Washing Soda.....a new source

[Lost in the Woods]

From your profile you say you are in the GTA. Do you drive? I did my groceries last weekend 215 km away in order to save some money. There are 3 grocery stores here and 2 are owned by the same guy. $7 for a 4L jug of milk, no bags here, $5 for a loaf of bread. Sometimes if there is something particular I am after, like new work boots or school clothes for the kids we will drive 500km to the big city to buy those things. I lived in Brampton, Mississauga, then near Barrie and trust me, you have one of everything in your "neck of the woods". Except walleye fishing walking distance away, moose, deer and bear hunting a short quad ride away.

Any worse, I'd think your real name is Robinson Crusoe.

[Lost in the Woods]

I've bought Arm and Hammer washing soda in the laundry detergent section of a No Frills store in Newmarket.

Kevin.... in your post above you using the term 'baking soda' whereas George was talking about baking soda/sodium carbonate.

good luck

michael

For a discount grocer, I'm a Food Basic's fan (who also does not carry it which I forgot to mention b4) and my wife is a No Frills shopper. They're both within half a klik of each other, so I should get my butt in there to check them out also especially seeing as they are affiliated with Loblaws. Then again, Sobey's is affiliated with FB, and they don't carry it here where I live at either.

I was trying to disseminate the difference of sodioum bicarbonate and sodium carbonate on wiki earlier, and just plain couldn't be bothered spending the brain energy to understand better, so I'll take your word for it. I'm still in tax season, and all the ones I'm dealing with now are the tuffies, so I gotta use my resources wisely.

But one thing I did pick up quickly reading about washing soda on wiki is that it is very popular for those who have hard water as it helps the soap work easier in your laundry, and seeing as we don't have hard water in this area and everybody is on municipaly supplied water, it may help explain why we are hard pressed to find this product stocked in this area.

Water in this area (GTA in general) has between 90 to 160 PPM particulate levels depending on what time of the year you are calculating and/or which filtration plant it is coming from, whereas "hard" water - if I remember correctly from my brief days in the water industry a few decades ago - is pretty well in the 300 PPM plus range. Mack in Brooklin is actually close to farm/rural areas moreso than I am and it would be a viable product to carry for those on well water likely. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the reason why I can't find it anywhere near where I live. Just a guess.

[Gene45]

Washing Soda is sodium carbonate, Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Both are basic, i.e alkali as opposed to acidic. Both could be used to change the pH in the pool but are not interchangeable for all purposes. I believe Sodium carbonate is about twice as strong an alkali as sodium bicarbonate, and you would use gloves when handling strong solutions. Bicarb can be used as an antacid, if you are plagued with that problem, but you might get too much sodium in your diet.

[ottbot]

I worked cleaning pools and my boss always had huge bags of the stuff- perhaps try that avenue.

[Lost in the Woods]

Finally! Found some at No Frills.

[michaely]

Finally! Found some at No Frills.

Good to hear you were successful.... I add a bit of washing soda to the regular laundry detergent; good for stains, etc.

michael

[Lost in the Woods]

Good to hear you were successful.... I add a bit of washing soda to the regular laundry detergent; good for stains, etc.

michael

We found soaking almost anything stained in Oxycclean for a few days works wonders. But I might just try the washing soda in the laundry as well and see how good it works for itsprimary intended use.

[Legacy]

I found some at my local Loblaws. I had checked a few places before: Walmart (no), Metro (no), Frescho (formerly Price Chopper, no)