Discontinued detergents/products that you remember

[laundromat]

I forget the brand name but it came in a front loading washing machine container.
LaFrance

original All
Babo
Klear floor wax
Lestair packets
Action bleach packets
Swan dishwashing liquid
Drive
Original Bold
Calgon water conditioner
Electrosol
King Fluff fabric softener

 

[booandsue]

Hai Karate

My mom, alias Santa, got my dad and my brother, and myself each a set of Pajamas that looked like karate clothes for Christmas one year. We we would act out the t.v. commercial for Hai Karate after putting some of it on us.

 

[launderess]

Clorox Non-Chlorine Bleach

If youse mean that blue and white box with the huge Clorox logo, it *was* sold here on the east coast. Had several boxes in my stash and am now finishing up the last.

A very good activated oxygen bleach product it was/is. Can be little high foaming but then again it was designed for top loading washing machines.

Am also here to tell you that when used as part of a "boil wash" either on the range or in a washing machine, the stuff is fantastic.

L.

 

[franksdad]

Niagra Instant Starch

in the green box. My Mama used it when I was young to starch shirts and her work dresses. I would love to have some to starch my shirts in for old time sake.

 

[franksdad]

Niagra Instant Starch

in the green box. My Mama used it when I was young to starch shirts and her work dresses. I loved it when she hung out the starched shirts and dresses. When they dried they would be stiff as cardboard. We would bring them in and she would place a sprinkler cap on a Pepsi bottle filled with clear cool water and "dampen down" the clothing. Mama would put the plastic laundry bag filled with starched clothes in the chest freezer until she ironed them. Sometimes Mama would squech my begging and let me starch the pillow cases, dampen them down, and iron them. I would love to have some Niagra Instant starch to starch my shirts in for old time sake. Everytime I go into an old store I look for it.

 

[booandsue]

Jello 1,2,3,
Whip and chill
Snow's clam flavored chips in a can
Bonamo turkish taffy
Quisp cereal
Quake cereal
King Vitamin cereal
Screamin yellow Zonkers
Sugar Mama
Candy cigarettes
Bubblegum cigars
Cains Sandwich spread. A relish and mayo mix
Chocolate, or lemon, or caramel pudding cake mixes.

 

[booandsue]

Sorry, posted this on the wrong thread.

 

[retromania]

Launderess...

...thanks for the link to the vintage products!

Andy

 

[dirtybuck]

STOP IT!!!

With all the talk on here about past detergents, soap, cleaning products, beauty and health items, food products and other numerous items mentioned in this forum, you guys are giving me NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD and I don't know how much more I can handle! Robert, PLEASE twitch your nose and take the ones who've responded on here back to the various time periods that have been mentioned!

Frank, I SOOO remember one of the neighbors "throwing" water on the clothes, rolling them up, placing them in her refrigerator and waiting for an employment agency "domestic" to come do her ironing.

To those who mentioned it, I also remember using Clorox Detergent back in the late '80's.

A few more items:

Unguentine Spray (for insect bites, cuts, scrapes and sunburn. There's a mention of it on "I Love Lucy" in "The Fashion Show" episode)
Solarcaine (used mainly for sunburn, it was manufactured by Plough, who also made Coppertone products)
Beads-O-Bleach (made by Purex)
Pine-Sol Cleanser (made by American Cynamide who also made Pine-Sol before it went to SC Johnson, to take on Comet and Ajax, but it was a sorry contender. It also had the most hideous odor to it)
Plunge Drain Cleaner (manufactured by Drackett, who also made Drano, but a weaker version of Liquid Drano and an "economy" brand
Vanish/Sani-Flush Toilet Bowl Cleaners (there's an interesting link to this which I'm adding below)
Kellogg's Puffa-Puffa Rice Cereal (my brother and I ate only a half box of this crap before it was thrown out)
"Blue" Rain Drops Water Softener (don't know who made it, but it was an "economy" version of Calgon)
Calgon POWDERED Water Softener (all I can find these days is the liquid)
Chiffon Dish Liquid (made by Dial)
Aero Wax

Why is Saniflush toilet bowl cleaner impossible to buy? - Answers

Because they say its bad for our environment but if you look on the internet the office depot does sell it. Sani flush has been around for years and if it was unsafe why did they use it in the first place. I feel someone is trying to cover something up. I don't know if this is a better answer or...

wiki.answers.com

 

[sudsmaster]

Cleaning products that might not be missed today

Back in the day (my Mom told me) they used to "dry clean" clothes with... gasoline...

Kind of dangerous. However I have an old Binks air compressor in my workshop, and the air intake filter says to clean it in... gasoline...

Safer product that followed it was carbon tetrachloride. Until about 20-30 years ago, it was fairly common. You could buy it at supermarkets and hardware stores. Not flammable, but could give off toxic gas if overheated.

And it's effectively banned now because of the effect of chlorinated hydrocarbons on the ozone layer.

 

[launderess]

Gasoline For Dry Cleaning

Oh yes they did!

One shudders to think now many housewives and anyone else "dry cleaning" with petrol went to their makers after a horrible death, or were badly burned and or injured to the point of disfigurement. IIRC there is a video on the same site that hosts vintage Ironrite movies about what happened to a woman dry cleaning at home with petrol. All one can remember is the opening shot of a woman running screaming from her house on fire.

Many of my vintage housekeeping/laundry manuals from the early part of the 20th century give directions for "dry cleaning" with petrol. However that is going way back just too far a Moi!

"French" dry cleaning (as it was known back then), wasn't always available everywhere, especially if one lived outside a major urban area and or out in the country, so people had to make do.

Turpentine or petrol was also used when laundering clothing as well. My old manuals give directions and amounts to be used. Basically one added either to boiling soapy water, and it was supposed to do away with all the soaking and scrubbing that went with laundry day before washing machines came along. When you think about it first naptha soaps, then modern detergents (which are made from petrol based chemicals), replaced the former.

 

[lavamat_jon]

"More dangerous than dynamite"

 

[arris]

Posts

I've been reading all the posts regarding what we all remember using or our mother's using brings back great memories, I do have to say that I love reading Launderess's posts, the way she phrases them is great.. It's great reading them !!!! some of them I laugh until I have tears in my eyes, they are great pick me up's !!!!!!

 

[paulg]

Powdered Calgon in Chicago

Powdered Calgon water softener is available in Chicagoland.
However, CHEER seems to have disappeared entirely from the stores I frequent.

 

[liberatordeluxe]

I miss the old perfumes of Ariel and Persil, they were just soapy none of these silly fragrances you see in the supermarkets. I liked Sainsbury's Novon and Ariel 'Ultra'.

 

[launderess]

Cheer Has Been Discontiuned

Brand is no longer as P&G has decided to create Tide for "colors". We have a thread around here somewhere on the subject. Mitch created it IIRC.

 

[matthewza]

Up until a few years ago we were graced with Skip Perfect White powder. Best product I ever used on whites, didnt need additives either. Also, I could put the whites in my LG FL on a 30C wash with this detergent and everything came out blinding white. The white towels got 60C though.

We also had the Perfect Black version, but we never tried that. Then all of a sudden, they disappeared off the shelves and now we just have regular Skip powder and liquid. Good stuff, very pricey , but normally a bargain when on sale.

 

[pierreandreply4]

for me brand that where discontinued or stop selling

Hello to all aw members,

I know this thread is old but i need to post this in the province of quebec idk what was the reason they discontinued selling all laundry detergent (*thats still avalable in the us) oxydol laundry detergent wisk bold 3 ect i wish they would start selling these producs again in the province of quebec like all laundry detergent powerder for non he washers and he washer in other word for all machines same with wisk and oxydol and other laundry detergent and product avalable in the us that should be made avalable for canadiens including the province of quebec. sigh

 

[whirlcool]

Nobody mentioned Calgonite Dishwasher Detergent. It was about as popular as Cascade or Finish. My parents used it in their GE Mobile Maid circa 1961 or so.

 

[grwasher_expert]

Calgonit was the continental european name for Finish/Electrasol. In 2009 the product was renamed to "Finish" in all countries,probably in order to avoid confusion with "Calgon".

A discontinued laundry detergent I remember in Greece is P & G's Bold 2 in 1-detergent and fabric conditioner in one product.It was launched about 1998 and the last time i saw it on shelves was somewhere between 2003 and 2004. I have no idea how on earth was this combination supposed to work,because normally detergent and fabric conditionel cancel out each other if they mix(anionic vs cationic surfactants),conditioner is supposed to be used separately in rinse cycle.Apparently it didn't work,that's why it was discontinued.