Calgon for washing machines: instructions for use

Cal­gon is a rem­e­dy that has long been known to many, which is rec­om­mend­ed to be used in addi­tion to wash­ing pow­der. How­ev­er, not every­one knows what it is for, how it works, whether it is effec­tive and to what extent. Con­sid­er these and oth­er fac­tors.

How to use Calgon

The instruc­tions that come with any pack­age of Cal­gon give dosage rec­om­men­da­tions and explain that this prod­uct should be used depend­ing on how hard the tap water is. For con­ve­nience and accu­ra­cy, and there­fore econ­o­my, a 96 ml mea­sur­ing cup is includ­ed with each Cal­gon pack­age. How much Cal­gon should be poured into the wash­ing machine:

• If the water is of medi­um hard­ness, 32 ml (one third of a mea­sur­ing cup) will suf­fice.
• When the water is hard, you will need 64 ml (two-thirds of a cup).
• If the water in the tap is very hard, you will have to fill up 96 ml (a full glass).

Tablets are eas­i­er to use. One tablet is added per wash for any degree of water hard­ness.

When it is deter­mined how much Cal­gon is need­ed for one wash, the house­wives often have a rea­son­able ques­tion: where to pour Cal­gon in the wash­ing machine (fill in the gel or lay the tablets)? After all, the wash­ing machine has more than one com­part­ment. Cal­gon needs to be poured into the main (largest) com­part­ment — the same place where the pow­der is poured. You can just add it to the pow­der. It is not rec­om­mend­ed to pour the sub­stance direct­ly into the drum of the machine where the laun­dry is placed.

The man­u­fac­tur­er also indi­cates that for max­i­mum effi­cien­cy, Cal­gon should be used con­stant­ly, with­out miss­ing a sin­gle wash.

Composition and forms of release

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Cal­gon is need­ed when wash­ing in an auto­mat­ic wash­ing machine to soft­en the water. What sub­stances are involved in this process?

All water con­tains cal­ci­um ions. And the main active sub­stance of Cal­gon is sodi­um tripolyphos­phate. The process of inter­ac­tion of these two chem­i­cal ele­ments pro­vides water soft­en­ing.

The com­po­si­tion of Cal­gon also includes such sub­stances:

• poly­car­boxy­lates (up to 30%);
• micro­crys­talline cel­lu­lose (up to 15%);
• poly­eth­yl­ene gly­col (up to 5%).

The man­u­fac­tur­er has pro­vid­ed for the ease of use of Cal­gon by devel­op­ing three forms of release:

1. pow­der;
2. tablets;
3. gel.

Cal­gon has a light and unob­tru­sive smell. The pow­der is con­ve­nient in that you can vary the dosage. It is con­ve­nient for those who have not very hard water to inde­pen­dent­ly deter­mine how much it needs to be filled up. This will save Cal­gon and not spill excess. They pre­fer to buy Cal­gon wash­ing machine tablets when the water is very hard. Tablets are also con­ve­nient with pre­cise dosage. The com­po­si­tion of the pow­der, and tablets, and gel are the same.

There are also dif­fer­ent dosages of all three forms of Cal­gon release:

• pow­der pack­ages are 0.55 kg, 1 kg, 1.6 kg;
• tablets are pack­aged in box­es of 12, 15, 32, 35, 40, 70 pieces;
• the gel is avail­able in bot­tles of 0.75 l, 1.5 l, 2 l.

Beneficial features

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Cal­gon is need­ed not only for soft­en­ing water. It pre­vents the appear­ance of scale on the heat­ing ele­ment, and it is scale that often becomes the rea­son that one day the wash­ing machine will need the help of a spe­cial­ist. To pre­vent repairs, the man­u­fac­tur­er of Cal­gon rec­om­mends adding it to the pow­der with each wash. (See also: How to clean the wash­ing machine from scale and dirt)

What are the main advan­tages Cal­gon boasts:

1. Sav­ing wash­ing pow­der (since less is need­ed in soft­ened water than in hard water).
2. Pre­vent­ing the appear­ance of scale on the inter­nal parts of the machine (and there­by increas­ing the life of the wash­ing machine).
3. Preser­va­tion of bright col­ors of linen (because it does not allow scale to set­tle on the fab­ric).
4. Improv­ing the qual­i­ty of wash­ing (since even stub­born stains are washed bet­ter in soft water).

Sup­port­ers of a healthy lifestyle have a com­plete­ly jus­ti­fied ques­tion: can the use of Cal­gon have a neg­a­tive impact on health? It is, after all, a chem­i­cal. Experts say that it is no more dan­ger­ous than ordi­nary wash­ing pow­der, and even pour­ing it into the car, you do not need to wear gloves.

It is, how­ev­er, always worth remem­ber­ing about ele­men­tary secu­ri­ty mea­sures. Store Cal­gon in a dark place so that it is out of the reach of chil­dren. In case of care­less han­dling and acci­den­tal con­tact of the prod­uct with the mucous mem­branes of the eyes, nose or mouth (no mat­ter how much), you need to quick­ly wash it off with plen­ty of clean water. To elim­i­nate this pos­si­bil­i­ty, it is bet­ter to use pills.

Is Calgon really effective?

There are stud­ies that prove the inef­fec­tive­ness of Cal­gon. Some experts claim that it is sim­i­lar in com­po­si­tion to wash­ing pow­der, which also con­tains sub­stances that soft­en water. In addi­tion, Cal­gon only pre­vents the appear­ance of scale in the wash­ing machine, but does not remove exist­ing ones. There are already enough reviews about the point­less­ness of using this tool and even that it can cause a mal­func­tion of the wash­ing machine. If you have nev­er used Cal­gon and scale has formed in the wash­ing machine, then you can always clean it with folk reme­dies, such as ordi­nary bak­ing soda, vine­gar or cit­ric acid.

How­ev­er, many house­wives still use Cal­gon, claim­ing that it retains the col­ors and strength of fab­rics bet­ter, and pre­vents white fab­rics from turn­ing gray.

In this arti­cle, we have pro­vid­ed detailed instruc­tions on how to use Cal­gon for wash­ing machines. They told me where and how much to pour Cal­gon into the wash­ing machine. Now you have to weigh all the pros and cons your­self, cal­cu­late the amount for the pur­chase of Cal­gon and a new wash­ing machine and deter­mine whether to use an addi­tion­al agent when wash­ing or not. If you saw more plus­es than minus­es, buy any form of release that is con­ve­nient for you — pow­der, tablets or gel — and be sat­is­fied with the result.

See also: