And Then There Were None - The End of Powder Detergent at K-Sears

[launderess]

Pre-Treaters

Oh yes luv, one uses them all the time. Far better and easier to deal with the odd blood, grease, or other stain on it's own, rather than subject the entire wash load to harsh treatments and or high water temperatures.

For the most part, collar and cuff soils shift on their own with a good detergent, STPP and oxygen bleach mix. But find blood, ink and other stains benefit from a good pre-treat before laundering.

For blood usually apply a stain stick and it remain until laundry day. If not, and find the stain before the item is going into the machine, fist apply some Ecolab professional stain remover, wait about five minutes, then apply hydrogen peroxide. Never fails.

Ink and other solvent type stains come out a treat with Fels Naptha Soap (vintage stuff from my stash).

Again, if one deals with the odd stain up front, do not have set the Miele for long washes or pre-washes and do not need to raise water temperature above 120F or perhaps 140 for certian items.

L.

 

[MrX]

It's weird though, I never wash above 40C for normal clothes. I only ever use higher temps if I want to sanatise towels or bed linen, not for removing stains.

All of my normal washing is done at 40C with either Persil or Ariel colour powder or tablets i.e. there is no peroxide bleaching involved at all. I only use the standard powder or tablets with whites or very light colours.

I've actually never had any reason to pre-treat anything though. Nothing's ever come out with stains left in place and I don't think that the wash process that I am using is particularly harsh. The detergents and the washing machine just 'do their thing'.

Clothes don't fade, last for years and generally remain in very good condition.

My typical wash is a short 40C cotton cycle which takes about 1:30 in total, including 4 rinses.

 

[spoodles]

I never pre-treat either.

I've never had anything so bad that a regular wash doesn't remove it, even really grubby gardening clothes come out like new. I don't see how rubbing a bit of something on a stain before you wash it makes much difference.
Most pre-treating stuff (in the UK at least) is just more oxygen bleach and brighteners. If it's good enough, the detergent should shift it anyway. I've even got blood out of a light coloured shirt (from a nosebleed) just using a Colour liquid on a 40 degree quickwash.

 

[mrboilwash]

Costs

I also suspected the push of liquids might have something to do with profit. I wonder if energy cost are an important factor when it comes to spray drying of the detergent pulp, when powder is made.

I`ve seen here on the board some liquids even outperform powders in CR tests.
Over here they seem to work equally good on stains (blood, food,grease and so on) like powders. But their week point appears after 30 or more washes when clothes become grey. "Test" says liquids tend to equally spread the dirt on clothes whereas powders are better at removeing it. So the redepositing thing seems not to be solved compleatly, jet.
But I use mostly liquids at the moment because I have the impression that they are much easier on clothes.

 

[launderess]

Use Only For Whites

When it comes to liquid laundry detergents, probably has less to do with bleaches than heavy doses of powerful optical brightening agents.

Tide with "Bleach Alternative" laundry liquid does indeed not contain any sort of bleach, but rather a very powerful and complex chemistry of OBA's and polyacrylics designed to keep soils away from laundry while boosting the reflective powers of ultraviolet light hitting fabrics. The effect on white laundry probably is quite outstanding, but wouldn't chance it with colours and darks.

L.

 

[northernmary]

In the UK why don’t they start making concentrated powders like they did in the late 80's/90’s? I’ve tried the liquid and finding my self-rewashing my whites in a bio powder because I’m fussy about how white my laundry is