Malcolm....I just do not know if you refer as foamy hot washes just the ones in FL's and with HE stuff...for what I could experience while using american HE in boilwash in a FL and the regular detergents always in boilwash in an agitator (servis Twin Tub) they never sudsed up too much or at least I could not notice differences from the Dixan (Italian name for Persil) or the average european ones ..same is for powders..never got "burst in foam"... rather once 95°c is reached foam tend to dismount more than with 60°c or 40°c washes...
So I find your thoughts really curious...I could experience it differently.
Regarding washing temperatures in the US....I don't think this is callable a "preferrance".....nor that there's a cospiracy about it regarding detergents foaming on purpose (at least for now)..LOL. Even though Obama Government and all his ECO- BS manias:" let's save the planet, is dying, everybody do cool washes" and blah blh blah (that is the fashion of the moment about everywhere) are pushing for machines that just don't use water, and the little they use is colder, in response leading detergents makers follows these directives also, suggesting people to do the same, so choose cooler washes instead thanks to their phantom "improvements" to their detergents...but I do not think they arrived to do what you say.....again, my personal experience is different.
I think the fact that in the USA boilwashes are not common is not imputable to a preferrance....
It's just that averagely with the TL agitators there was not the need to use high/boiling temperatures as it is required for front loaders to do the job....differently than europe, central hot water lines/heaters in homes developped way earlier in the USA, fact that made machines coming without it since early days as not needed for the most, and running on simple 120 volt (otherwise higher voltage supply would have been needed for the built in heater) so this since the "age of wringer washers", and again, differently than most of Europe they used to be (averagely) directly filled from hot water tap in case of wringers and connected to it for automatics, thing that could not happen elsewhwere in Europe where even agitator machines would come with their own heater since central water lines were still not that common...and later also automatics (machines that as we know in Europe are most of the FL kind)...
Exception is a country like UK that would make double fill automatics (mosly FL's but also TL's) since the early days of automatics because of earlier and more common developping of central water lines than rest of Europe, even though still making machines with heaters also reaching boiling point or heating water theirselves whenever there was not an hot water tap connection ( situation that was anyway more likely to be than USA),... the things in UK were held slightly differently than rest of europe in this sense....and even there the FL kind was, in the long run, "preferred" mostly, as it allowed savings in matter of electricity/energy for reasons above, and so like through all the europe the "savings" matter won (Energy/electricity as we all know in europe always been historically way more expensive than USA, matter that played actually a crucial point to the fact that in europe the FL or H axis set up was generally preferred to agitator type of machines, this since, as we can realize, it generally required less energy to heat the less wash water they used than agitator kinds ) this with a series of others facts like laundry areas locations spaces etc....
There is to say that actually the "boilwash" became part of usual washing habits for europeans in the past for these reasons, that's true... and that's why an European could find absurd the fact that an american machine does not " boil" water (thing I could hear very often) , and for this reasons would think it does not wash good by not realizing that "boilwash" isn't actually needed with them.....
Then if we want to say it all....nowadays there're really few people (FL's owners) who would still run very hot washes on a regular basis even here in Europe, or at least the same way it was used in the past, I mean with temps higher than 60°c...this is because laundry habits changed, subsantially laundry is no longer brought as dirt as it was once....you put in this mix the trend of people to make mixed washes with other fabrics kinds (mixed synthetics and now even colored, things "unthinkable" back then) and you get very few people who would do boilwashes on a regular basis....
But this is related to other speeches I already made on here....
Then, also like it is in the USA, various international agreements about this " Green freaks" policy , things agreed mainly also with governments of the EU zone, created a disposition pushing toward this "Eco-saving fashion", and this tendency is spreading just about everywhere and everything (HE appliances or Class A+ in Europe, cars, etc...), but of course this is well known.....so even here in Europe you've many detergent makers that now suggest low temperature washings always more, claiming you no longer need hot washes and you could get same results with 40°c as if it was 60°c etc.. same is for machines manufcturers....
Anyway...all this to say that I found american detergents to be just perfect for "hot washes" and can't really understand how one could say the opposite, at least my experiences were totally different from your one Malcolm.
I just do not know how we arrived to speak about american detergents in a thread called "how liquids detergents are made"....
But if someone wants to get american detergents I'd just don't suggest ebay (which with the recent USPS postage increase do have CRAZY costs, not to mention stuff is usually more expensive there) but I'd suggest this service called "my american shopper" who would purchase on your behalf from any american store and ship stuff to your door just about everywhere you're, Europe is fully served anyway, ....this with reasonable shipping fees way lower than USPS ( with DHL courrier) this thanks I imagine to the large amount of packages they moves... thus getting a pre-calculated amount of customs fees with the possibility to have them pre-paid and avoid unexpected "tips" to the delivery guy...
It's a nice service, I use it often...
[this post was last edited: 7/25/2013-15:16]