Im not sure if you can use this to make the liquid but i don’t think it will hurt it to bad, just use about 1 1/2 c. of the powder mixture, Because you are putting the borax and the washing soda in then really try not to boil the water when melting the mixture, the ingredients could foam up and loose their cleaning abilities, but try it out, i don’t think it will be bad, just might not combine very well, just remember to mix or shake the mixture before using in the washer.
if it works post back, i love getting things ready and if i can mix it all together and just throw it in the water at the beginning will make it a lot easier.

I do use vinegar as a rinse for the laundry and dishwasher and as a cleaner for just about everything since I try to avoid harsh chemicals. I did use a bottle of lye about a month ago and that did clear the hair clogs, but since my septic was full, it didn’t do much for the gurgling. However, since pumping the tank yesterday, no more gurgling.

I will definitely be doing the RidX thing every month from now on. I figured the rare bleach (for whites) is going to kill the enzymes I need for the septic. Do you know if lye kills those enzymes? I know when I read the bottle, it said it was safe for septics but I figure if its strong enough to eat through hair clogs, it’s probably going to kill everything. I know that I’ll probably need the lye every once in a while for the hair clogs as nothing else works has worked in the past.

Again, thanks for all your info and suggestions!

Thanks again for the help.

1/2 c. grated bar soap (fels naptha is best)
1/2 c. borax
1/2 c. washing soda
10-12 cups of water
if your inclined, essential oils of your liking, but i found that with fels naptha you really don’t need any

take 2 cups and boil it on the stove, slowly add the 1/2 c. boiling water, (its best to do it slowly so you don’t have unmelted clumps and essentially the same problem as you are having in the first place)
Note: do not let the water boil as you are adding the soap, from what i understand it will cause the detergent not to set right and separate more then it should.

After all the soap is melted, take it off the heat, stir in the 1/2 c. borax and washing soda making sure you break up any clumps. now put this mixture into a larger pot, or container (preferably one you can stir really easy because if you put this into a detergent bottle right off the bat you will have a problem when you have to break up the mixture)

stir in the remaining 8-10 cups of water, (if you like your detergent strong add only 8 but i have found that 10 works just as well as
mix it really well, breaking up any clumps that may still be in the mixture.

Let this sit for at least 24 hours or if you leave it outside in the cold at least 12-14 hours, this should give it sufficient time to set up. if you would like stir the mixture a little every hour or so, this makes it a little easier when its finished.

After the 24 hour period mix it up, preferably with an electric mixture (when it is set it should look similar to jello, but a little stiffer)
try to break up all the clumps, but don’t over mix, this can cause the mixture to separate, but i haven’t had that happen to me yet so im just telling you as a warning. so in the end it should be medium texture, with very small little jello clumps (thats as best as i can describe it)
now you can transfer it into a store bought detergent container if you have it, if not an ice cream tub will work, any container with a lid that has enough room to store it will work but detergent bottle will be best because you do need to shake it or mix it before using it everytime.

when its time to do any washing, use 1/4 c. for general to large loads, for xx larger loads or heavily soiled loads use 1/2 c.
Note before using, mix up mixture to combine all the ingredients.

here is the liquid laundry detergent
Liquid laundry detergent

1/2 c. grated bar soap (fels naptha is best)
1/2 c. borax
1/2 c. washing soda
10-12 cups of water
if your inclined, essential oils of your liking, but i found that with fels naptha you really don’t need any

take 2 cups and boil it on the stove, slowly add the 1/2 c. boiling water, (its best to do it slowly so you don’t have unmelted clumps and essentially the same problem as you are having in the first place)
Note: do not let the water boil as you are adding the soap, from what i understand it will cause the detergent not to set right and separate more then it should.

After all the soap is melted, take it off the heat, stir in the 1/2 c. borax and washing soda making sure you break up any clumps. now put this mixture into a larger pot, or container (preferably one you can stir really easy because if you put this into a detergent bottle right off the bat you will have a problem when you have to break up the mixture)

stir in the remaining 8-10 cups of water, (if you like your detergent strong add only 8 but i have found that 10 works just as well as
mix it really well, breaking up any clumps that may still be in the mixture.

Let this sit for at least 24 hours or if you leave it outside in the cold at least 12-14 hours, this should give it sufficient time to set up. if you would like stir the mixture a little every hour or so, this makes it a little easier when its finished.

After the 24 hour period mix it up, preferably with an electric mixture (when it is set it should look similar to jello, but a little stiffer)
try to break up all the clumps, but don’t over mix, this can cause the mixture to separate, but i haven’t had that happen to me yet so im just telling you as a warning. so in the end it should be medium texture, with very small little jello clumps (thats as best as i can describe it)
now you can transfer it into a store bought detergent container if you have it, if not an ice cream tub will work, any container with a lid that has enough room to store it will work but detergent bottle will be best because you do need to shake it or mix it before using it everytime.

when its time to do any washing, use 1/4 c. for general to large loads, for xx larger loads or heavily soiled loads use 1/2 c.
Note before using, mix up mixture to combine all the ingredients.

here is the liquid laundry detergent
Liquid laundry detergent

1/2 c. grated bar soap (fels naptha is best)
1/2 c. borax
1/2 c. washing soda
10-12 cups of water
if your inclined, essential oils of your liking, but i found that with fels naptha you really don’t need any

take 2 cups and boil it on the stove, slowly add the 1/2 c. boiling water, (its best to do it slowly so you don’t have unmelted clumps and essentially the same problem as you are having in the first place)
Note: do not let the water boil as you are adding the soap, from what i understand it will cause the detergent not to set right and separate more then it should.

After all the soap is melted, take it off the heat, stir in the 1/2 c. borax and washing soda making sure you break up any clumps. now put this mixture into a larger pot, or container (preferably one you can stir really easy because if you put this into a detergent bottle right off the bat you will have a problem when you have to break up the mixture)

stir in the remaining 8-10 cups of water, (if you like your detergent strong add only 8 but i have found that 10 works just as well as
mix it really well, breaking up any clumps that may still be in the mixture.

Let this sit for at least 24 hours or if you leave it outside in the cold at least 12-14 hours, this should give it sufficient time to set up. if you would like stir the mixture a little every hour or so, this makes it a little easier when its finished.

After the 24 hour period mix it up, preferably with an electric mixture (when it is set it should look similar to jello, but a little stiffer)
try to break up all the clumps, but don’t over mix, this can cause the mixture to separate, but i haven’t had that happen to me yet so im just telling you as a warning. so in the end it should be medium texture, with very small little jello clumps (thats as best as i can describe it)
now you can transfer it into a store bought detergent container if you have it, if not an ice cream tub will work, any container with a lid that has enough room to store it will work but detergent bottle will be best because you do need to shake it or mix it before using it everytime.

when its time to do any washing, use 1/4 c. for general to large loads, for xx larger loads or heavily soiled loads use 1/2 c.
Note before using, mix up mixture to combine all the ingredients.

i looked online and saw it for 15 oz but am a little confused, are you using the pink or white, i think the pink is a laundry bar and the white is body bar ( i could be wrong)
so because their recipe uses one 4.5 ounce bar of soap i would recommend you just round it up to 5 oz because the fels naptha is 5.5 (BTW fels naptha isn’t 5.1 its 5 1/2 so 5.5) i know it was probably just a mistype.
so that means your bar of zote at 15 oz should be able to make 3 batches, follow this recipe for your soap, it just upscaled
3 c. of borax (24 oz)
3 c. of washing soda (24 oz)
1 bar zote soap (15 oz)

or of course you can cut the bar of zote in 3 pieces and make it when you need it, but i hate just making it when i need it when i can make an extremely large batch and call it done for the year. i make the liquid version, and put it into 5 90 load containers making 450 loads, so if i did one load a day i would have 450 days of laundry ready. People say they don’t have the room but i don’t use the 5 gallon container, using the store bought laundry containers is perfect, i can hide it all behind my washer and nobody knows i have all that detergent ready. i don’t have a load a day but so truthfully i have probably two or three years worth, and it only took me 30 minutes of work, if i made one batch it would take me 30 so it didn’t take any longer then the small batches.

so currently i am doing research as to know if this stuff is safe for septic tanks and similar, what i know right now is that the borax is safe and actually really good for the septic tanks because it is an odor neutralizer and it works similar to store bought septic tank cleaners i.e. the stuff you use to eat away at anything is in there.
I have emailed arm and hammer about this issue with the washing soda but i don’t think that is your problem either because essentially the washing soda is just a stronger version of baking soda, (now molecularly it is different, once added to water essentially it will separate into oxygen (similar to oxyclean) and baking soda.

the only problem i have found with this is the soap, it will do this with pretty much any time of bar soap you use, im not sure if its not dissolving in the first place or if its re-solidifying after its in the cold septic tank.

I have two suggestions for you and hopefully it will help.

first: Make sure you buy Rid x or its equivalent from your local store, its one of the best things for your septic tanks (talk to your plumber, he can probably recommend a product that would fit your septic tank best)

Two: try altering this recipe a little and turn it into liquid detergent, thats what i do and haven’t had any problems yet.

Liquid laundry detergent

1/2 c. grated bar soap (fels naptha is best)
1/2 c. borax
1/2 c. washing soda
10-12 cups of water
if your inclined, essential oils of your liking, but i found that with fels naptha you really don’t need any

take 2 cups and boil it on the stove, slowly add the 1/2 c. boiling water, (its best to do it slowly so you don’t have unmelted clumps and essentially the same problem as you are having in the first place)
Note: do not let the water boil as you are adding the soap, from what i understand it will cause the detergent not to set right and separate more then it should.

After all the soap is melted, take it off the heat, stir in the 1/2 c. borax and washing soda making sure you break up any clumps. now put this mixture into a larger pot, or container (preferably one you can stir really easy because if you put this into a detergent bottle right off the bat you will have a problem when you have to break up the mixture)

stir in the remaining 8-10 cups of water, (if you like your detergent strong add only 8 but i have found that 10 works just as well as
mix it really well, breaking up any clumps that may still be in the mixture.

Let this sit for at least 24 hours or if you leave it outside in the cold at least 12-14 hours, this should give it sufficient time to set up. if you would like stir the mixture a little every hour or so, this makes it a little easier when its finished.

After the 24 hour period mix it up, preferably with an electric mixture (when it is set it should look similar to jello, but a little stiffer)
try to break up all the clumps, but don’t over mix, this can cause the mixture to separate, but i haven’t had that happen to me yet so im just telling you as a warning. so in the end it should be medium texture, with very small little jello clumps (thats as best as i can describe it)
now you can transfer it into a store bought detergent container if you have it, if not an ice cream tub will work, any container with a lid that has enough room to store it will work but detergent bottle will be best because you do need to shake it or mix it before using it everytime.

when its time to do any washing, use 1/4 c. for general to large loads, for xx larger loads or heavily soiled loads use 1/2 c.
Note before using, mix up mixture to combine all the ingredients.

message me back if you can’t figure this out and i will try to go through it again or i can make a youtube vid or something to show you.

so far i havn’t had any problems with this and know that the soap is dissolved in the end because i have had soap not dissolve before, (store bought) and don’t wan’t to deal with it again.

i will post back with what Arm and hammer says about its use in septic tanks.

Hope this really helps you, if you are still skeptic just know, this liquid version is almost the exact same as any store bought liquid version, the main ingredients in store bought detergents are, water, borax, and washing soda, not to mention all the perfumes and dyes which are dangerous to humans.

Ps.. i have done tests since i started making this 5 years ago and found that this detergent works just as good, if not better then tide. at 1/100 of the price. tide cost on average .25 cents a load, this detergent (at least what i calculated out after buying the cheapest around where i live) turned out to be about 0.014 cents a load (1.4 cents a load) so the numbers speak for themselves.

Pss. also this recipe is still HE compatible so it shouldn’t ruin your washer.

Psss. so while i was writing this i thought about ways that could help clean out your pipes to help your output, make sure that you run vinegar through your sinks and toilets and washer, i would suggest that you buy at least 4 jugs of vinegar (the bigger ones but not the industrial size, the biggest you can find at walmart) and run this through your house for the next couple of months, in your washer, during the rinse cycle use 1/4 c of straight vinegar, the vinegar acts as a natural detergent neutralizer ensuring that any left over detergent is rinsed from your fabrics, it also really helps your whites come out looking like new, this works as a fabric softener because what causes the stiffness in freshly washed cloths is the left over detergent in the fabric. If your washer has a fabric softener slot or tank, you can put that into it, it wont hurt anything.
run a cup of this throughout all of your drains in the house once a week or more along with hot water to help dissolve the detergent that has probably stuck up into the pipes, knowing that if it was full and causing your drains to gurgle im assuming that the detergent came up with it and caked onto your pipes. you should also consider LYE, or commercial drain cleaner, that should dissolve any gunk in your pipes helping the gurgling issue, and hopefully protecting your from future septic tank issues with overflow, Now of course i do not know if vinegar or LYE will hurt your septic tank so i would def talk to a plumber.

Hope this helps you, septic tank issues can be extremely scary, not to mention messy and annoying. Post back if you have any other questions or suggestions.

I’ve been using homemade laundry detergent (with Fels) and the homemade dishwasher detergent for about 8 months, maybe more. We have a septic and built our house about 6 yrs ago. Starting about 4-5 months ago, we noticed that we couldn’t do more than about 2 showers a day or 1 laundry and 1 shower total (2 adults, 2 kids in the house). We would get gurgling in the sinks and toilets. Sometimes we might be okay if we spaced out showers/laundry about 3 hrs apart. We just dealt with it until recently when it started getting really bad to where 1 shower was all it would take before things started backing up into the showers. We figured we must have a clog somewhere in the line and decided to open up the main clean-out and try to clean the lines out from there (advised by a plumber friend). That didn’t work so we ended up getting our septic pumped today, figuring the only thing left was that our tank was full and since we haven’t had it done since we built the house, figured it was time to get it done anyhow. Well, yes, our tank was completely full. But the thing that got my attention was what I saw when they opened the tank…..a lot of large white clumps. Now, I’m not blaming the detergent at all. As a matter of fact, the serviceman stated the detergent wasn’t the problem yet, it was the amount of water we use and our drainfield can’t keep up (which is odd because I have HE frontloaders, and HE/Energy Star appliances). But I just wanted to point out here that the powder detergent DID NOT DISSOLVE. This caught me by surprise because I’ve never had a problem with residue on my clothing or in my washer. I make it in my processor and it grinds up into a very fine powder, just like store bought powder would look. I wash everything in warm or hot with a cold rinse.

So now, of course, I’m paranoid that if I continue using this detergent (no matter how much I like it), it’s going to eventually cause problems, clogging lines and suffocating my drain field. My neighbor has been in her house about 10 yrs (house is over 20 yrs old) and never had her septic pumped, previous owners didn’t either (she bought the house from a relative), and isn’t having any problems, my BIL has been in his house for about 18 years, never pumped, and is fine too. Just seems odd that my house is the newest out of everyone I know, yet I’m the only one that has had a problem with the septic.

Again, I don’t want to blame the detergent, because I love it, but now I’m just worried that I’m doing long term damage.