Best surfactant you guys use that don’t cost arm and a leg

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What’s the best surfactant you guys use that don’t cost an arm and leg?? I have been using Dawn but wasn’t sure if I should maybe switch to something else

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Welcome. I recommend introducing yourself on the New Member Introduction thread. New Member Introductions

Also there are many topics on personal preference of surfactant.

Here is a link to a thread with most of them listed with links to buy.

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Thanks brother

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You have to realize that using an actual surfactant probably only costs a buck per house wash. It might seem like they cost an arm and a leg but don’t. You should be passing the cost onto the customer, anyways. Just add a dollar to each house wash.

Dawn is considered a degreaser. Many have been burned by using it because it can remove oxidation.

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Man thanks for that info. That’s true. Looking for something at Home Depot I can pick up in the morning. Any ideas? Any specifics to stay away from??

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If you’ve got to have tomorrow, go to grocery store and get some Arm & Hammer laundry detergent. Gallon about $8 - start with about an oz per gal of mix but may need to bump up depending on your injector. Why not just order a gal of Elemonator to keep on hand?

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I tried Gain…meh. Arm & Hammer smells great and works in a pinch but doesn’t ‘stick’ very well. Get some Elemonator, Snotmenade etc when you can.

Dawn is perfect for window cleaning, not so much for house washing.

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So a guy, Joe Derry uses this

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I can’t seem to find it here but thought about using this

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What do you think??

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Or should I do something like this??

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My injector is 7:1…

So if go straight 10% SH, I have a 1.33% pull

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Just get some eliminator you won’t regret it

Gotta spend money to make money

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I tried to dabble with those surfactants… in fact Joe inspired me to try them. In the end for me I had a moment where I was like… dude what are you doing? I spent good money on equipment, I spent thousands on marketing to get these leads, and now I’m standing in a client’s driveway experimenting with dollar store soap.

For me I use Cherry Snotmenade. It costs me about .13 cents an ounce, and assuming I use 50 gallons of roof mix on a nice sized house I’m out $6.50 for the surfactant vs 5-6 jugs of dollar store soap which would be pretty close to the same cost.

I respect whatever everyone uses - if you master the store bought soap - good on ya! For me I value the consistent results and having one less thing to worry about on the job site.

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I won’t summon her, but a member here is a chemist and she pointed out some of those laundry detergents actually reduce SH effectiveness.

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So I used The arm and hammer for today (shown above) and it worked well. Didn’t quite mask the smell of SH that well considering I was downstreaming at at 1.33%.

Definitely going to order some Elemonator thought. Thanks for y’all’s input.

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If you’re washing vinyl, that’s a pretty hot mix. Not really necessary. And it costs you more.

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Rather than ■■■-u-me you’re getting that mix, do a bucket test and find out for sure.

Lol it edited assume.

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LOL, you were asking for some soap you could use, not for masking. Seriously though if you’re shooting that hot a mix for a hw, elemonator not going to mask it all either. About 1/2 of that good for most homes unless really bad. Plus most people like the smell of bleach these days.

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