Fluid, cold-stable, two-component washing compositions and method of washing textiles

A method of washing soiled textiles consisting of the steps of adding a washing agent consisting of two components, A and B, wherein conponent A is an aqueous dispersion of fatty acids consisting essentially of

• (a) from 15% to 35% by weight of a C.sub.12-18 fatty acid having from 60% to 100% of the fatty acids of oleic acid,
• (b) from 2% to 6% by weight of potassium hydroxide and from 2% to 6% by weight of triethanolamine, where the total amount is such that from 50% to 95% by weight of the fatty acids are present as a potassium or triethanolamine soap,
• (c) from 4% to 10% by weight of an ethoxylate of from 5 to 12 ethoxylate units onto a primary alcohol selected from the group consisting of linear C.sub.8-14 alkanols and C.sub.8-14 -2-methylated-alkanols,
• (d) from 4% to 10% by weight of a sodium C.sub.10-14 -alkylbenzenesulfonate,
• (e) from 0.05% to 1% by weight of an alkali metal salt of substituted stilbenesulfonic acid optical brighteners,
• (f) from 5% to 15% by weight of alcohols selected from the group consisting of C.sub.1-3 -alkanols and mixtures of C.sub.1-3 -alkanols with up to 50% by weight of the mixture of C.sub.1-4 -alkoxy-C.sub.2-3 -alkanols or C.sub.1-4 -alkoxy-C.sub.2-3 -alkoxy-C.sub.2-3 -alkanols, and
• (g) from 35% to 50% by weight of water, and component B is an aqueous solution of alkalies consisting essentially of
• (h) from 2% to 7% by weight of sodium tripolyphosphate and from 2% to 7% by weight of potassium tripolyphosphate, where the total amount is from 5% to 12% by weight,
• (i) from 0.5% to 4% by weight of 1-hydroxyethane-1,1-diphosphonic acid in the form of the sodium or potassium salt,
• (j) from 10% to 20% by weight of potassium hydroxide and from 0 to 5% by weight of sodium hydroxide, where the total amount of alkali metal hydroxide is from 10% to 20% by weight,
• (k) from 0.5% to 3.5% by weight of an alkali metal silicate of the composition Me.sub.2 O:SiO.sub.2 =1:1 to 1:3.5 where Me is sodium or potassium,
• (l) from 0 to 2.5% by weight of a sequestering agent selected from the group consisting of alkali metal salts of polyaminopolycarboxylic acids and alkali metal salts of polyaminopolyphosphonic acids, and
• (m) from 50% to 70% by weight of water, where the ratio of component A to component B in the combination for washing is from 1:1 to 1:4;
• and where the washing liquor has a pH of from 9.5 to 14;
• to an aqueous wash liquor containing soiled textiles in such amounts that the total amount of all active washing ingredients including wash alkalies is from 2 gm to 8 gm per liter of wash liquor, agitating said textiles in said wash liquor, draining and rinsing said textiles and recovering clean textiles, where the water employed has a German hardness degree of less than 10 .degree.dH and the wash:liquor ratio is from 1:4 to 1:8.