Sciencemadness Discussion Board

DP washing soda anti cake agent?

NEMO-Chemistry - 19-6-2016 at 09:32

I know sodium carbonate is cheap, one of the cheapest being washing soda, around here i went looking for some arm and hammer soda crystals.

It appears just about every supermarket and other likely shop (including ALDI and LIDL) sell washing soda crystals made by a company called DP (dri pak).


I couldnt find A&H anywhere around here! Anyway on reading the datasheet { http://www.msodistributing.com/Soda_Crystals_MSDS.html}

It seems it says sodium carbonate >30%, water and a anti caking agent.

What is the likely chem used as the anti caking agent? Does anyone know if its likely to be insoluble? Yes I did try and dissolve some soda crystals but it all seemed to dissolve.

My thinking is >30% could be any number but the fact it also list's water then i am hoping the chances are the vast majority of the stuff is sodium carbonate and water.

I dont have a clue what sort of thing is normally used as a anti caking agent or if it would affect any reactions?

So has anyone used this brand before? The most common packet and the one i have is this stuff http://www.homecareessentials.co.uk/acatalog/Dri-Pak_Soda_Cr...

So would i be correct in thinking its pretty much sodium carbonate and little else? Would be great if so as its really cheap!!

Some of the other supermarkets sell it in a different packet but on checking its the same stuff in a different package!

CRUSTY - 19-6-2016 at 09:46

I couldn't really find anything on the anti-caking agent other than the mysterious unnamed agent that's on all of the MSDSs for this, in an unspecified quantity.

Anyways, other than that, I did find a thread, although not the best source, on DMT Nexus about using store-bought sodium carbonate, and a couple of people talk about their experiences with this very brand. The outcomes seem pretty mixed. Sorry I couldn't find more.

EDIT: silly me, forgot to paste the link :D: https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=28...

[Edited on 19-6-2016 by CRUSTY]

NEMO-Chemistry - 19-6-2016 at 10:00

Quote: Originally posted by CRUSTY  
I couldn't really find anything on the anti-caking agent other than the mysterious unnamed agent that's on all of the MSDSs for this, in an unspecified quantity.

Anyways, other than that, I did find a thread, although not the best source, on DMT Nexus about using store-bought sodium carbonate, and a couple of people talk about their experiences with this very brand. The outcomes seem pretty mixed. Sorry I couldn't find more.

EDIT: silly me, forgot to paste the link :D: https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=28...

[Edited on 19-6-2016 by CRUSTY]


Thank you i will give it a read, a bit annoying they are so vague with whats in it! Around here it seems to be the only brand available.

unionised - 19-6-2016 at 10:31

In my experience if you dissolve a lot of the stuff in not much water, there's some insoluble white stuff that I always guessed was CaCO3 but I never checked. It settles or filters out easily enough.
As far as I can tell, the stuff is pretty nearly pure washing soda.

NEMO-Chemistry - 19-6-2016 at 11:20

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
In my experience if you dissolve a lot of the stuff in not much water, there's some insoluble white stuff that I always guessed was CaCO3 but I never checked. It settles or filters out easily enough.
As far as I can tell, the stuff is pretty nearly pure washing soda.


Ok thank you, i did wonder with the 30% sodium carbonate if they were taking the figure without the hydrate bit, so adding on the water would take the purity pretty high?

Its super cheap as no shipping so i guess no harm giving it a go, i didnt want to use something that might have some unknown anti cake agent.

I dont want to do something that releases some nasty! If i get lucky i might get a chance to finish my copper stuff and take a look at this.