Detergent Recommendations?

[vintagekitchen]

Well, it finally happened. The phosphate police got to Foca detergent. I had been using Foca with good old fashioned phosphates, and when I ran oujt about a month ago, I went to the local Save A Lot, (only store in my area carrying the phosphate formula. Walmart carries the non-phosphate formula). Horror of Horrors, right there on the bag it said PHOSPHATE FREE. Ugh. Spoke to the manager who said that was all their supplier offered anymore. Double ugh.
So here is my question for all you laundry wizards out there, any advice on a brand to switch to? I dont like the non phosphate Foca, as it doesnt clean nearly so well, and there are no Hispanic stores around here to buy the real stuff from. I need a detergent that cleans well, and is affordable on my meager, (and I mean REALLY meager) income.
I know Trend is extremely affordable, but it doesnt do well on heavy soil. I'm currently trying the modern version Oxydol, but it is nothing Like the old Oxydol. I will never forget the wonderful smell in Aunt Nancy's kitchen when she did laundry with the old fashioned Oxydol, nor will I forget how clean it got her brothers filthy work clothes. (He was a welder in a machine shop). This new Oxydol smells totally different, and doesn't clean much better than Trend. So what do you guys recommend?

 

[washer111]

Based on Other Posts...

I'd recommend you order some STPP - other members will hopefully fill you in on this, but this stuff is a phosphate additive and should help boost these detergents.

Like I saw in a YouTube videos, its not so much the washing machine's fault, its the detergent losing phosphates and losing its power. That is why Euro machines work so much better with those detergents, since those restrictions have been in effect for far longer...

 

[stan]

Hi Kevin

think you have a couple of options..

You could Google "Foca" detergent, "Roma" detergent and look for Latin stores that sell on line, but also have a 800 number to call, (did this myself once) tell the person that answers exactly what you want ( when I did this, the guy took the phone in the back, and looked for the bags that did not say "phosphate free") He sent me those bags.

The other alternative, is to do as suggested above and order STPP, and spike the new Foca with it! (about a Tbls per wash load should do it)

Hope this helps.

 

[jamiel]

Interesting...same thing happened at Save-A-Lot here. Now all the Foca you see in mainstream stores is phosphate free. There is still some phosphated Blanca Nieves available at KMart near us; seems to work reasonably well and is in the same price range as Foca. Also still have phosphated Foca at the local Mexican stores. Funny story though...I bought some Viva from Colgate Palmolive at the Mexican store recently to try it (phosphates and enzymes). Looked it up on the internet and found that it was at least 10 years old (when C-P sold to Henkel)...oops!

 

[gmmcnair]

If you have a Sears store nearby....

....go by there an pick up some of their Ultra Plus Detergent in the orange box. Very low cost per load (especially larger sizes), works extremely well, and can be used in a regular or HE machine. STPP is nice on the whites, but it does exceptionally well even without it.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Whlie being costly up front

I find Tide liquid does well even without phosphates and in average laundry conditions you can use much less than other brands so the per use cost is fairly economical. I often use about 2/3 the reccomended amount and get great results. I also always buy it on sale and or with a coupon.
An excellent performer for the money is Era.
Nick WK78

 

[vintagekitchen]

Sears store is about 2 hours away, though if I ever have an excuse to be there I plan on trying their detergent. I just dont wanna pay shipping on it to order and have it delivered, lol. I guess this will spark an old debate, due to the mention of the tide liquid, but I have always used powder. How do you guys feel about powder vs liquid? I know some people in this area say liquid is better with our hard water, but I have never tried it.

 

[stan]

If your

water is really hard, I can see why the phosphate Foca worked for you!
So ...if you know that worked.. then the addition of phosphates may be your only solution. And possibly the least expensive.
A 1lb jar at 1 Tbls per load should last a while, and is not very costly, especially with the inexpensive Foca, now at your Save A Lot.

The Viva detergent, mentioned above, with phosphates is also good,( very close to Foca) and has the added enzymes.. if your able to find it in your area?

 

[re563]

I've been having really good proformance with All 3x. I can get 96 loads for the same cost as Tide 64 loads. Seems that Sun Products has stepped it up and is clean as it use to in the '70s.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Era Detergent

Ok, went to the store today, as I did not want to attempt yet another load with that pitiful new formula Oxydol. The Tide liquid gave me cold chills at $6.00 for a 48oz bottle. So, I purchased a 50oz bottle of Era for only $3.50 and gave it a test drive. It works! Not quite up to par with the old phosphate detergents, but better than anything else I have tried recently. Whites are bright with no bleach, stains came out, even some OLD oil stains on a "junky working on stuff kinda shirt" lightened. Filling the cap to line 3 gave a light layer of suds in the twin tub, and washed the clothes beautifully. And the price is good. Line 3 on the cap is 2 ounces, so for a 50oz bottle that cost $3.50 it works out to only 14 cents a load. Considering I use the water in the twin tub twice, that brings it down to 7 cents a load. I'm a happy boy!

 

[stan]

Glad it

worked for you and your hard water!

How is the scent of ERA?

One of the things I like about the old version of Foca, was that it was'nt overly scented, just had a light clean smell.

 

[vintagekitchen]

scent

The scent was pretty light, not overly strong, and after rinsing there was no perfumey flowery scent, just a nice clean smell. Of course after that I messed it up by adding a little regular Downey to the final rinse, lol. I use the old fashioned non-concentrated Downey though, and only about half a cap, so it doesnt add a really strong scent either. I hate super strong perfumey detergents and softeners like Gain, yuck.

 

[abcomatic]

Kevin

HI Kevin, I too use Foca detergent with phosphates. If you want me to, I will check for you at the local Hispanic store and see what they have? I love this stuff and use it my wringers or in the Easy spindrier. Foca cleans so well and has a great scent too. Let me know you want me to do? Gary

 

[vintagekitchen]

Gary

If you could check I would very much appreciate it, though I think we all may have to stock up while we can. Seems the phosphate police wont be happy until they seek out and eliminate every source of properly washed laundry for those of us still forced to put up with hard water. Im looking into ordering some STTP online, before the manage to eliminate that being available to the masses as well. On a brighter note, the liquid Era seems to be doing an acceptable, not excellent, but acceptable, job so far.

 

[matthewza]

I use a powder called X-pert. It comes from New Zealand but if we can get it in South Africa I'm sure you'll find it. I love it because its the 1st powder I've found that really works in cold water. And its concentrated so 2kg lasts us 2 months and its quite cheap here in SA. It has a lovely smell ans I don't use softener so I set my machine to only do 1 rinse and there is no smell left on the clothes. An all round awesome detergent

 

[dirtybuck]

Kevin:

Which formula of Era (oxy, with bleach, free or regular) did you buy?

 

[thomasortega]

It's happening everywhere but...

... I've been noticing something interesting past few months, at least here in South America.

STPP is harmful for the environment, that's a fact, not a paranoia. Eliminating it from the detergent formulas is wonderful for the environmnet but... what about our clothes?

I'm sure everybody here understands that and, if there were alternatives to STPP, that really works, they would be prefered. Right?

Well, manufacturers seem to be thinking the same, too.

Like you, I hated when the phosfate bad reached our Brazil. There's no law forbbiddening it yet, but there's a recomendation from the Ministry of Environment for the manufacturers reducing the use of STPP. The reduce only if they want.

Of course, as neither Unilever or P&G want to have their names related with products that are unsafe to the environment, they reduced and sequentially banned the STPP here too. We noticed a huge cleaning performance reduction on all of the detergents.

Even worse, the Brazilian detergents produce too much suds. I really mean it... To explain better, Omo produces 5x more suds than regular Tide powder. Maybe even more. so the doses should be really small otherwise people would have the whole house filled with suds up to the ceiling.

Well... were we going to recreate the white? maybe brown would be the new white. Maybe we sould go back to the laundry sink and rub all of the clothes with soap bars before putting them in the washing machine... OF COURSE NOT!

Now the manufacturers started to launch detergents 100% STPP free, but with the same performance as STPP loaded formulas. &#92o/ YAY &#92o/

I always hated Omo because of it's suds, but i have to admit, the recently launched version "Omo com poder acelerador" (Omo with accelerator power) and it's "X" particles clean amazingly well, even on the shortest cycles and on cold water.

It shocked me. Things that until a few weeks ago I'd say they were impossible to happen, now happens. For example, white kitchen towels with tomato, chocolate, olive oil soils washed at the electrolux LT60, which is the cheapest Electrolux washer on the market and also the WORST washer with it's ridiculous impeller.

100% clean, stains 100% removed using the quick cycle. By the way the quick cycle on that machine has a 5 minute wash, no soak.

But... how does it removes fat stains in cold water? How can it clean so fast? I HAVE NO IDEA! I just know it works!

After this first test, I started to try with other loads. White clothes, including lots of socks that I deliberately wore and walked around the house with bare feet to let them really nasty. CLEAN AS NEW on the first wash, same washer and same 5 minute wash cycle, same cold water and same detergent and same reduced dose to avoid oversudsing.

Miracle? No! I don't think so... Maybe the manufacturers realized that consumers were giving up their products and looking for other alternatives. They started to lose market. Profit was affected and they had to do something.

Exactly the same situation I noticed with the Argentinian detergents.

So, instead of thinking only about STPP or always the same detergent brand, like if we all have OCD. Why not, from times to times, allow us to try other detergents? Maybe now the manufacturers have discovered better alternatives.

Other thing that I always hated: Liquid detergents. Ok, I use them a lot, specially for coloureds or things that a super performance weren't so urgent. But the new Ariel and the Omo liquid have changed their formulas... now they clean MUCH better, nearly the same as powders.

And about brands... In south america, we have Ace (Tide) as the cheap alternative and Ariel. Coincidently, in Argentina there's the Ace Matic (low suds Ace) It performs better than Ariel and it's cheaper.

 

[whirlcool]

We use FOCA non phosphate and it really cleans well for us. Even dirty dog beds that haven't been washed in quite some time.

Our local Walmart had these 1lb bags of FOCA on sale for $1.00 each. So I bought a couple and gave them to our neighbors to try. That was a few weeks ago. Everyone liked it! They said it cleaned well without oversudsing and their clothing didn't smell like a fruit stand. When I told them the price, they just couldn't believe it. Most all of them mentioned how easy it rinses out.

If P&G & Unilever won't make laundry detergents that rinse well, I'm spending my money on those who do!

 

[sudsmaster]

Phosphated detergents are not considered an environmental problem in arid or Mediterranean climates such as California. That's because there are not that many fresh water lakes or rivers here that receive sewage. In fact nitrate pollution is considered more of an issue in California.

One big exception is the Lake Tahoe basin, which has no runoff alternative but the lake, which is renowned for its low pollution level and clarity. So there are phosphate bans in place for that area.

Recently I found that an old stash of Ariel (phosphated) does very well with my work clothes. For these the high sudsing nature of Ariel isn't an issue, because the machine coolants that inevitably splash on my work clothes contain soluble oils and foam suppressants, and these do a very good job at suppressing suds. But on "normal" laundry loads the Ariel suds up too much in the Neptune.