CR No Longer Recommends Laundry Detergent Pods

[mark_wpduet]

I was watching a youtuber I like...Her channel isn't about doing detergent reviews but it's a bunch of different things..One video she happened to be reviewing arm & hammer pods. She said the reason she bought them is she just wanted a change...

in the video she did laundry... and as she was taking them out sniffing them... she was disappointed that she couldn't smell anything but a neutral smell. She's like, I think I'll add a gain dryer sheet... maybe two...like "we must get as much chemical smell on this clean laundry as possible"... I don't get it. What's wrong with the unscented neutral clean smell?

It blows my mind that people would rather their laundry smell like detergent chemicals than a neutral clean smell

I've never bought them becuase I want to be able to put more or less detergent based on the load..you can't do that with pods.

 

[volvoman]

@ Reply 57

Ehh. I guess it depends. My wife and I actually LIKE our clothes to smell like said chemicals/fragrances, which is why we don't use any of the "Free and Clear" or unscented products.

However...

We also don't like to smell like a...I'll use my dearly departed father's analogy here..."Dime Store [Lady of the Night]". So it's really a delicate balance of finding laundry products that smell fresh and clean, without making us want to burn our clothing fresh out of the dryer.

And for what it's worth, we're both in our early 40's (Me 44, her 41). We're part of the market these companies (P&G in particular) are targeting.

As an example. We LOVE German Persil. The scent - for us - is just right. Neither too light nor too strong. Amerian Persil, by comparison, is ghastly. Same with Tide. We've found the Mexican (Ace) and Indian versions to be quite nice. The American version - save for the Moutain Spring powder (good luck finding it...) is horrendously sweet and cloying.

And don't get us started on Gain. The only version we can tolerate, is one that seems to be sold only by Family Dollar. The scent is called "Fresh Splash", and reminds me of Lemon Fresh Dash liquid from the 1980s.

Fabric softeners? We go European with these. Miele's house brand as well as Silan Fresh Sky (aka Vernel Fresh Morning) are our go-to brands.

 

[panasonicvac]

Yeah

Some people like them and I think that's totally fine. At least as long as they work, I honestly don't see anything wrong with them. I didn't care about the Kirkland pods because I remember not only I didn't liked the smell of it but I also thought the scent was too strong for my taste. And the Gain one, I believe it was the original one cause I received one from a sample bag, just felt it wasn't enough to handle for one big load in my front loader like I could've used one more pod. Plus if I had a small load and if that gets too much suds inside the washer, I'd have to use more rinse cycles or do the cycle again for the second time. I don't use fabric softener and I never will. Dryer sheets do just fine for me. Overall, I really don't need scented products. As long as the laundry is clean, that's all it matters to me. Kirkland powder is good enough for my taste. But I'll admit, I really do miss the original Tide powder scent. If I could use any detergent that'd leave a scent behind, it'd be that one. But the only problem though is that kind isn't designed for my front loader. I do love the smell of the liquid Tide Mountain Spring but they're nowadays very expensive and harder to find. I also really liked the smell of the liquid Persil Deep Clean Intense Fresh but the last jug I bought would almost always have excessive foam during the cycles and it did say it was safe to use for HE washers. The last detergent I bought was All original which I really did liked and was going to buy more until I found out recently that it's been changed.

 

[qsd-dan]

"My wife and I actually LIKE our clothes to smell like said chemicals/fragrances."

Be aware that those fragrances are toxic and cause cancer. Some people use free and clear products and the add their own scented oils. While those are not toxic to humans, they are toxic to animals, so keep that in mind if you have a pet.