasty bacterial illnesses in the babies, children, and husbands we so pridefully try our best to keep happy, warm, safe, and dry.
Oh, did I mention clean? Please stick to the relevant facts or at least those which are discernible by the general population.
We appreciate knowledge. We also acknowledge the necessary and vital contributions Engineers gift to society and the world!
Yet, none is master of all. Thus, you know “what” you are talking about as opposed to “which” you were talking about? Yes?
Gracias~Peace Out🌹
“Which I am talking about” links back to your claim to fame of having degrees in both electrical and chemical engineering, which is not anything to be disregarded as to one’s intelligence quotient and each subject’s level of difficulty. However, when you used the modifier “which”, as in you knew which you were talking about, which would mean? Are you are speaking about which field of engineering you’re discussing? What is the chemical composition of washing soda or what level of electricity…heat… wattage…degree…conductivity…convección or the path an electrical current would take or is needed to bring forth the resultant chemical reaction? Whew! I know they could both be broken down into a gazillion, million, trillion, other nanotechnology terms or bits of information. As appreciative and respectful as I am sure that the majority of readers are on this blog post, our eyes tend to glaze over with the “pedacitos”, #unnecessary details, of the whys and wheretofores of washing soda…baking soda….baking bread….soda pop…or was it breaking bad…and POP goes the weasel? You see, Good Sir, we have a
great deal of laundry to get washed; and in addition, we have so many other less glamourous tasks as homemakers,
domestic engineers, to complete while bearing in mind that Cleanliness is King. It certainly does helps to prevent those nasty bacterial illnesses in the babies, children, and husbands we so pridefully try our best to keep happy, warm, safe, and dry.
Oh, did I mention clean? Please stick to the relevant facts or at least those which are discernible by the general population.
We appreciate knowledge. We also acknowledge the necessary and vital contributions Engineers gift to society and the world!
Yet, none is master of all. Thus, you know “what” you are talking about as opposed to “which” you were talking about? Yes?
Gracias~Peace Out🌹
How long do you bake this? I just sis a cookie sheet for 30 min. (32 oz or 2 boxes of b/s). and it's still like floury. Tastes weird, so dies that mean I have true results?
soda maker machine
How long do you bake this? I just sis a cookie sheet for 30 min. (32 oz or 2 boxes of b/s). and it's still like floury. Tastes weird, so dies that mean I have true results?
soda maker machine