Detergent question for our Aussie friends.

[polkanut]

"Mattywashboy" and I recently did a detergent swap, and I received the following:  Radiant Power concentrate (650g), toploader Drive 2x Concentrate (1kg), toploader Omo Small & Mighty (1.5kg), and Fluffy Ultra "Apple Blossom 4x concentrate (1l).  I sent him a box of Tide HE, Gain Island Fresh? detergent and the matching fabric softener, and a bag of Axion hand dishwashing powder.

 

My question for you is what kind of experiences have you had with any or all of these brands?  I'm going to wait and try them when our weather allows me to line dry my laundry, and after hearing of your opinions, experiences, etc.  I asked Matt, and I'll ask you also, do any of you use any additives such as, bleaches, borax, Oxi-Clean, etc?

[this post was last edited: 3/24/2011-09:33]

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Tim,

I use Drive frontloader all the time and have found little need to use any additives. I occaisionally add some amonia to my synthetic gym clothes, but otherwise it gets everything out.

My experience with the older toploader version was that it worked well, but I needed to follow the Pretreating/soaking regime that I always used when I had a TL machine as my primary washer. Still wouldnt use an oxy bleach, but for heavy soils, would fill the machine with hot and drive and let it all soak for a while.

 

[ronhic]

Morning Tim

Drive and Omo are 2 of top performing detergents in this country with radiant not far behind.

 

It is years since I used a top load machine, but the front load version of OMO was the best detergent tested by our consumer magazine a year or so ago....it removed 86% of dirt in COLD WATER...the top load version did 77% with Radiant at 74% (differences of about 6% you can see)....

 

Drive wasn't tested that time, but is normally very close to OMO....

 

Using warm or hot water will increase soil removal slightly.....

 

My stain treatment is slightly different to Nathans....

 

- use a half scoop and soak items in a bucket rather than the machine for as long as required

- when ready, fill machine with like colours/fabrics

- another 1/2 scoop detergent

- choose appropriate cycle

- tip contents of bucket into machine

- start cycle

 

This way, you get to use the machine for other loads AND get to have a concentrated 'soak' along with fresh detergent in cycle...

 

...and NO CHLORINE BLEACH!!! If you read the side of the packets, it specifically says not to use it....

 

Both Drive and Omo have great fragrances with Radiant being a tad heavier...

 

Enjoy....

 

[polkanut]

Great comments so far guys, keep 'em coming!

 

[twinniefan]

Omo and Surf

Hi Polkanut, I have not really used any of the powders you have however I have tried the liquid Omo small and mighty and found it to be quite good, I am also a fan of Surf liquid and even though it is not really rated very highly by Choice magazine (from memory it only scored about 53%),I found it actually worked quite well, this was not the small and mighty version, but a 1.5 litre bottle which can only be bought from a supermarket chain called Franklins, I have used Radiant liquid some onths ago and it is also very good.
Additives, yes I use a product called Fiesta colour safe bleach for soaking,(in particular underwear and tablecloths etc),1 capful in a plastic bucket for overnight soaking and then another cap in the wash with detergent, I also use either Sard spray with eucalyptus or white king stain remover spray with colour safe bleach.
Forgot to add at the moment am using Duo liquid with fresh linen fragrance,current performance:Average probably would not buy again.

 

[twinniefan]

Fiesta

Here is Fiesta

 

[frontloader812]

Hey Steve, I think you will find that the big bottle of Surf you have pictured is very much Small and Mighty! I love Omo and Drive. For some reason can't stand Radiant Powder how ever the new Gel reminds me a lot of Ariel liquid. Enjoy your new bits

 

[twinniefan]

So it is

Well so it is small and mighty after all, thanks Jim,actually I should have said it is not the small bottle version, you know funny thing is the 1.4 litre bottle only comes in 2 fragrances the sunshine you see and tropical and yet the small bottles have several other ones, although from memory they might be the ones with essential oils in them.

 

[MrX]

In the UK and Ireland Persil is in the same category as Omo (Unilever's premium brand) and Surf was their budget offering.

However, in recent years, they seem to be trying to re-position Surf as a special scent range to compete with Bold. I am guessing that Unilever no longer wants to compete on price as it's up against ever-improving store brands (private labels).

Surf's formulation's definitely slightly inferior to Persil though as it contains fewer enzymes. So, it's definitely not as good at shifting certain types of stains.

 

[ronhic]

mrx...

Here we get 4 brands from Levers (Lever Rexona...as they wish)

 

They used to be, in order of both price and ability...

 

- Drive

- OMO

- Surf

- Rinso

 

Rinso may have been positioned above Surf, I can't remember, but regardless it went the way of the Dodo about 1982ish....when Surf started to really get into it's stride and replaced it....

 

Of late, OMO has replaced Drive as the premium product....and is now dearer rather than the other way around.

 

[MrX]

Unilever (Lever Bros) in the UK and Ireland had:

Rinso - introduced in 1908 and withdrawn in the mid 1970s. It was quite popular but entirely associated with old-fashioned non-auto top loading washing machines and hand washing.

Omo - Introduced as an automatic laundry detergent, but withdrawn in the late 1980s to simplify marketing.

Radion - Introduced in 1989 and withdrawn in 2000. It was a new range of odour busting detergent products. It was packed in retina-burning day-glo orange packs but, it failed as a marketing concept. I think it over-focused on odour-busting properties and lets face it, people aren't THAT smelly! It also had a bit of an old-fashioned detergent marketing image which was perhaps a bit dated. People were more interested in subtle fragrances and packaging.

Persil - The main Unilever premium detergent brand and it has been in use by unilever since 1907. Persil comes in multiple formats : Powder (Bio/non-bio/colour/2in1 softener/naturals etc), Liquid (Small and mighty - various versions), Tablets (various versions) and capsules (liquitabs).

Surf - Originally their 2nd tier budget brand, it comes in umpteen formats and now seems to concentrate on scent-branding rather than value for money. It contains simpler enzyme formulations than Persil though.

See link about Radion below:

http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/News/Sectors/Consumer-Goods/Articles/d942f699dbcf4757a11b3f9f72a88aa1/Odour-and-out-Radion-on-a-short-spin-cycle.html

 

[supersuds]

polkanut, I've used Omo, Drive and Radiant from an exchange with frontloader812, and they are all excellent cleaners. I used them the same way as an American detergent: sometimes adding oxygen bleach for very dirty loads, but often it was not necessary.

The ingredients are clearly listed on the boxes, with an explanation of what each one is for. That would be a nice thing to have over here. The main difference seems to be that for water softeners they use phosphate and zeolites rather than washing soda. So that's great.

Another advantage is that the scoop is sized so that a full scoop is good for a normal load. There's no tedious fiddling with finding a line on the scoop.

I agree with frontloader about the smell of Radiant being subpar. Not only is it a biting, cheap floral scent (imho), it's so strong it made me sneeze even after double rinses. Clearly it doesn't have that effect on everybody or they couldn't sell it, but it's not for me. It's a shame because it cleans so well, and I also like the red and blue specks,superficial though that is.

Omo smells exactly like Wisk. Drive is my favorite scent of the three, although it took awhile to get used to it. Omo may get whites a little whiter, though.

That's my take. I'm sure you'll love experimenting as I did!

 

[twinniefan]

Omo/Persil

Hey Chris,quick question about Omo/Persil and please correct me if I am wrong I thought that Omo was Persil re-named is that right?, or did they delete Persil to replace it with Omo as a new product?.
You mention Rinso, my mother was a Rinso girl nothing else for her, she was shattered when it was withdrawn from the market, I am not sure but I think she then went to Fab but was never really happy about Rinso going.

 

[ronhic]

Hey Steve...

Omo replaced Persil on our market.....in fact, the same package we see Omo in is badged Persil in New Zealand....

 

...and the 'dirt is good' campaign is the same slogan as Persil UK....

 

I've just bought some OMOmatic 'Baby' to try...and it smells very close to the Persil tablets I bought about 4yrs ago....mmmm....might just have to go and get some more of it....

http://www.omo.com.au/washingguide/skin-care-and-health/skin-care-tips-for-baby.aspx

 

[MrX]

Unilever Persil/Omo/Skip/Via etc etc

Unilever has the rights to use the Persil brand in certain markets. They seem to be The UK, Republic of Ireland, France and New Zealand. It's possible that they have no rights to the trademark in Australia as it could be owned by Henkel, even if they are not currently using it.

Omo is usually the Unilever premium brand in most markets (It's the 2nd tier morphing into a fragrance-speciality brand in France where it is basically Surf)

Check out www.omo.fr vs www.surf.co.uk (similar products, although the French site's nicer!)
Compare www.skip.fr vs www.persil.com vs http://nl.omo.com/ (Same premium line)
or http://www.via.se/pages/page1.php (Scandinavian variation of the same stuff)
or www.persil.fr (naturals line that is not replicated in other markets)

In general though, their products in Europe are now practically identical lines with different labels.

I would suspect that the OMO front-loader products in Australia and Persil Top loader products in NZ are the same formulations too. They're unlikely to have different forumlas as the regulatory requirements in Europe and the machines and laundry habits are very similar to Aus/NZ when front loaders are used.

However, there would be no market for the high-suds top-loader products in Europe so those products aren't replicated here at all as the machines really no longer exist and where they are used, front loader detergent is normally used in them.

In France and Spain, Unilever use Skip as their premium brand. Persil in France is a special 'natural' range of detergents. The trademark "Persil" is a little weird to French ears as it means Parsley! Then again, Henkel's Persil in France is called Le Chat (The Cat!)