Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>A method for testing drycleaning detergents for their ability to inhibit soil redeposition is described. It involves the measurement of soil transfer from a soiled to a clean fabric. The customary practice of using suspensions of a model soil in a detergent solution is a soil‐deposition test and does not give results comparable with the soil‐redeposition test.</jats:p><jats:p>The major argument against redeposition tests in the past has been that they do not permit two detergents to be compared at the same soil concentration in the suspension. It is therefore argued that redeposition tests “stack the cards” against better detergents because soil must be removed before it can be redeposited. Present results refute this argument and show that detergents exhibiting low soil‐removal generally show high graying and vice versa. These two qualities either correlate or they are two aspects of the same quality.</jats:p><jats:p>A possible explanation for the difference between the two test procedures is that the degree of dispersion of soil is much greater in the redeposition test.</jats:p>