8 Reasons Using Liquid Detergent Is Better

In common with Sears, Miele and other private label laundry products Costco's Kirkland products are made by someone else.

If said manufacturer is already producing product for themselves or others it's not a huge deal to add another name onto list.

Thus key to Kirkland laundry products is to find who (or is it whom?).

Church & Dwight (A&H) doesn't produce laundry detergents with enzymes. They've obviously crunched numbers and realized R&D along with other costs in developing such products likely won't be recouped in sales.

Thus key to finding out much about backstory on Kirkland's laundry products is learning who they get them from.

Beg pardon, there but Church and Dwight/Arm and Hammer absolutely does produce laundry detergent with enzymes.

3 enzymes
https://churchdwight.com/ingredient...13-oxiclean-refreshing-lavender-and-lily.aspx

2 enzymes
https://churchdwight.com/ingredient...d-laundry-odor-blasters-fresh-botanicals.aspx

2 enzymes in a powder
https://churchdwight.com/ingredient...h-powder-laundry-detergent-plus-oxiclean.aspx

The HE Butt Grocery Company (giggle) ostensibly creates it's top-shelf private label with Texas washing and water conditions in mind.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/...-detergent-value-pack-96-loads-150-oz/1695637

Costco, Sams, Walmart, etc specify whatever they think will satisfy their customers at an appropriate price point for whatever product. If that's 3, 4, 6, ... enzymes they'll definitely look for the documentation so they can ballyhoo and promote it.

It was said several years ago that Costco/Kirkland top shelf liquid is Persil (which tracks), as Huish/Sun (which Henkel bought years ago) did lots of private labeling.

P&G is very reluctant to jeopardize Tide with producing much private label detergent (although their bar soaps like Ivory was until recently actually produced by a private labeler that bought the plant in Ivorydale, OH from P&G).

https://www.personalcareinsights.co...tly-in-march-after-first-opening-in-1886.html

I wondered where Ivory is being made now that SBSC has closed. If anyone is wanting to open a soap factory, it's for sale or lease. I go past there frequently.

That is so cool to me that they actually take local water conditions into consideration for their formulations... especially a store brand... that's crazy... I had no clue that was even a thing. I wonder if they do the same thing with dishwasher detergents?

I will say this.. Normally I get the big jug of DAWN at costco... but last time we got the big blue bottle (same exact designed bottle) of dish liquid.. only it was kirkland... and I'd swear I'm using Dawn... but it does smell slightly differently. It definitely doesn't feel like you're using that bargain cheap dish liquid...

I do remember reading a particular review of the Kirkland liquid detergent in the red bottle.. the lady in the review said she works on a farm or something and that's the only thing that comes close to Tide... so maybe it's like Persil (light) or something? I don't know.

I do know if I ever bought one of those Gynormous bottles of detergent, I would keep the bottle I have now and just fill/refill when it gets low and figure out the measurements because I don't like the way those big bottles dispense... Of course it wouldn't matter if your machine had auto dispense

"Beg pardon, there but Church and Dwight/Arm and Hammer absolutely does produce laundry detergent with enzymes."

I stand corrected!

I think just the number of enzymes alone does not tell much about the quality of a detergent.
Enzymes are among the most expensive detergent ingredients and while they don`t get used up in the washing process (they can do their magic over and over again) a higher concentration of enzymes still gives better and quicker results.

In the thread about European testing standards we just learned that the "Reference Detergent" to which the others are compared to has to provide 0.5 % Protease enzyme.

Some European high end detergents like Henkel`s liquid Persil obviously exceed this amount because they have this mandatory warning on the bottle: "Product contains Subtilisin (Protease), may cause an allergic reaction",whereas somewhat lower performing competitors like Ariel liquid are not required to have it.

It`s obvius that bargain brands like Arm & Hammer or Purex or brands that focus on sensitive skin like All keep their formulars way below 0.5 % Protease.

But the majority of products from those bargain brands are no enzyme products anyway.
Instead of enzymes those products rely on the brute force of high pH levels which may even be a better choice on some specific stains than enzymes in insufficient amounts.
Or one could go with a good enzyme based store brand instead and still save money.

Reply number 39

Hi Mark, it's no wonder the national brands like pure X arm and hammer, etc. don't have enzymes it's because it's a cheap product and they're paying for national advertising and distribution.

The price you pay for most products does not have anything to do with the quality in many cases, private label brands are almost always a better buy, and they're often a better product when you compare brand-name grocery items to the good store brands the store brands are often better and cost considerably less.

Costco is an excellent example of this.

I recently just read that Costco's liquid detergent is actually made by Purcell, this does not mean that it's exactly the same formula and Costco detergent might actually be better it certainly is a better buy.

I've said before that you can go through my whole kitchen and my whole house and you will probably not find more than two or three brand-name items. It's very rare that I end up with anything with a expensive brand name on it in the grocery area, you don't get to be a millionaire before you are 40 by wasting your money on Overpriced products.

My partner and I eat very well very healthy meals. We cook everything from breakfast to dinner from scratch using top-flight ingredients.

We never waste money on paper towels, paper napkins don't even buy vacuum cleaner bags, plastic bags for trash, never had anything like a swiffer there's just no need to buy things just to put in the trash and yet the house is clean enough to eat off any floor Our clothing is extremely clean and lasts a long time if you clean clothing thoroughly at lasts much longer.

John

"Instead of enzymes those products rely on the brute force of high pH levels which may even be a better choice on some specific stains than enzymes in insufficient amounts."

Enzymes also come into play by length of wash cycle.

For best performance enzymes need certain minimal contact time. This is generally around twenty minutes or so. Obviously given proper conditions enzymes will go to work soon as wash cycle begins, but optimal or even good results may suffer with short cycles.

Unilever and others came up with laundry detergents that will work in "quick cycle" (about 15 minutes) such as Persil's Wonder Wash.

https://wiop.unilever.co.uk/brands/...aundry-detergent-24933-64312342-300006467693/

https://wiop.unilever.co.uk/brands/...aundry-detergent-24932-64312340-300006627911/

With short wash cycles chemicals play a more prominent role in wash day.

Commercial/industrial laundries have average wash cycle of 8-12 minutes. Hence you still find same powerful chemicals of old still about; washing soda, sodium hydroxide, sodium metasilicate, etc.... If loads are very fouled two or three wash cycles may be needed, though all would be short in time.

There has been some movement to get industrial/commercial laundries onboard with enzyme products, but again this would mean often lengthening wash times which in turn extends entire cycle and affects through put.

Chemicals can (and have done) nearly same work as enzymes on wash day. However former will often require higher temperatures and over time may lessen fabric life.

Hospital laundries for ages got blood out of textiles using nothing more than soap, sodium metasilicate, and sodium perborate. This was done using one or more wash cycles at temps at or > 140 or even 160 F. What soap and pH didn't remove was bleached out by perborate.

the cycles I use most on my duet... heavy duty/whitest whites... the wash cycle is EXACTLY 20 min's on both of them... I wonder if the wash cycle length on those is based on enzyme detergents...I would guess so.

I think I've narrowed it down to Gain with Oxi Liquid (has 4 enzymes)
Or Kirkland Liquid in the red bottle as the next detergents I'm going to try.

then after that.. I might try Persil

These are my main go to detergents

I usually use a half a scoop of the tide powder and a half a dose of the Aldi's liquid for really dirty, large loads, I almost always mix different detergent, in addition I use a half cup of baking soda in the calypso with a cup of bleach to wash the really dirty stuff.

I was told by our resident laundry detergent expert here on the site that this Aldi's formula contains six or seven different enzymes, it's made in Canada. They claim it's comparable to tide.

The Aldi's detergent is under seven dollars, I usually pick up the tide at Costco when it goes on sale for about $30 a box.

We have an Aldi here.. I think I've only been there a couple of times and I've never even thought about buying detergent there. I wonder how they can make it like Tide so cheaply? I understand it's a store brand and they don't have to advertise.. but still.

Not a big sample size but just a few thoughts... I dunno

German consumer testing groups rank Tandil and Formil laundry detergents rather highly IIRC. In fact one or both have or still outrank Persil and Ariel, that's saying something.

Wow..

that's crazy..
Until now I'd never even heard of it.

Tandil Ultra Plus from Aldi Nord

https://www.chip.de/news/Ein-Discou...l-siegt-bei-Stiftung-Warentest_184293348.html

https://www.faz.net/kaufkompass/test/das-beste-vollwaschmittel/

https://www.testberichte.de/spuel-waschmittel/538/waschmittel/aldi-sued-tandil.html

https://www.express.de/ratgeber/ver...mittel-von-aldi-lidl-netto-co-im-test-3-77184

Formil:

https://www.testberichte.de/p/lidl-...idl erhältliche Ultra,somit die Endnote „gut“.

https://www.test.de/Colorwaschmittel-im-Test-5073641-detail/320000021270!12/

https://www.testberichte.de/spuel-waschmittel/538/waschmittel/lidl-formil.html

Tandil Ultra Plus is made by Dalli Group.

Who knew?

http://www.h01.dalli-info.com/detail/5753362/640/H01

Launderess, is this the American Tandil?

It seems to be different to the German Tandil (only 3 enzymes, no sodium laureth sulfate but sodium borate which isn`t used here anymore)

Overhere in the NL Tandil is a cheap detergent. Aldi here sells Una too. More expensive but still a bargain and it performs very good.

So this detergent is sold in America but not made in America? I think I'm at least going to try it. I might be surprised. There's 2 different Aldi's close to me... but I never shop there.

Aldi's liquid detergent

That we get here is made in Canada.

Hi Mark, I can't believe you haven't tried shopping at Aldi I can go to the local Aldi's buy about 70 items and be home in a half an hour. It's so easy to get through their storage because they're smaller And you can find what you want. You're also saving about 50% compared to the large chains. that's a huge savings.

I especially love the fact that you have to put a quarter in to use the shopping cart. It makes a very nice interaction with other shoppers as I often give the cart to somebody else or someone gives me one it also eliminates shopping carts all over the parking lot becausepeople put them away where they belong. If you don't wanna put it away there's usually somebody around that will come and put it away just to get the free quarter, it's a wonderful system that saves a lot of accidents and automobile damage every year.

John