Foreign Detergent in American Washers.....

[state-line]

HI gang....I'm considering placing an order for some detergent from Britian, such as Persil and Ariel. I have the traditional top-loading automatic washer and naturally their products are designed for the foreign washer. How would I determine how much to use in my washer and what kind of cleaning results should I expect to get?

 

[MrX]

If you were using a front loader, you'd just follow the on-pack instructions and it should work fine. If you've soft water, follow the soft water dosage guides.

If you've a top loader agitator washer, you'll need to increase the dosage substantially to get the necessary concentration to wash your clothes properly as the machine uses a LOT more water than a front loader.

I'd suspect if you double the dose, it should work quite well.

I have no experience of using Ariel or Persil in toploader agitator machines though. However, when twin tubs used to be around, they took considerably more powder than front loaders did. You'd typically put in two scoops of detergent.

Also, you will find the solution shouldn't really foam up, rather it will turn slightly milky. This is usually the ideal.

 

[dixieland]

German Persil

German Persil will work fine in a standard U.S. Toploader using only 1 scoop. The water becomes slippery and as noted above it has a milky appearance.

The scoop which came in the box I have looks like any scoop you may find in Tide or Cheer.

 

[nmaineman36]

What version of Persil do you mean Dixie? The Megapearls scoop is marked off to a Max of 85mls. I have never seen a scoop for the Regular big box stuff thats considered "universal" meaning can be used for whites and colorfast colors. If you follow the directions on the back of the box it will let you know how much to dose.

 

[peterh770]

German Persil that we have here in the States is COMPLETELY different than UK Persil.

I love, love, love UK Persil. Get a box of colour and a box of either the bio or non-boi powder so that you can play with the dosage to see what works best.

I don't care for Ariel -- too perfumy and harder rinsing. Altho' in an American toploader with all the water and dilution, Ariel might be really nice. Again, be sure to get both a colour and a bleaching formula.

And get enough to make the shipping and custom charges worth it...

 

[dixieland]

the scoop...

You know - I have the 54 washload Persil white. There's a scoop in the box but I really do not remember if I put it in there or not. If I did then the scoop is the same scoop that came in a box of Tide which means I am using the U.S. standard one-scoop per load (filled all the way).

I have just ordered Persil color - hope I like it as much as the persil white.

 

[gansky1]

The Persil and Daz that Mike sent in September was gone first, but I've been using the the Ariel Sensitive and love that for towels - so clean, no scent and no suds.

It's almost gone so I may have to place an order myself!

 

[MrX]

The Persil dichotomy!

Just to reiterate the difference between the Persil branded products:

Unilever acquired limited rights to the use of Persil as a brand in several markets back in the 1920s. Lever Brothers entered a marketing agreement with Henkel that allowed it to sell the original Persil product in the UK, Ireland, France and elsewhere. This carve up remains today.

I'm not sure what the situation would be in the USA, it's quite possible that Unilever may own the rights to the Persil brand in the US and Canada too!! I don't know how far the carve up extended.

Unilever own the Persil trademark in the UK, Ireland, France and New Zealand.

In the UK, Ireland and New Zealand they use it to market their premium laundry detergent products. In the UK there is also Persil washing-up liquid (Dish liquid) - in Ireland it's Quix and I don't know what Unilever's dish detergents called in NZ.

In France Persil is a specialist Unilever detergent that contains natural ingredients and natural Marseilles soap (Savon de Marseilles)

Elsewhere, Persil is a Henkel brand and is usually used to market Henkel premium detergents.

 

[MrX]

Henkel

As you can see the branding is not quite the same either...

 

[MrX]

France (Unilever)

Here's the french version

 

[peterh770]

And UK Persil Small & Mighty is about the same as Wisk 3x here in the States. Wisk 3x is my "daily driver" right now.

 

[MrX]

I doubt those formulations are identical though. Persil S&M and Skip Petit et Puissent (Fr) are designed for front loaders and basically don't foam at all.

The S&M products in the states are for TL only?

 

[spoodles]

There are HE versions of Unilever's US Small & Mightys.

 

[jetcone]

I use the German

Persil in Bendii to great effect! I have used the UK brand and found it to work great too but it sudses more. I like a nice sloshy wash! Not a sudsy wash!
I LOVE DAZ! get some of that!

Peter I to am very fond of Wisk 3x. It works great in Bendii big and small.

They all seem to rinse out very well. So I recommnend them all.
pS I am mostly naked under my clothes too.

 

[gansky1]

pS I am mostly naked under my clothes too.

Mostly? Except for the wipe-clean latex?

Dixan Megapearls that Louis brought in '05 for the convention were my favorite of all. Is the Persil Megapearls in the U.S. the same?

 

[dixieland]

Persil (Henkel)

 

[whirlcool]

We use UK Persil and here is how we measure for use in our WP TL machine:

On the top of the bottles of Persil there is a little ball measuring device. For liquids we use about 35ml or so per load. We have pretty soft water so it works well.
For measuring the Persil UK powdered detergents we just fill the ball to the top and dump it in immediately after the clothes start agitating.

Of course you can always add just a little more.

Persil does not suds like American detergents do. You'll have maybe a little suds. But if you feel the water, it definitely is very slimy feeling. But the rinsing is great! We use 2 rinses and the second one is always clear with Persil.

Plus our clothing comes out so clean!

 

[foraloysius]

Greg

Dixan Megapearls are almost the same I think. I never had a close look at the ingredients of both, but they are both premium detergents in the Henkel book. The fragrance is different and there more blue pearls in Dixan, personally I think those are the biggest differences. Perhaps somebody else has experience with both?