Expert: Dr. Henry Boyter, Jr. - 6/13/2008

Question
Hi Dr. Boyter,

Just a quick and probably easy question for you: is there anything in soap or commercial laundry detergents that would react with baking soda? I would like to add some baking soda to my clothes' washloads since baking soda is such a great odor-fighter, and I'm wondering if I need to soak my clothes in baking soda separately, or if mixing the baking soda in with the detergent is OK. What is your opinion? Thanks for sharing your expertise.

Answer
This is one of those, "it depends" answers.  If you look at Arm & Hammer's website they recommend all three ways of using it.  If you have time to soak for longer after a regular wash, you will get more bang for the buck.  If you don't want to add time, add to the rinse cycle for odor control, and add to the laundry for cleaning. If you add it to the wash for odor control, you might not get much since it gets used up in the cleaning.  As for "reaction", you shouldn't see any with typical detergents.  You should not use the backing soda with bleach or other laundry additives since they make cancel out the effectiveness of each other.  No bad reactions, just potential canceling.

So as you can see, you do what works for your situation and stink source.


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