History of Soaps and Detergents

We all take soap products for granted, hand soaps, body soaps, hair soaps, dish washing soaps, car wash soaps, laundry soaps etc. Few people realize the discovery of soap dates back to the Babylonian period, 2800 BC. At that time history has it that animal fats were mixed with ashes and boiled to produce a gel like substance originally used as a hair styling gel..(can you imagine?) It was later adopted as a cleansing agent.

Centuries later soaps were refined, formed into bars, cut into pieces, shaved, cut into flakes. Lifeboy soap appeared in 1895 by Lever Brothers, Ivory soap was developed in 1879 by Proctor & Gamble. Liquid soap was first patented in 1865. The first modern liquid soap called Soft Soap was introduced in 1980 by the Minnetonka Corporation, later acquired by the Colgate Company in 1987 of which William Colgate founded in 1806.

Tide laundry detergent was first test marketed in 1946 by Proctor and Gamble and quickly outsold every other brand of soap in the marketplace…… the race was clearly on to formulate the perfect soap or detergent and continues today by many manufacturers.

The convenience of liquid soaps and detergents has had a profound effect on people’s lives, however it is easy to overdo it by adding more detergent than necessary to perform a cleaning function often resulting in fabrics retaining the cleaning agent and literally creating an environment for mold spores to develop while actually attracting dirt to the fabric.

One must pay close attention to the detergent manufacturer’s instructions and utilize effective dispensing devices to minimize overuse that results in increased costs per wash, shortens washer life, plus adds to our growing concern of polluting the environment.

Of late we have seen the introduction of individual use pre-measured water soluble detergent capsules, impregnated detergent sheets, and oxygenated compounds all at a premium price. None, however, seem to outperform any basic liquid laundry detergent applied in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Why Two Units SudSpenser & SoftSpenser?

The SudSpenser has undergone countless changes and upgrades.  Everyone associated with the development of the unit has labored long and hard to turn it into an exceptional product that we can be proud and confident of.  But, the basic premise of the Sudspenser is to reduce the hassle and inconsistency of manually pouring liquid laundry detergent into the measuring cap..

When we introduced the SudSpenser, our marketing team determined most people were switching from liquid fabric softer to static removing dryer sheets so we decided that there was no reason to develop a product to solely handle liquid fabric softener.  However, as people began to see the benefits associated with using SudSpenser we were being asked by liquid fabric softener users to provide a unit to dispense liquid fabric softener and the SoftSpenser was born.

Both units are essentially the same but the SoftSpenser dispenses only one ounce of fabric softener while the Sudspenser dispenses one and a half ounces of detergent.  Make no mistake – each unit is well constructed, made in America and undergoes a battery of tests before it is entrusted to our clients.  We stand solidly behind every unit and know they will provide exceptional service for many years.

History of SudSpenser

As the word gets out, people keep asking us,“ What ever possessed you to develop the SudSpenser product?”  A great question and here is the answer.

 Back in 1990, Roger Kinnetz (who invented the Sudspenser and is the company President), had two pre-school children who generated a lot of dirty clothes. In that era, doing the wash was mostly relegated to the woman of the house.  Times have certainly changed but the laundry problems remain.

 Being a mechanically- minded person, Roger spent a lot of time in the basement workshop which was next to the washer and dryer so he began tossing in loads of clothes, grabbing the detergent bottle, filling the cap, and dumping it in the washer. Finally, his mechanical mind rebelled and he decided that there must be a better way to handle this drudgery.  He then started experimenting with different methods to handle the gooey laundry detergent.

 After several failures (some of which poured slimy detergent all over the basement floor) he finally devised a pump- timer-time delay and mounted all of the components in a wall-mounted enclosure. Of course, his creative juices were boiling so Roger wasn’t worried about the quickly rising price tag of $200 to create a  system that would pump the detergent into the washer with a push of the button. People who saw it thought it was a great concept.  The problem was that no one would ever pay $300 to get one like it.  And, did we mention you would need to drill holes into the back of their washer?

 But Roger’s wife was ecstatic.  All she needed to do was toss in the clothes, push the button and walk away. Even Roger himself now enjoyed doing the wash. And the story continues for some 8 years until the pump finally gave out. The pump manufacturer had gone out of business and no replacement could be located at a reasonable price. Back to wrestling with the messy detergent bottle…again !

 A few years later, Roger retired from his career in sales and marketing of compressed air systems.  The impact the original laundry dispensing unit had made on his wife resurfaced and he found himself  making a promise to her that he would develop another unit and take it to the marketplace.  Her quest for laundry convenience would drive the establishment of Innovative Dispensing Solutions.

 More and more designs surfaced and sunk.  But finally, one stood the test and the current design emerged.  It proved to be affordable and, after years of exhaustive testing, a patent was applied for. The SudSpenser you see today is a result of many years of testing and improving and that testing continues today.

 Indeed, we now market today’s Sudspenser but Roger still experiments every day to try and improve it.  This is why we believe the Sudspenser is an exceptional product – every one comes with our personal pledge of excellence to our clients.  The obvious “green” benefits are actually secondary – we never even realized that, by making a unit to precisely measure detergent and avoid overfilling, we would help the planet ecology by keeping unneeded detergent from the lakes and streams.  That has proven to be a huge benefit and we are proud to have made it happen. 

 So, the Sudspenser is a real hit and every time we ship one, it is like sending a piece of ourselves out to help people.  That makes it all worthwhile.