ACDO washing powder.

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johnny42

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Whatever happened to miracle ACDO washing powder. I remember this stuff as a kid. I loved the smell of it. I remember it was great in Twin tubs and I think the powder was a sort of yellow colour ?. Does anyone also remember the mini box of ACDO costing around 50p ?
 
I have seen a few packets in the "Home Bargains" low-cost store.

As far as I can fathom, the powder is supposedly soap based, possibly with oxygen bleach. There are no enzymes in the formulation.

I don't know how it performs, as I've never used it.
 
acdo

Rolls rapide

Yeah, it was soap based. You didn't need to use much of it in the washing machine as it was rather soapy. It was best used in twin tubs and top loaders. It wasn't too great in front loaders. You could always tell if someone had washed their clothes in ACDO as it had such a distinct fragrance.

John
 
ACDO

Can remember those small ACDO Soap powder boxes & the concentrated yellow colour from the early 80s as a kid. The smell was unique & i loved it !

optima-2017033116592700392_1.png
 
I tried it...

I eventually got around to trying ACDO washing powder.

It actually smells quite nice in the box - a soapy, yet relatively understated fragrance.

A small load of laundry and about 40ml of the powder, in the Panasonic NA-168XR1. No other product used, no fabric conditioner. On the Econavi-Autocare programme.

The machine weighed the load and calculated 1hr 18mins to complete. So far, so good.

Water intake and the soap powder flushed away cleanly.

Drum speed increased to distribution speed in order to mix the solution: virtually no foam... (Other detergents do foam up at this stage).

Wash continued, spray jets periodically activated, no foam, but some undissolved particles observed by me, on the door glass.

The machine wash obviously looking too, 'cos...

Wash time reduced normally until about 1hr 07mins, then increased in a flash, to 1hr 37mins! (I nearly had kittens...)

Wash continued, virtually no foam. Particles eventually dissolved quite cleanly.

Drained and spun okay with about 45 minutes to go. That was odd - with other detergents, the rinses kick in at about 35 mins, and do two rinses only.

This time, 3 rinses activated. Intermediate spins between rinses operated fine. No foam.

Final rinse had the faintest sensation of a few tiny soap bubbles on the door glass.

Spin activated smoothly.

When unloading, I saw chalky tide-mark deposits on the upper reaches of the door glass, where the spray jets had trickled/dribbled as they were switched on and off.

Laundry smells clean, and looks clean. No overpowering artificial stench of flowers.

Obviously the machine's 'all seeing eye' detected the cloudiness of the wash water, increased wash time and temperature, and added an extra rinse - all automatically, of course.

Liquid detergents on the other hand, seem, because they're more transparent in solution, to allow the machine to default to a shorter, speedier cycle (the usual 1hr 18mins with only two rinses).

This Panasonic is really NOT liking Ariel Liquid. For some reason, Ariel Liquid is leaving a pungent, sour smell in the machine that is transferred into the laundry. It doesn't matter whether fabric conditioner is used or not, either. I never had the problem with the previous Panasonic machine. I think there is some kind of reaction between Ariel liquid and the rubber compounds in the seals and hoses. Not nice at all. Powders though, seem to wash fine with no pungent smell.

 
I would say no, it doesn't smell like Persil Non-Biological.

Probably, in the box, it smells more like Lux Soap Flakes.

I was trying to compare the fragrance earlier on, today. I came to the conclusion that the laundry, once line dried, smelt more like it had been washed with a bar of "Simple" Toilet Soap - only a tad stronger.
 
I tested another load with ACDO.

The composition of the powder is quite similar to Ariel Ultra Compact powder. Off-white, greyish, heavy powder, as opposed to fluffy granules. There are yellowish speckles, which I imagine are the fluorescent optical brighteners.

Similar results as before: Estimated Time to Completion started at 1hr 18mins, counted down by the minute, then jumped from 1hr 07mins, up to 1hr 38mins. Extra rinse automatically inserted.

As the wash solution cascades down the door glass, I observed the solution to be quite cloudy. Hence the reason the machine is lengthening programme time - it is obviously seeing this too.

Another chalky tide-mark I wiped from the door glass on unloading the machine.

I am unsure whether I actually like the product.
Yes, the fragrance in the box is nice. Less so on the dried clothes.
The low (non-existent) foaming is good. But insoluble detergent components are forcing an extra rinse and increasing the wash phase.

There are no enzymes, so tougher stains might not be as readily removed.

Overall, I'm swayed 50/50 - i.e. sitting on the fence.
 
I love ACDO powder, I think it's a great detergent. It is non-bio but it's quite bleach heavy, I found it very good for hot, white washes. And being soap based, it uses far less artificial or synthetic ingredients than most mainstream detergents.

I haven't bought it in a long while though, as we're now almost exclusively using more eco friendly alternatives for all our cleaning products and bathing products.

I remember as a kid my Nan would only buy cleaning products at our local Happy Shopper and they only stocked ACDO - the twin tub and automatic variations, both non-bio. I believe one had green logo and the was red.
 
Acdo

I bought some ACDO from the home bargains store. I tried it in my wringer washer. It seems to clean the clothes fine, however, once I had emptied the machine, I noticed some "granules" stuck on the agitator. I don't think that this ACDO is the same as I remember as a kid. The one I remember was a pale yellow powder. This one had a white powder.
 
That's the problem with today's detergents - the zeolites that replaced the phosphates.

Phosphates rinsed clean way, especially important for the twintub machines, where the rinsing took place in the narrow spin can.

On the other hand, zeolites never dissolve, they just settle out, leaving a chalky deposit. In a tightly-packed twintub spinner, chalky marks will remain.

Older versions of ACDO probably had a perborate bleach too, rather than today's percarbonate.

This version of ACDO will probably be the closest you can get to the old stuff, allowing for all the political interference which ultimately alters the product. Some time ago, I read that today's 'Chanel No 5' is not the same product as the original version.
 
No intention to go too far off topic but Chanel No 5 and many others had to undergo dozens of reformulations during the years.
Nobody could imagine today wearing a perfume which used natural musk obtained from an endangered species which had to be killed to get the stuff.
It got replaced a long time ago with nitromusks as a measure of cost reduction when these were cheaply available.
Later some musk compounds were found to be carcinogenic and polluting and again were replaced with other musk compounds.
Then there were several restrictions to protect allergy sufferers and so on.
Natural oak moss extract is one of the the latest scent ingredients to be found on the no-no list.

So don`t be surprised your favourite detergent is not what it used to be decades ago.
 
"detergent is not what it used to be decades ago"

And the only way we're going to get it, is to hop aboard a passing time machine.

As for killing species for their musk glands, the right thing to do WAS to STOP using that ingredient.

I wonder which of today's 'wonder ingredients' will be discovered to be potentially lethal in the future?
 
Rolls Rapide

I totally agree with you on that one. Rolls....do u remember if there was ever an ACDO liquid laundry detergent ?

Oh yeah....just remembered...there is ROLLS RAPIDE twin tub for sale on ebay. Have you seen it ?
 
Hey Jonny !

The rolls Rapide is only £10 please save it I cannot neither can anyone I know !! I may be able to pick it up and drop it off to you I say may as I travel from Yorkshire to Scotland!! We will get you into the washer collecting bug !!!

Richard
 
Ricky

Hey Ricky. I would have loved to buy that machine, but I don't have the space now. Even if I did, my partner would flip at my for buying another washer...lol
 

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