That's what I'll do next time but I really miss the convenience of just picking it up at the store.

Yup, the stuff in stores is clearly marked:


TSP substitute

Cheatin' bastards.

Bummer for my location because both links for sources mentioned above use UPS, deathly expensive to ship. If only USPS was offered as an alternative - it's not like TSP is some hazardous chemical that cannot be shipped by air.

That's the tricky part. The brand that I took a picture of sells two different products - one labeled as TSP substitute and one that is not. They've recently changed the mixture though so the "real" TSP product is less than 9%.

Ab,

I got taken on buying the TSP substitute.

And hiding the lower percentage is borderline misrepresentation, IMO.

Like everything else - ****n' lying, cheatin' bastards...

Same thing happened to phosphates in laundry detergents and then to dish washer detergents.

They used the boiling frog technique.

Anyone remember Cascade Sheeting Action? Phosphates is what does that!

You didn't need a ****ing powerball.

F&^%, The box of TSP I bought from Home Depot a few months ago says 6.1% average elemental phosphorous content. Wow.

The label indicates that the box contians pure TSP. TSP is trisodium phosphate dodecahydrate (Na3PO4-12H2O) and should have an elemental phosphorus content of 8.15%. The actual percentage will vary with the degree of hydration.

Yep.

Elemental phosphorus of ~6.5% is about right given some moisture content (the compound is strongly hygroscopic.)

Then they've drastically increased the amount of hydration. The stuff I bought around the time this article came out behaved a lot more like anhydrous TSP than than stuff that's in the store now.

Which brand? Our local Home Depot doesn't have the DEP stuff.

DEP is the only brand I've ever bought. It's sold at Home Depot and Lowes around here.

Knowing what I know now I wish I would have kept some of the packages of boiler-grade TSP that the ship would throw away after they passed their expiration date.

This is what I use, in the dishwasher, at least:

http://www.restockit.com/cascade-automat....

Glassware is actually clear now, not left with a cloudy film.

This is the stuff our local HD has (for MUCH less)

http://www.amazon.com/SAVOGRAN-CO-10622-....

The easiest way to tell if the concentration of phosphates is high is to put a pinch of it on your palm and then add a drop of water.

If you experience the sudden, urgent desire to wash it off then you know you've got the real thing.

Oh, but we got TSA in return, so fair deal

Bought the SAVOGRAN TSP 4.5 LB Box at Home Depot for $10.

Here's how we make it without TSP:
4 Cups – hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 1/2 Cup – Arm & Hammer
1 1/2 Cup Boratine
1 Cup of Baking Soda

Grate the bar of soap and add to the saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until the soap dissolves and is melted.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

How much TSP should we use for the next 5 gallon batch?

Quote:

By 1959, researchers discovered that nearly all laundry detergents sold in the U.S. contained 30 to 50 percent phosphates. Ten years later, they estimated that 20,000 lbs. of phosphorus was infiltrating Lake Erie every single day, rendering whitefish, walleye and blue pike fish populations either dead or in decline. As a result, the public decided that to save Lake Erie, and others like it, the government would need to ban or reduce phosphate levels in popular detergents. In 1971, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, New York, Michigan and Indiana enacted legislature preventing detergents from containing more than 8.7 percent phosphorus. However, many states have not implemented limitations on the amount of phosphorus allowed in detergents, doing nothing to prevent the

Read more:

http://www.ehow.com/list_7178456_types-h....