The forces acting between hydrophilic mica surfaces across 0.1wt% aqueous ethyl(hydroxyethyl)cellulose (EHEC) solutions have been investigated with a surface force apparatus. It was found that EHEC adsorbs rather weakly onto these surfaces, and that the adsorbed polymers at low temperatures (20°C) are easily squeezed out from between the surfaces on compression. The force distance curve is purely repulsive at this temperature, and up to the point where EHEC molecules are squeezed out from between the surfaces, all forces were found to be reversible on compression/decom-pression. Hence, up to this point the experiments were performed under close to quasi-equilibrium conditions. The adsorbed amount increases with temperature and it becomes more difficult to remove the polymers from between the surfaces by applying a compressive force. At a temperature of 45°C, which is 6° above the cloud point, a weak attractive force was experienced on separating the polymer coated surfaces from contact. On diluting the solution to roughly 10-4 wt%, some of the adsorbed polymers desorb. A comparison with the forces acting between EHEC coated mica and EHEC coated hydrophobic surfaces demonstrates the importance of the surface-polymer interaction.