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Hi Mark

Ah, it is you sir! Well I trust you are keeping well and it's nice to hear from you.

I don't know what the diferences are between the two types of phosphates and am led to believe that one doesn't need to worry about it.

I'm always interested to know what sort of enzymes a detergent contains, but this isn't usually stated on packs. You can get it from Lever /PG websites. Both Daz and Surf, for example, contain at least one less enzyme than their premium counterparts.

I also look at the list of scents. Usually it says `perfume' on the pack followed by a bunch of chemicals like linalool, coumarin etc. There are (IIR)C 9 possible artificial scents and some detergents contain them all to make the desired scent! Each of them has `charactetistics'. An excess of Linalool, for example, has been shown to be linked with depression. Funnily enough I find blue Lenor depressing if things are drying in the house, and did before I even began researching all this. Coumarin (which Yellow Lenor, admittedly a long term fave of mine, contains in abundance) reportedly bonds with and is drawn in by the skin. X Factor theme twinkles in the background!. You can quite often smell fabric softener on peoples' skin long after they've been exposed to it.

Non bio detergents and `white' softeners contain none of these scents, as they are all potential irritants.

As for the rest, well it's just surfactants, OBAs, Zeolites and all I can see is that the proportions vary according to brand. I don't know much more about it than that. Maybe we will be lucky, somebody with more knowledge could contribute to this aspect of the thread.......

BTW Im sure that Lavamat Jon did some looking into LIDL detergents and discovered that they were made by quite a reputable German company. Not Henkel, maybe not quite that well known. Regarding Henkel, a few years ago there was a bunch of hype on here about German Persil being the `must have' detergent. Jon and I wondered if it was being sold under the Adritt name - can't remmeber why. Anyway, eventually I went to France and bought us some `Le Chat' which is the direct equivalent, and we didn't rate it that much! What a disappointment....fantastic scents but mediocre cleaning and even more mediocre rinsing, in UK conditions, though US friends on here have reported excellent results.
 
I quite like Le Chat - smells nice.

In general I find most top of the line detergents do exactly what you'd expect them to do.

Tesco's detergent definitely creates a lot more bobbling than Persil Gel Tablets (non-phosphate).

There are good own-brand detergents out there though. Lidl and Aldi seem to do quite well in that regard.

I found Tesco's detergent line to be very harsh on my clothes and switched straight back to Persil again. Everything was coming out feeling rough and bobbly.

I really do think when it comes to detergents, you're better off sticking to good quality stuff.
 
I'm allergic

i'm allergic to tesco branded stuff, bought some tesco colour tablets and they made me itch like made,

so all i use is surf washing powder/tablets and sainsburys gentle fabric conditioner.

Surf powder/tablets are great for rinsing, you get a clear rinse at the end of the wash, i only use one tablet and thats sufficient for a normal wash, as alot of my clothes are lightly soiled.

I like the smell of sainsburys bio, it smells like ariel used to before they changed it to the piney lemony scent.
 
Hi Zanussi lover

Yes,you're quite right - Surf clear rinses because it's phosphated. Surf tabs are the same as old Persil (pre `gel') tabs minus an enzyme and one or two other posch ingredients. Oh, and not forgetting it comes in a range of yummy scents.

However.....

- you have to faff about with that silly net, and sweeping up little bits of detergent that fall through the net as you drop it in
- you can't do automatic prewash with it
- you'll be lucky to get it to dissolve completely at 30 degrees on a quick wash, let alone anything gentler
- on some machines (including Miele, LG and Hotpoint)`the net' gets stuck in the door seal with half disolved tabs,causing rinsing nightmares and so on
- in all FL machines, the net and semi digested tab are liable to be smeared all over the door glass and boot during the initial wash phase, needing a high level splashy wash (or rinse god forbid) to get rid of it.

Is there a PERFECT detergent out there LOL - and is it Lidl's Formil ??!!!

I wonder what it was about the Tesco that irritated you. It's a good rinser, (though not as good as Surf tabs) so either it wasn't being washed out the drawer properly or you are allergic to one of the scents, would be my guess.

Thanks for your input
 
my allergy

after i used the tesco colour tabs, i got a burning sensation on my skin and i started itching and itching till i started bleeding, it was that bad. i am still itching now, i think i have scabies, the guy that used to live in my new house left some persil non bio powder, so i have put on a wash with that to see if the itching will stop, if it does then i will start using non bio powder, but if i still itch then i will have to go to the doctors

we have surf lavender and oriental blossom at the moment, which is great, I have a Siemens Siwamat XB1060 washer, which looks like a Bosch Maxx 5, but it is 6 years old as the XB1060 came out in 2002.

its a great machine and its always set on 30, as it my housemates quest to be greener. though the towels, teatowels and dishclothes get washed on 60 intensive stains and they come up clean.

its great to have a german washer, rather than a shitty indeshotpoint washer dryer, which was shit!!
 
Thanks Nick! Im keeping well thanks although going to try and stop smoking tomorrow...That should be fun!

Thanks for your info with regards to ingredients. It totally confuses me as there are so many. I guess for me the best way is just to try different budget detergents and see how I get on. I think when I run out of Tesco and lidl colour tabs Ill try the Lidl Formil bio and colour powders then daisy. If you try the lidl ones first I look forward to the results. My main issue is over sudsing due to my very soft water and im yet to find a powder / tablet that does not give me this problem.

I am bad though for using 2 tablets and not 1. I do use 1 for towels as 2 is rediculous for sudsing because of the high absobancy. I have suds lock on every spin and there are 4 rinses with spins in between. I always have to reset the machine to do more rinses. It's just in my head that 1 tablet will not clean well. Don't know why but I just can't bring myself to use 1 tab for the rest of the washing.

I totally agree with you with regards to a silly net for tablets. Im surprised they have not yet advanced the tablets to being put in the drawer. I totally avoid any tablets you have to use a net for. Im sure people have not had problems with nets but for me personally I can't be doing with them.

Mark
 
Nick forget to mention a quick tip.

If you buy Lidl Formil tablets I would recommend crushing them up in the packet first. It kinda defeats the object of tabs but I find personally for me they don't always dissolve fully if I put them in whole. And of course with todays wash water levels being lower there is not as much water passing over them.

They may be fine with your bosch though. Nice machine by the way. We had a bosch classix 1400 in our last house and I liked it.It was the previous design to yours. Motor was a bit whiny and I always had to use aqua plus and sometimes wash plus but overall a good machine.

Mark
 
Good luck with giving up smoking! I gave up just before we had our first child. I still have the odd sneaky one though. I do find I have a mega hangover if I smoke on an evening out, which I suppose is odd.

A little disaapointing to read about LIDL tabs need crushing up. It does depend on the machine, my awful LG wouldn't disolve Tesco tabs properly via the drawer. Funnily enough, the LG flushed Persil S+M down fine, whereas the Bosch inexplicably leaves a blob of that in t'drawer.

I think that therefore, in terms of tabs, P+G are the best for disolving. Does anyone else have opinions about this?

I would avise experimenting with one tab. Basically, if you can see a few suds and the load comes out clean you're ok. If there are no suds at all, the machine is underdosed and grease / dirt etc will begin to build up around the vital organs. Too much detergent is poor for wash results, can casue seepage (sp?) to the bearings, and chokes the pump, reducing the effifiency of iterim spins and shortening its life. But then you know all that.

Agree - towels are awful for suds and iterim spins, especially in one of those Hotpoints. Sudscakes galore! I often wonder if it's cos of all the dregs of shampoo and shower gel (full of very bubbly SLS) they mop up.

Have found Persil bio gel tabs absolutely the best for towel laundering in this respect. And I know how much you love the nets....
 
Lidl Tablets

I found that it was best to scrunch them to pieces in the packet too, before adding to the dispenser, as they didn't fully dissolve.

Another thing is, that the Lidl tablets are composed of large particles that look like "Hundreds & Thousands" (cake decoration sugar strands). I found that these particles did not fully dissolve at 40 deg C. (white bits on coloured clothes), so I only used the tablets for whites @ 60 deg C.
 
Formil Acktiv tablets

Bought some tonight, no probs with desolving in the drawer, they washed straight away. Doing a load of darks tomorrow so will see if I have the same problems as Rolls.
 
P.S.

Forgot to ask, do the company that make Formil have links with P&G? Formil liquid smell very like Ariel liquid and the tabs smell like old Ariel powder to me.
 
Lidl Formil Aktiv Bio Powder

Hi Folks,
Here is a link on the Lidl site to the ingredients in Formil Bio, its in Adobe Portable Document Format PDF.
It appears to be Phosphate free and contains three Enzymes Protease for protein stains, Amylase for starchy stains and Cellulase to reduce bobbling of Cotton garments. It also contains Soap which is highly effective at removing fatty stains and suppressing suds.

I find it a great detergent, superb cleaning, excellent stain removal, clean rinsing, light fresh scent and great value for money.

David

http://www.lidl.co.uk/int/ekdet.nsf/pages/PDF.INDEX/$file/20207731.pdf
 
Picked up some LIDL bio tabs today (the powder would have toppled me buggy over) and Doussey Fabric Softener. HAven't used it yet, but the price was pretty good! £1.39 for 1.5 litre of conditioner concentrate, and £1.89 for 36 tabs.

Was dissapointed though as wanted to see <30% phosphates on the list. Alas, only phosphonates - not the same at all.

Just from appearance I would say this stuff has to have links with Henkel. The FS looks just like German Vernel, and the liquid concentrates (which I didn't buy but was tempted to get the bright red colour one LOL) look just like the Persil / Le Chat bottles. So I would guess Henkel not PG. Perhaps our German friends could enlighten us? I'll post pics / results etc as they come in...
 
I dis a load of white towels and microfibre cloths that I'd used to clean the oven doors with ( v mucky!). Washed at 30 deg cotton short prog in my miele just to test how the powder performed. It did a good job, left a couple of stubborn stains but they cam out in a hot wash. I did find it left a few white flecks on the darks. Over all its a very good detergent for the price although I didnt like the doussy jasmine softner, smelled very dissinfecty when clothes were dry.

So Good detergent but I think I'll be sticking to simply active detergent, LOVE the smell and its superb at cleaning.
 
Formil activ tabs for success

My goodness - was it Paul who said that these things smell like old (mid nineties) Ariel powder? They certainly do. And this is the overwhelming scent. But in the fragrance mix is a little regular German Persil powder (or German Persil tabs - the scent is the same). The scent is extremely light on the clean laundry. The rinsing is among the best I've seen for a non phosphate detergent. I am extremely impressed with this detergent and thank David for reccomending it. It's likely this will become a laundry room staple. The only negative? The Bosch does leave a spec of it in the drawer. But it's a small negative for such a nice product. And mabe the powder, as David originally suggested, wouldn't do this.

I'm pretty sure this product is Henkel. The tabs appear very similar to German Persil tabs, and everything about the wrapping for the tabs is identical too. I'm happy to show pics for anyone's whose bothered but I'll have to go in the loft to search for previous Henkel tabs.

These are the only tablets I've ever seen which give honest dosing instructions, and suggest one tab for anything up to medium water light soil. I applaud this. All other manufacturers suggest two tabs as a minimum. What rubbish.

The FS, again, I'm sure is Henkel and have compared images tonight with German Vernel. Identical. The variant I have is blue `Active Fresh' and it aint alf strong. About 10ml made the washing really soft (a small load admittedly) and smell quite strongly. I quite like the scent though - it's classic. there were no alternatives in my LIDL. I'd quite like to try the `white' one, but I guess it would be the same as the white `Minidou' I have from France, which is the French Henkel Vernel!

To summarise, I am absolutely convinced that LIDL's Formil and Doussy are the best products money can buy at this price. I would even go so far as to compare them to premium products. I unreservedly encourage anyone to try these!

A few pics follow of a sheets wash with one tablet and no softener. The cycle was 45 degree wash, 2 rinses and spin.

And finally, very importantly, Paul, what's `Simply Active' Detergent? Please reveal your source!

Pic1: The products.

11-1-2008-17-06-33--nickuk.jpg
 
Simply Active

Psul, just googled the detergent you mention. Are you referring to the Aquados stuff that comes in plastic tubs with green writing on? Are these those disolvable powder sachet thingees? Something tells me you can get these in Wilkinsons. Any input appreciated.....
 
Premium products without the premium

Hi Nick,
I'm glad you tried some Formil and Doussy I knew you would be impressed.

Yes indeed I think they are the best value laundry products bar none and I agree they seem to be premium products but without the premium price. I suspect you are right about Henkel making Formil products I think the Formil Bio Powder looks identical to German Persil Powder. The Formil Powder flushes out of my machines (Miele W3985WPS, Cyson CR02 Allergy and Dyson CR01) Memory completely as do the tablets for me, I have extremely high water pressure here as I live at Sea level.

Wow the Doussy even has the same bottle as Vernel Concentrate.
The white Doussy is very nice it smells creamy with a hint of Almond. My favorites are the Blue Active Fresh that you bought and the Green one Asian Spirit I think its called, I must check that one later.

David
 
Hi Nick,

Glad you have tried the Lidl detergents, it's always been an area I didn't want to touch but if yours and others expert opinions are bringing up top reviews I may have to try it. I'm getting bad at hourding again - even in my tiny university room. I'm at home this weekend, so may have to pop up to Lidl's tomorrow to buy some Formil... BTW Asda have a LOT, and I mean a LOT of detergent offers on at the moment. Any 2 50 wash boxes for £16 (you can even mix and match brands), or 2 12 wash boxes of tablets for £5... or in the case of Daz, 2 16 wash boxes, or in the case of Asda own, 2 18 washes. As I said you can even mix and match brands, I bought Persil non bio tablets and the new Ariel non bio tablets yesterday and the offer still came up. Not just that but they have also started to do Comfort concentrate in 3 litre 85 wash bottles... although I know I shouldn't I'm really tempted to buy a bottle just for the sake of it being novel!

One question - I trust from what I read the Formil tablets are designed for use in the drawer? I remember years ago mum got tablets from Lidl's (I must have only been about 13, and not too interested in detergents as I was in washers, so my memory might be unreliable), but I'm sure they were dispensed in a net.

In regards to the pictues, that is exactly how Persil non bio powder used to rinse out and suds for me 2 or 3 years ago. A shame that the smell and rinsability has changed for Persil, they've ruined possibly the best powder going with this new "just washed freshness" business. Have to say I was disappointed tonight when I opened the Persil non bio tabs to find out that the non bio tabs have lost the "original non bio" smell as I call it too.

I have a box of Simply Pure from Aquados that I bought from Sainsbury's in August or so (I believe it was on offer at something silly at just over a pound or something), not had chance to open it yet though and it's just been sitting in the utility doing nothing. Will try those out when I next have time.

You are all a bad influence on me. I just get to the point where I'm sensible and stop hoarding, where threads like this force me to go out and try and buy more things :-)

Jon
 
Lidl Detergents

Hi Stefan,
I see you live in Germany. Perhaps you could contact Lidl in Germany and ask them who makes their detergents and softeners. Lidl might be more forthcoming with information to a German citizen than they would be to us UK folks.
It would be great if you could possibly find time to do do this for the group.

Hi Nick,
Do you own a Dishwasher? If the answer is yes you must try Lidl W5 Dishwasher Tablets, both the 5 in 1 and standard versions are truly superb, in my opinion they're better than Finish and a fraction of the price. They clean superbly with even the dirtiest pots, pans and ovenware coming out spotless from my Bosch Dishwasher. Again I don't know who makes them but they bear more than a passing resemblance to Henkel Glist and perform equally well. I also use W5 Rinse Aid which is top notch too.
With dishes they are either clean or not clean, unlike laundry which can be whiter with some detergents have different scents etc. to that end I use W5 Dishwasher products exclusively now as they beat the competition and cost a fraction of the price.

David
 
Nick

Yes I was refering to Simply Active by Aquados. I first started using it because its not tested on amimals. Some person trust some leaflets on me when I was walking along Princes St ( Edinburgh) with pics of monkey and rabbits Blah Blah.....you know the rest.

Anyhow.......I did fall "off the wagon" and try Ariel Exel.

BUT, I missed the smell, softness and easy rinsing of Aquados. Got terrible sudslock in my Miele with Ariel Exel. Ok Simply Active is more expensive per wash, but I don't have kids and am very fortunate that my buget allows me to buy it ( my hubby now lives on cat food...he doesn't know, but his clothes look fab!). It doesn't bobble clothing......AND it claims to sanitise at low temps.!!!

By the way I should be on commission for these guys but Iam not. LOL.
 
Mr Boilwash, thanks for the info. I checked out `Dalli's website and couldn't find any clues as to whether or not they make LIDL stuff. If they do, they are certainly copying the style of Henkel! I'd put money on it being Henkel.

Jon, the LIDL tablets are dispensed via the drawer. Did you ever use JS Perform and protect tabs? Same. Only withour the giveaway Henkel box - remember the box with the cut off corners? That's what gave it away, at the time, as being Henkel. And not forgetting those wonderful huge boxes of megaperls for very few bucks. One of the best detergent scents in the box ever IMO.

David, I do own a dishwasher and have been using Tesco value tabs for agees. They were voted number 1 best buy in the latest Which? Report but I was using them way before that ;-)They're fine too - like you say, it works. Struggles with mashed potatoe and remains of fried eggs. but I can't remember now if Finish sorts that, and am in no way tempted to try! I only ever bought Finish on offer anyway, but the main thing is I can't stand the sudslocking. In terms of Tesco valuem thought 30 for £1.70 odd was great, but the LIDL ones appear to be 40 for the same price IIRC so once again I shall follow your advice.

And did you know that the W5 concentrated washing up liquid came second in Which tests? Only beaten by Fairy.

Thanks to everyone for their wonderful input to this thread

Nick
 
W5 Dishwasher Tablets

Hi Nick,
I Look forward to your report on the W5 Dishwasher Tablets, I also feel confident that your Potato and Fried Egg issues will be resolved.
Yes indeed the W5 Concentrated Washing Up Liquid is excellent almost as good as Fairy, I think I mentioned that to Jon in another thread. Talking of Fairy Liquid, Green Fairy has had the same scent since I was a child as does Fairy Household Soap.

I'm enjoying this thread too.

David
 
Simply Active soft tabs

Slightly late in the day here but I have been using the Simply Active tablets for a little while now and thought I’d drop my thoughts into the mix...

Plus points:

1) Smell great (to me anyway – classic washing powder smell)

2) Fairly cheap to use – around 20p per wash if using two. Much cheaper than Ecover if, like me, you want to lean towards the environmentally friendly choice (though the ingredients are still essentially petrochemical – just less of them)

3) Seem to clean well – the bio version contains lipase for grease which I haven’t seen in quite a while. I don’t tend to deal with bad stains or heavy soiling so my opinion doesn’t hold much sway here – but the whites do look good.

4) Not really sudsy (though I do like for sudsy water for viewing pleasure so a it’s a mixed blessing)

5) Rinse out well (contrast to my housemate’s Daz tablets which are still foaming like billyo despite being flushed through with about 120 litres of water by the end of the cycle)

Negatives:

1) Take quite a long time to dissolve despite the marketing claims – this is a problem especially on cold fill (and it’s not for the lack of water since my machine is old-style 18 litre fill; it does also mean that there’s not much detergent in the water when it goes into static heating which can’t be good for the heating element). Not sure how well the tablets would fair in some of the new machines if they fell into the door seal early in the wash cycle and water level never reached that far.

2) The polypropylene tub is non-recyclable in my area (indeed the case for anyone whose local authority take only code 1 and 2 plastics). You can, however, buy in bulk online and then they come in cardboard boxes.

My tub came from Sainsbury’s and the label said they were £2.99 (tub of 30 soft tabs) though the receipt showed £1.49 so maybe that’s the best place to get them!

They might not exactly be in the budget range but worth a go if one is looking for something outside of the mainstream to try.

Al
 
Thanks for the confirmations on Lidl powder - definitely something to try next time I'm up in Lincoln - unfortunately got no time this weekend to pop into Lidl. Nick, I do remember the wonderful Perform & Protect range Sainsbury's did, they only stopped the last of that stuff late last year (the liquid and liquitabs changed to McBride just before Christmas), although their dishwasher range is still going strong.

Talking of dishwasher tablets, mum has used cheap dishwasher tabs for years before I "intefered" lets say lol. And she would always use W5 from Lidl's. At the moment we're using the cheapest Sainsbury's ones - the standard McBride 3in1 tablets, which are about £3 for 30 washes or so- not the PErform & Protect ones. I've been using Finish and Fairy on and off for the past 2 or 3 years - we mainly switched to them when we had the Zanussi dishwasher which refused to wash anything, in hope of that they would clean better. And I have to say to this day the cheap Sainsbury's ones have been the best ones I have used for years. I did wonder whether or not it was because we have switched from a CBC rated dishwasher to an AAA rated one, but then Fairy and Finish tablets have both left bits of food (Worst is the baked on Sunday roast tins), whereas Sainsbury's tabs have actually washed everything perfectly.

Seems like in today's troubled times these budget brands will probably experience a higher market share than ever.

Jon
 

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