[geeks] Washing lots of Lego

[der Mouse]

> Is any soap better or worse than, say, dish soap (e.g., Palmolive or
> Joy)?

Dish soap generally isn't - soap, that is.  It's usually detergent.
Depending on what kind of grunge is on the lego, detergent might work
better or worse than soap.

The difference here is that detergent cleaves lipids (fats/oils) on the
spot; soap works almost entirely as an emulsifier and surface-tension
reducer.  I'm not chemist enough to know to what extent detergent works
as well on petroleum-based oils as on biologically generated oils -
chemically, they have some important differences, but I don't know
enough about detergent chemistry to know whether they're relevant.

In general, you might want to consider the effects of what you're using
on the plastic, but in the case of lego I doubt the plastic will be
affected substantially by anything short of sledgehammers like acetone.

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