The forces between hydrophobic surfaces across an aqueous solution containing 0.25% ethyl(hydroxyethyl)cellulose (EHEC) and 4 mM SDS have been studied and compared with the situation in the absence of SDS. A long-range repulsive force (measurable at distances smaller than 1200 Å) is present already after an adsorption time of 30 minutes. The range of the repulsive force increases with time indicating that the adsorption process is rather slow. After 20 hours equilibration, the repulsion was measurable at separations smaller than 2500 Å. The force is rather insensitive to temperature and decays at large separations essentially exponentially, with a decay-length of approximately 300 Å. The force measured on compression is always slightly larger than the one observed on decompression. Hence, the forces are not measured in a true equilibrium situation. The system behaves strikingly different in the absence of SDS (Malmsten and Claesson, Langmuir, in press). Without any surfactant in the EHEC solution less long-range and completely reversible forces are observed. Hence, SDS causes the polymer conformation to be more extended, and is responsible for the non-equilibrium effects observed (e.g. by decreasing the polymer-surface affinity). The adsorbed amount in the presence of SDS was found to be about 1.7 mg/m2 at adsorption equilibrium, independent of temperature (20°-35°C). This is considerably less than in the absence of surfactants (5 mg/m2 at 20°C, 15 mg/m2 at 37°C).