November 9th, 2006
E-Mail’s from Charlie
Well, after emailing back and forth with Charlie, from Charlie’s Soap, I can say two things… I feel more confident about my diaper soap, and I am glad my name is not Kudzu…LOL I’ll explain the joke at the end of this post.
Charlie emailed me today to thank me for the nice note on this blog about his product. I took that opportunity to ask him these questions in a series of emails… H is me, C is Charlie Sutherland. I am posting only the relevant portions of the email, but everything I do post is a direct quote, no changes… I hope that makes sense.
H: I have a front loader and wash my own diapers, so thank YOU for a product that works with both. I did find after a while they were stinking again, but a friend of mine called your company and they were told to add bleach occasionally and that is what I have been doing with great results.Is there any connection with your soap and Sport’s Wash? Just curious, I have 8 bottles of Sport’s Wash that I am not using because it made my baby rashy, but yours has not, so I am curious if there is any truth at all to the rumor?
**********C: We were first introduced to Atsko in the 80′s when my late father-in-law, HC Amick, introduced me to Kurt Von Besser, the owner. It seems Kurt needed some help creating a laundry detergent for cleaning camouflage. I helped him out with a few hints, and he started making the great product, Sport-Wash, and soon he began to look for new markets for his new product. Of course their soap was similar to mine – that’s where things began.
Since then, I have branched out into new markets with my own products. We have kept in touch and help each other from time to time. Last summer, we started shipping our own Charlie’s Soap (the all purpose cleaner) in tankers for them to package it for another company to sell under their own name to the woodworking industry for cleaning saw blades.
We have been close to Atsko for many years, and they have helped me with my manufacturing and bottling, and I have helped them in their research and formulation when they felt they needed it. I even made a hair and body soap and a dog shampoo for them. I thought they were pretty good, but Atsko has since created their own without me.
Those folks have done well with their products. I understand they have dermatologists, and pediatricians stocking and dispensing their laundry product, Sensi-Clean (Sports-Wash) to folks with sensitive skin. I think that that program is still running, but I don’t know for sure. So, I would imagine you could use up the Sports Wash like ours and add a little bleach. But, I don’t want you to get hooked on it.
The “stinky” that you are getting from time to time is most probably caused by residual bacteria that Charlie’s didn’t kill and also didn’t completely wash away either. We recommend, now that some folks are having some difficulties, that diapers be given two full wash cycles with a full scoop of powder or a full pump of the liquid each cycle if they are not using bleach. There may still be some bacteria left, but not enough to create a dangerous colony in the short time between washings.
Many thanks again for your support
**********H: Do you mind if I post part of your email on my blog? You have given me such great information I would love to share it. I think I will also try your bleach alternative method, since my pocket diapers are not supposed to be bleached, but nothing else was killing the stink.
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C: I have no problem at all with your posting any of this, but hard water can also give problems. However, that can be solved as well with information from the two papers attached. One paper is from Texas A&M ( I doctored this one to clarify some terms) and one from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania (which I didn’t)
Lowe’s has TSP (get the real phosphate) for cleaning walls before painting.
I know that phosphate has a bad name, but when used in moderation is a Godsend and not a problem. Otherwise the extension services would not be recommending it. It can also help with the stinkies.
So there you have it… I do not feel there is any deception on the part of Charlie’s Soap about it’s involvement with Sport’s Wash. I still stand by my conclusion of them being different soaps, as I had different results. I also plan on using Charlie’s suggestion of two washes with soap, instead of bleaching as often. Probably 6 double washes to each bleach wash.
I also wanted to include this report on hard water, as this post is already long I will not paste the clarified report that has specific instructions on how to apply the information to Charlie’s, but if you email me and ask for it, I will happily pass it on to you.
OK, for the kudzu reference… in a nutshell Charlie was talking about a visit to Scottland where he came across a pretty, but noxious weed, heather. In town he met a girl named Heather and remarked to her parents that they must not be from around there and they laughed and said no, and that their daughter had recieved some teasing for her name. He compared being named Heather in Scottland to being named Kudzu and living in North Carolina where he is.
