Best detergent for dark laundry...

[newwave1]

Hey guys!
The happiest of new years to all my friends here at Aw.org!!

Now then, I am the first to admit. I know far more about washing machines externally and internally than i do detergents. I know enough. But one can always absorb more ;-)

So for those of you who know of me, i'm abit of a rocker, i have piercings, tattoos, i like loud music..and i wear dark clothing!!

I don't walk around in black allday long cause that would make me look abit boring and make for some boring laundry. However i do wear alot of black, grey, dark blues and reds etc.

I mainly use Ariel colour, and occasionally i'll switch to bold and others. I've had a few dark items awhile now which are looking there age. No longer are the blacks black, my jeans have faded patches etc. The prints on my teeshirts are okay but the base colours aren't so hot. Lucky for me my other half bought me some cracking new clothes for christmas! and i'm going to buy some new jeans this weekend.

Now enough about me. The main reason i'm writing this is i want some opinions!

What is the best detergent for dark laundry which can keep them lookin good for long periods? I stick to colour & mainly liquid detergents. & keep to low temperatures. I know things like zeolites? & optical brighteners aren't to helpful? Correct me if i'm wrong.

So please pitch in I'd love to hear from you!

And i couldn't resist a pic of the rocker in question with my new son

Darren

 

[washboy2005]

Hey Darren. Hope all is great with the family and baby is doing well!

Dark detergent that I love has to be the Woolite Dark. The one they call a "Safe-tergent". It comes in a black bottle with a bright pink dosing ball and cap.

I have used this for a good while and can tell you that it is fantastic stuff. Doesnt smell of much, cleans great with little to no noticable fading and rinses fantastically which I know is of great importance to you!

Black stuff is still black, grey stuff still grey and so on!
I highly reccomend that you give it a go. It's normally on some sort of offer in Tescos if you have one local? Around £2.16 for about 16-18 loads I think.

Hope this helps!

Take care, and happy new year!

Dan

 

[frigilux]

I agree with Dan's suggestion; I use Woolite for Dark Colors. It is very gentle and has no optical brighteners, which are the enemy of black clothes. They make the clothes look faded, or dusty.

I see your little guy is sticking his tongue out a bit, in true (punk) rocker fashion. Congratulations, Darren!

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Here in the U.S. we have Cheer Dark Colors. I really like it, both for it's scent and for the fact that it has chlorine neutralizers. Chlorine in water in Charlotte can often be so potent that you can smell it when filling the washer, flushing a toilet, etc. Strong concentration of Chlorine in water can fade or dull colors, so I like that Cheer Dark can deactivate that property of the water. I have noticed less fade on dark t-shirts, dockers slacks, etc.

 

[sajid6952]

If you prefer a powder....

I've found dreft powder is good for darks and doesn't contain optical brighteners and is fairly gentle on fabrics. Only trouble is that it can be expensive depending where you get it from and you only get 9 washes (on dosage recommendations) from one box but it does rinse easily as well.

Dreft "Dark" liquid is also good and of course is specifically formulated for such laundry, however finding it lately has become a bit of a mission.

My third recommendation is Ariel 2x concentrated liquid - again I think it's expensive but does a good job and doesn't contain optical brighteners like the colour version of the Excel Gel stuff.

Hope this help. Happy new year to all!

Saj

 

[electron800]

I have this exact problem

I think I own about one light coloured thing lol. Pretty much all my clothes are dark coloured and yeah they always seem to fade no matter what. As far as I know washing them in a detergent without optical brightners or bleach and at 40 degrees or lower (I do mine on "delicates" in my Ecologic)is about the best you can do.

Also, if you live in a hard water area (I'm blessed with about the softest water in the country ) a liquid may be better, particularly if the machine isn't a great rinser, because zeolites in powder can react with the calcium in the water to form a white powdery residue on the clothes so 'm lead to believe.

I think the only other tip could be not to hang them out in the sun, tumble dry, or dry near a heat source, (If, like me you wear a lot of "Topman" shirts, you'll know not to do this anyway as it completely ruins them, so cheaply made lol), as this heat can add to fading slightly. I've even noticed ironing can fade things slightly too.

The only other thing to say is only wash things when they really are dirty and do them on the most gentle cycle that will suffice. This way they should keep their colour the best and will have a much longer life

Matt

 

[seamusuk]

Woolite Dark

Hey Darren

Just got a 1.5l bottle in Savers for just short of £2.00 (bargain)

Been using it on my black work stuff(and navy Euronics fleece) and its great .

And thats a great pic btw is Louie a cutie or what lol!!

Seamus

 

[newwave1]

Hey guys,
Thanks for your replys so far!

Dan: Familys doin great! Yea rinsing very important You know me too well! We do have tescos my way, i've seen woolite in sainsburys in all its range, i think asda does it but only in one form.

Thanks to our US friends! Friglux: Yes i think louie is takin after his daddy! Hopefully he'll be a mini punk rocker

Kenmoreguy64! Thankyou i didn't know that chlorine in the water also had an effect!

Saj! Long time no speak! I hope you are well!!! Thanks for your suggestions!

Matt A guy after my own heart! Your a little rocker yourself How is the Ecologic doin?

Seamus!-Hope you are well chap! Awh thanks for the comment on the little man! Hows that elux holding up?

Thanks again to all who've contributed so far!

Darren

 

[electron800]

Hey Darren

Yeah lol, I've always worn dark colours, even when I was little lol.

As for the Ecologic she's doing just fine. I've come to the conclusion the timer is wired up wrong so it heats to 60 degrees on cottons 40, and it has that wierd tumble pattern like you're Zanussi washer/dryer. I think it must have come out the facroty like this though. Since it been the same for as long as I can remember. I'm sure it's easy to change with the wiring diagram but I dont have it and with the number of wires going into the timer I wouldn't dare touch it lol!

My mum's Whirlpool is in quite a shocking state for a 2 year old machine though. Bearings screech and grate when it tumbles and the suspensions so knackered the whole machine visibly jumps up and down when it spins.

Her tumble dryers showing it's age as well, it squeals one way and grates when it tumbles the other. The timer seems to be sticking as well and the fan rattles off the housing. One quite cool development is that the interlock is stuck so when the door is opened it continues running . It will be 10 in March though, I'd rather repair it than replace it as well.

In my mum's own words she "holds her breath" whenever she washes and "heaves a sigh of relief" when it's finished without one of the machines breaking lol.

Matt

 

[electron800]

oh and btw

I think I'll give that Woolite dark a try when I'm next at the shop

 

[newwave1]

Hey matt!
Crikey. Your mothers machine sounds like it's had better days! Has she her eye on a replacement?

Thats strange that your ecologic is doing that. Prehaps it's miswired? Yea i wouldn't touch it without abit of literature and no how!!

Think i will be getting some woolite dark too!

Saj!: Going back to what you said. I remember buying dreft dark liquid a few years back and finding the smell quite off putting! Don't know if it's changed any!?

Darren

 

[electron800]

Haha tell me about it!

At least I have managed to talk her round to getting something just a little better. A Miele Prestiege Plus 6 .

Thing with the Hoover is, even if I did have the literature all of the wires look exactly the same so I think it would be hard even then.

Hehe I can hear it draining prewash as I type

Matt

 

[nickuk]

Hi Darren.

Pleased to see you both looking so well! How are you finiding the Bosch / baby laundry?

Great thread! Yeah - the question of what's best for darks is not one I will claim to have `the answer' to, as I think it's swings and roundabouts. If you use a regular / non `colour' detergent, the oxygen bleach in it will cancel out the chlorine in the tap water. But the oxygen bleach in it will also certainly remove dye from non colourfast items more quickly, causing them to look faded after just a few washes. They will fade eventually anyway, just from being exposed to soap and water, oxygen bleach will just speed up the process. Another point to bare in mind is that oxygen bleach is a mild sanitiser and deoderizer, which really does help with thorough cleaning and helps to remove odours on all washes. Worth keeping in mind if your black loads contain underwear (particularly female underwear) / t-shirts (with underarms!) and other such items.

A colour detergent will not cancel out the chlorine in the tap water, but aswell as not having oxygen bleach it has the added advantage of having no OBAs.

So much for the science (or what I understand of it). I really think both systems have pros and cons. In practise, I tend to use `colour' liquids for darks. These disolve really quickly, obviously, and are best suited for a low agitation / low temp wash which are two other important variables for trying to maintain deep colours. Liquid also rinses clean off, you can be sure there are no undioslved specks of powder left behind which would surely cause irritation.

Personally, I like Persil Small and Mighty Color as I enjoy the scent, is easy to dose and does a reasonable job of cleaning. It's just a product which works for me. Others prefer the Ariel Excel Colour Gel, but I really can't stand the strong scent and find it takes a while to disolve out of that cap thing. There is also some confusion about the colour version containing OBAs, though I'm sure that's a labelling error. Tesco do their own version, it's very inexpensive, and I've only done a couple of washes with it, but it seems to be quite a decent product.

From what people have said on here, I'd like to try Woolite Dark but our Tesco no longer stocks it. They only do the white one. I have an irrational hatred of dosing balls anyway so it might not be worth me trying it.

I MUST say again that I would advise not using Comfort on darks as it leaves very off putting splodges on certain fabrics. It's easy to confuse this with detergent residue - if you have marks on blacks after washing, firstly eliminate Comfort from the equation! Any fragrance, any concentration! No such probs with any other FS. Annoying because Comfort has (IMO)a very decent scent line up. I think I'm pretty much `on my own' with that particular assertation, though to be fair it's happenned to me with a variety of different machines and in different properties. I eventually convinced lavamatjon that there was something in it...........

Take care all and happy dark washing!

Nick

 

[jeffg]

Sometimes, what looks like color fading is actually a buildup of waxes and color brighteners from liquid detergents and fabric softeners.

One trick to retain colors (especially dark colors) is to use a medium or low setting in your dryer. Hot dryers are the primary cause of color fading.

 

[aquarius1984]

One does wonder what we did in the years before Persil Finesse/Silk&Wool and all these colour detergents.

Everything in our household was washed in Ariel Automatic no caution required - makes me smile when I think Mum would use cottons cycles for everything on her Frigidaire/Kelvinator which probably now equates to a regular synthetic cycle on a modern machine. it was only 600rpm!

The rot only started when she got the Candy with variable temp and later the Electrolux. Everything went on the 95Whites programme with the temperature reduced as required for the load inside, the things I had ruined!

Proctor and Gambles "Ultra" powders advised us all to use "half a scoop" to wash woollens.

Daz Ultra to wash woolies?????

I dont remember anything fading or not coming out clean back then, so have our detergents really moved on in terms of power and fabric care or is it all just marketing ploy?

 

[autowasherfreak]

Woolite

Darren, I like your tats and piercings. I have a friend that wears dark colored sweaters and he uses Woolite Dark and Cheer for dark colors. Out of the two he prefers the Woolite.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Hey Darren!

I'd basically say any colour care detergent would be best for darks. The majority of my laundry is dark, and I use a combination of Ariel Power, Persil S&M and Ecover Non Bio liquid (depends what I fancy at the time lol) and they all do a good job of cleaning on colours without fading at all. I've even used own brand colour tabs with pretty decent performance and not had any complaints. I even wash my dark teatowels and oven gloves at uni with my normal darks and the colour detergents do a dandy job at cleaning.

There really isn't any difference between the colour detergents - I'd just go for the one with the scent/rinsability you like the most .

My mum uses big box Persil Colour from JTF, and whilst I'm not keen on the smell she doesn't have any complaints either. My sister uses Fairy on everything, on the other hand, and a lot of their clothes have the tell tale fading.

Jon

 

[ronhic]

Great pic!

Darren,

Is a while since I did a load of washing in the UK I have to confess, but for colours we tended to use Tesco's Colour, Persil Colour or Surf...though I have just read that Surf powder does contain some bleach. The liquid does not. As we were in a flat, things were dried inside generally (the spare room always looked and smelt like a laundry...)

Another thing that I always did was to use Calgon liquid/gel or powder in the machine. Detergent towards the back of the drawer and a capfull of Calgon gel/powder in the front. London is a high calc area and I never had an issue with scale on clothes.

As a side benefit, you can reduce the amount of detergent that you use which in turn will reduce the potential for fading.