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

[mrboilwash]

Unilever sells their US laundry brands ?

That is sad because they seem to have surrrendered to Henkel and P&G in Germany as well. The last advertising campaign I remember for Sunil (UK Persil) is about 10 years back. Think it was something with pelicans. There is not even a website for Sunil. The only heavily promoted detergents are fabricsofteners and a product for delicates.

 

[spoodles]

Yes they put them up for sale last year.

The latest news is that a private-label company Huish along with Church & Dwight are in the final running to buy them from Unilever. Henkel are no longer in the running for them now.

By the way, isn't Coral a bigger brand than Sunil for Unilever in Germany?

 

[mrboilwash]

Right, Coral is still on TV, but it is only a niche brand for delicates and competes with Perwoll.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Here's a thought to ponder

It may be interesting to watch the US detergent market in the next year or two. Powdered detergents indeed are vanishing on store shelves, but I think some will remain for a while to satisfy a few consumers who don't like liguids.

BUT, an ever-growing factor in these markets is going to become freight/transportation if it hasn't already. Shipping heavy liquids around in big plastic bottles is going to become more and more expensive with prices of plastic resins and fuel increasing.

Since squared-off boxes (most powders) are most space efficient and they seem to weigh less per load, I think powder MAY get a reprieve as it becomes cheaper, relatively speaking, to move it to market.

I have recently been told that powders are easier on machines, mechanically speaking, especially on seals. That makes sense as at least in the original and 1st generation ultra liquids, the formulas often contained alcohol, which can dry out rubber. I have a good bit of liquid, but am going to switch back to powder when it's gone, at least while I can.

 

[MrX]

Henkel's in that position in the UK and IRL

I think what it's coming down to is that if you're #3 player in the detergent business in a particular market it's not economic to compete.

Henkel has no presence in the UK and Ireland at all other than 1 delicates / sensitive skin powder that isn't even very popular or widely available, Felleti?
I haven't even seen it on the shelves in Ireland in years.

Unilever's still a GIGANTIC organisation and very dominant in the laundry detergent business in quite a lot of countries other than the US and Germany.

I suppose you 'pick your fights'.

Seems the US is totally dominated by Tide and very little else survives
and Germany's the home of Henkel

 

[brisnat81]

50-50 split here

In AU we still have an even split between powders and liquids.

I use Drive and Drivematic for all but coloured loads, and it is a great, but expensive performer. Choice reviewed it last year and rated it as a top performer, but due to its phosphate and salt content it is terrible for the environment.

I use Omomatic Colourlock powder for my coloured loads and when the Omo Colour S&M was released recently, I bought a bottle of that.

On the upside the S&M doesnt smell as strong as the powder, but I'm starting to notice that under the fragrance, the perspiration odors arent coming out. For now I'm alternating the Powder with the Liquid and will do so until the Liquids gone, I wont be buying another bottle however.

The Omo products here smell quite strongly and the only reason I'm using the Colourlock product is that we have few colour products available. I like the Drive, because the only smell is a slight chemical fragrence that my brain associates with clean.

 

[MrX]

Persil (Unilever) has been very neutral smelling here for a long time. It's Ariel that absolutely stinks of added scents. It's very over powering and seems to be increasingly so.

It now smells like some kind of a combination of fake coconut/almond and cheap car pine air freshener !!

 

[launderess]

BJ's Wholesale Club

Local laundromat buys those huge boxes of Tide and such from BJ's, and while they are indeed huge nothing like the boxes of Cold Power Dad brought home. Those boxes were the size of small crates and were large enough for a small child to climb into (which my brothers did, as once the containers were empty they were given over to the boys for play).

Mom had a type of stand next to her Whirlpool that held those boxes so they were raised a bit from floor level, not a bad thing considering some of the basement flooding we had.

Push to liquids:

Think part of the push towards liquids from powders is that the former have come far in formulations in that TOL liquid detergents easily equal powders. If CR is to be trusted, most if not all the top five detergents are liquids. Also liquid detergents can do double duty as a pre-treater, saving the Mrs. the bother and expense of two products.

 

[MrX]

Do people really use pre-treaters though ?!

I don't know anyone who does.

 

[MrX]

What I have heard though is that because they now have relatively good stable enzymes that can be used in liquids that the liquid detergents are cheaper to manufacture than powders!

Their formulas are significantly less complex if you look at the European ingredients declarations. The powders have many more components.

 

[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