Anyone know of a noteworthy brand? I've been using Clorox for a while, wondering if I should be using something else.
I'm also wondering if there's a place I can order online.
I'm also wondering if there's a place I can order online.
Good laundry detergent...
- Thread starter Orsorum
- Start date
I usually buy what's on sale and I don't find a difference between any of them really - regular priced or cheap. They're pretty much all made by 2 companies anyway.
Hmmm.... so, place to buy online? I'd like to buy a large container of it, but the student stores all sell the overly-expensive little containers... gr.
Through savvy marketing and a parade of new and reformulated products, detergent makers have drummed into the public psyche the notion that clean clothes aren't enough. Fighting ring-around-the-collar was once the goal; then the battle cry went out for whiter whites and brighter colors. As the years rolled by, manufacturers rolled out products to attack odors, safeguard fabrics, smell like the great outdoors, banish perfumes and dyes, reduce packaging waste, and keep waterways algae-free by eliminating phosphates. (Phosphates haven't been an issue for years; U.S. laundry detergents don't use them anymore.)
We soiled more than 4,000 white cotton broadcloth swatches with grass, grape juice, tea, coffee, chocolate milk, mud, tomato spaghetti sauce, black ballpoint-pen ink, ring-around-the-collar soil, old motor oil, and makeup. We placed the swatches into identical top-loaders (or a front-loader, as appropriate) and added enough detergent to handle a medium load. We washed them for one regular cycle in water heated to 90° F (typical of today's warm cycles), with a hardness of 150 parts per million. Then we rinsed them in cool water and dried them on a line.
Today's products continue the legacy of one-upmanship. There are detergents with "active oxygen"; with hydrogen peroxide, touted to "rejuvenate" clothes; or with Liquifiber, a trademarked substance that, according to Procter & Gamble, keeps cotton from wearing out in the washer as fast as it would otherwise. Active oxygen is simply a term for chlorine-free bleach; all products can be said to rejuvenate clothes; and we haven't noticed any washers beating up on clothes anywhere near as much as your average 5-year-old.
Some products vow to kill bacteria in your wash load; their maker has sent evidence for that claim to the Environmental Protection Agency. But in fact, all detergents formulated in the U.S. will wash away most bacteria; adding chlorine bleach or drying clothes thoroughly will kill any that remain.
All these niches certainly let manufacturers scratch every consumer itch. Among the dozen versions of Tide, the biggest brand, six are liquid, six powder; each type includes a "regular" nonbleach product with a light scent or a "mountain" scent, a bleach or bleach-alternative product with a light scent or a mountain scent, a "free" product with no added perfumes or dyes, and two products for front-loaders. "People really do like the variety of formulations," says a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, maker of Cheer, Era, Gain, and Tide. Of course, the variations also let manufacturers swipe shelf space from competitors.
Peripheral abilities aside, detergents perform better at their main task--cleaning--than they ever have, based on our tests of 41 products. As in the past, all clean lightly soiled clothes. But the best are now better at tackling a broad range of tough stains while making clothes brighter.
Another major development is the presence of new "high efficiency" detergents sold for front-loading washers. Is this niche really necessary? Yes, because front-loaders do treat clothes differently--they use less water than top-loaders and tumble clothes instead of spinning them. Less water means that regular powder detergent may not dissolve as readily.
The Wisk and Tide front-loader liquids we tested proved extremely effective, at least in a front-loader. The Wisk product provides directions for use in top-loaders, though it's so expensive you might think twice about using it that way. Procter & Gamble does not recommend using the Tide product in a top-loader.
Overall, we found a few excellent detergents, followed by a long list of very good ones, trailed by a couple of mediocre ones. None of the detergents we tested removed our very tough stains completely, but most of them left many of the stains far less noticeable. Some products even worked fairly well on motor oil, which used to stump almost all detergents.
There's good news for people who use liquid detergents, which now account for the bulk of sales. For the first time in our tests, liquids, as a group, worked as well as powders. (It has been tricky to formulate an outstanding liquid detergent, partly because manufacturers can blend only so many ingredients with water before the mixture thickens or separates.)
National brands did slightly better than store brands. The most expensive product, Ecover Ultra Natural, marketed to environmentally conscious consumers, fared worst. (See below.) Product descriptions don't always hint at abilities, we found. Era Ultra Like a Magnet for Stains was among the least effective products at removing stains.
Most detergents contain colorless chemicals called optical brighteners, which make laundry glow slightly. We measured brightening by examining white cotton swatches before and after laundering. There were noticeable differences, as the Ratings show.
You may end up with dingy laundry if the detergent frees soil from one item of clothing only to deposit it on others. All the products did at least a good job of keeping soil from migrating.
This year, we ran new tests to gauge how much bleeding occurs when you commit a laundry crime by washing whites and bright colors (red and blue) together in hot water (120° F). Overall, only swatches washed with the two front-loader detergents and with American Fare Ultra 2 powder lost much color. As a follow-up, we judged which products let washed-out dyes stain white laundry. The prime offenders: Cheer With Liquifiber, Tide With Activated Hydrogen Peroxide, Gain powder, Arm & Hammer Heavy Duty, and American Fare.
There are plenty of very effective detergents from which to choose. If your laundry needs freshening, not heavy-duty stain removal, just choose a low-cost product (but avoid the lowest-ranked ones).
The few consumers who own a front-loader now have detergents to call their own. Wisk and Tide liquids for front-loaders were excellent, though expensive, at 33 cents per load. For years, of course, people have used top-loader detergents in front-loading laundromat machines. Front-loaders for home use are somewhat different, however. Although using a top-loading detergent in a front-loader at home will save you money, it could produce too much suds.
Finally, don't be tempted to use one of those ceramic laundry discs that claim to clean hundreds of loads without detergent. We've found they don't work.
Ratings Here.
We soiled more than 4,000 white cotton broadcloth swatches with grass, grape juice, tea, coffee, chocolate milk, mud, tomato spaghetti sauce, black ballpoint-pen ink, ring-around-the-collar soil, old motor oil, and makeup. We placed the swatches into identical top-loaders (or a front-loader, as appropriate) and added enough detergent to handle a medium load. We washed them for one regular cycle in water heated to 90° F (typical of today's warm cycles), with a hardness of 150 parts per million. Then we rinsed them in cool water and dried them on a line.
Today's products continue the legacy of one-upmanship. There are detergents with "active oxygen"; with hydrogen peroxide, touted to "rejuvenate" clothes; or with Liquifiber, a trademarked substance that, according to Procter & Gamble, keeps cotton from wearing out in the washer as fast as it would otherwise. Active oxygen is simply a term for chlorine-free bleach; all products can be said to rejuvenate clothes; and we haven't noticed any washers beating up on clothes anywhere near as much as your average 5-year-old.
Some products vow to kill bacteria in your wash load; their maker has sent evidence for that claim to the Environmental Protection Agency. But in fact, all detergents formulated in the U.S. will wash away most bacteria; adding chlorine bleach or drying clothes thoroughly will kill any that remain.
All these niches certainly let manufacturers scratch every consumer itch. Among the dozen versions of Tide, the biggest brand, six are liquid, six powder; each type includes a "regular" nonbleach product with a light scent or a "mountain" scent, a bleach or bleach-alternative product with a light scent or a mountain scent, a "free" product with no added perfumes or dyes, and two products for front-loaders. "People really do like the variety of formulations," says a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, maker of Cheer, Era, Gain, and Tide. Of course, the variations also let manufacturers swipe shelf space from competitors.
Peripheral abilities aside, detergents perform better at their main task--cleaning--than they ever have, based on our tests of 41 products. As in the past, all clean lightly soiled clothes. But the best are now better at tackling a broad range of tough stains while making clothes brighter.
Another major development is the presence of new "high efficiency" detergents sold for front-loading washers. Is this niche really necessary? Yes, because front-loaders do treat clothes differently--they use less water than top-loaders and tumble clothes instead of spinning them. Less water means that regular powder detergent may not dissolve as readily.
The Wisk and Tide front-loader liquids we tested proved extremely effective, at least in a front-loader. The Wisk product provides directions for use in top-loaders, though it's so expensive you might think twice about using it that way. Procter & Gamble does not recommend using the Tide product in a top-loader.
Overall, we found a few excellent detergents, followed by a long list of very good ones, trailed by a couple of mediocre ones. None of the detergents we tested removed our very tough stains completely, but most of them left many of the stains far less noticeable. Some products even worked fairly well on motor oil, which used to stump almost all detergents.
There's good news for people who use liquid detergents, which now account for the bulk of sales. For the first time in our tests, liquids, as a group, worked as well as powders. (It has been tricky to formulate an outstanding liquid detergent, partly because manufacturers can blend only so many ingredients with water before the mixture thickens or separates.)
National brands did slightly better than store brands. The most expensive product, Ecover Ultra Natural, marketed to environmentally conscious consumers, fared worst. (See below.) Product descriptions don't always hint at abilities, we found. Era Ultra Like a Magnet for Stains was among the least effective products at removing stains.
Most detergents contain colorless chemicals called optical brighteners, which make laundry glow slightly. We measured brightening by examining white cotton swatches before and after laundering. There were noticeable differences, as the Ratings show.
You may end up with dingy laundry if the detergent frees soil from one item of clothing only to deposit it on others. All the products did at least a good job of keeping soil from migrating.
This year, we ran new tests to gauge how much bleeding occurs when you commit a laundry crime by washing whites and bright colors (red and blue) together in hot water (120° F). Overall, only swatches washed with the two front-loader detergents and with American Fare Ultra 2 powder lost much color. As a follow-up, we judged which products let washed-out dyes stain white laundry. The prime offenders: Cheer With Liquifiber, Tide With Activated Hydrogen Peroxide, Gain powder, Arm & Hammer Heavy Duty, and American Fare.
There are plenty of very effective detergents from which to choose. If your laundry needs freshening, not heavy-duty stain removal, just choose a low-cost product (but avoid the lowest-ranked ones).
The few consumers who own a front-loader now have detergents to call their own. Wisk and Tide liquids for front-loaders were excellent, though expensive, at 33 cents per load. For years, of course, people have used top-loader detergents in front-loading laundromat machines. Front-loaders for home use are somewhat different, however. Although using a top-loading detergent in a front-loader at home will save you money, it could produce too much suds.
Finally, don't be tempted to use one of those ceramic laundry discs that claim to clean hundreds of loads without detergent. We've found they don't work.
Ratings Here.
It's funny watching people in the laundromat:
Tide Mountain Fresh Scent detergent
then they add
Clorox Spring Bouquet Scent bleach
then they add
Downey April Fresh Scent softener
then they dry with
Bounce whatever Scent dryer sheets.
Phew
Tide Mountain Fresh Scent detergent
then they add
Clorox Spring Bouquet Scent bleach
then they add
Downey April Fresh Scent softener
then they dry with
Bounce whatever Scent dryer sheets.
Phew
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