In-Wash Scent Booster Beads

[mrb627]

Has anyone who has tried these in wash scent booster beads/granules, do they do anything to boost suds control like adding FS to knock down the excess foam?

Wondering if that might be a hidden benefit to using them in very soft water conditions...

Malcolm

 

[yogitunes]

Nah.....this seems to be a scent only thing....

I have only used Downy, Gain, and Pyrex varieties so far......

and let me say, FINALLY, scent that stays in the clothes after the dryer......plus you can still smell it in the clothes days later.....

with regular detergent and softener, there is barely anything after the wash, and once through the dryer, nothing left...

I know some can't stand scents, or even strong ones.......I don't know what I am doing wrong, but something like Gain, there is nothing left when I am done.....and something like Gain is what I want when I am done.......

 

[mrb627]

Thanks Yogi

I thought it would have been quite a bonus if they actually did help control sudsy behavior. Too bad. For some reason, the only thing I like to have scent left in it is bed sheets and bath towels.

There is a guy I work with that uses Wisk and you can smell it on him when he walks down the hall. At the end of the day, I would rather smell detergent on a coworker than body odor...

Malcolm

 

[DADoES]

 
They're overwhelmingly powerful.  I bought a canister of a Purex variety, use them (sparingly) in the vacuum.

 

[murando531]

I actually use them more in the vacuum cleaners than I do for laundry. Just sprinkle a little for the machine to pick up and it gives a nice gentle scent, but because they're not that awful carpet powder, they don't gum up the airways with residue.

I have used them in the wash a handful of times but I suppose because I'm so sparing with any additives, they didn't add a substantial difference in scent. The tiny amount of fabric softener I use gives more than enough fragrance.

 

[vintagekenmore]

If Im not mistaken, back when I was younger there was something similar to the scent boosters that was called Rain Barrel.....I think you added it in at the beginning of the wash, Mom never did, she put it in the rinse water

 

[yogitunes]

man, I miss RainBarrel.....loved that stuff, yeah, you could add it at the start of wash, but I too just added it to the dispenser.....

I think it was "Final Soft" that you could add to the washer, or pour some on a wash cloth to soften in the dryer....

remember "Cling Free" for the dryer, when it came as a spray.....

thanks for the vacuum tip, never thought of that......currently I place one of those Tree Car Fresheners in next to the bag.....Vanilla Roma is my favorite scent...

 

[DADoES]

 
Rain Barrel was marketed as a softener, not specifically for scent like the beads and crystals nowadays.  Only difference between it and "regular" softeners at the time is that Rain Barrel could be added to either the wash or the rinse.  I don't recall if Rain Barrel had the "softener effect" of killing suds in the wash.

 

[cuffs054]

I use the beads in the vacuum also. I also sprinkle a SMALL amount on the central a/c return filter.

 

[vintagekenmore]

I remember Cling Free, just the dryer sheets though.....the spray wasnt around at our stores...I also remember Final Touch, it was a deep purple color and it smelled WONDERFUL. Then there were the big gallon jugs of Sta Puft....bright pink

 

[launderess]

No bothering with the rinse......

Rain Barrel was one of the first in wash fabric softeners. It was invented to address the often frustration of housewives either having to run and catch their washer's rinse cycle, or restart for a second rinse adding softener.

As top loading automatics dominated the American laundry appliance market few had dispensers for FS. This meant as noted above you had to either catch the rinse cycle or restart. Then came these in wash fabric softeners (FAB, Bold and a few other detergents among a few others IIRC came out with 2in1 products as well), but none of them really caught on.

The liquids were cationic based products which do not play really well in wash cycles as they interfere with the nonionic and ionic surfactants that do the cleaning. The powders were often based upon the same Bentonite clay you find in today's offerings including those Purex crystals.

Consumer Reports at the time rated neither offerings very highly. The 2 in 1 detergents didn't perform cleaning functions very well, nor softening. They recommended sticking with two separate products and adding FS where it belonged, in the rinse. Rain Barrel IIRC didn't wow them over as well with the same suggestions.

I remember when Cling Free sheets came out. There were a sort of foam type cloth, not like the gauze things dryer sheets are today. In my stash have some vintage Downy FS sheets and they are made from the same "foam" type material. Being as they are so rare cut one sheet into smaller bits to extend what I've got. Usually use them only for the scent more than softening anyway.







Loved, loved, LOVED pink Stay Puff FS. It was like the other "pink" FS called "Bonnie" something cannot recall the name but the label had a plaid border going with the Scotland theme.

Stay Puff, and "Bonnie" unlike the other blue stuff at the time "Donwy, Final Touch, etc.." was a cationic surfactant based FS IIRC, not waxes, fats, and oils. So you didn't have the build up that caused things to loose absorbency.



Final Touch's claim to fame was that it contained "bluing" to make laundry whiter. In reality it probably contained bluing agents along with a healthy dose of OBAs, something many "blue" fabric softeners then and now do as well. This is why some FS will cause bad staining if they come into contact with fabric while undiluted.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxHKAlfYjN0

 

[frigilux]

I used Downy's scent pellets a few years ago.  Frankly, half of them ended up stuck in the lip of the door seal.  They worked fine in the top-loading Speed Queen, but I wound up throwing them out.  Didn't care for the scent and boy howdy was it long-lasting.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Free samples of my wife brought home, that I'd initially dismissed as real detergent...

 

Now to find laundry w/ a real STANK! (Oh, yeh, my brother-in-law--that I make his sister (my wife) put in the washing machine, that somehow does his duds and LIVES!)

 

They are GAIN FIREWORKS, actually...

 

 

-- Dave

 

[tomturbomatic]

Among the blue softeners was NuSoft, which a neighbor used in her WH slant front. It had one of those tall white caps that probably held a couple of ounces.

A neighbor used to work for Staley, part of Corn Products Company and he would occasionally give us a gallon of StaPuff. When mom was buying, she bought Texize Laundry Fluff which did not smell as nice, but was cheaper. It came on the market after StaPuff. Both recommended 1/3 to 1/2 cup dosage.

 

[liamy1]

We still have...

Bold 2in1 detergent as a main product on the market here in the UK (IIRC correctly, it is the 2nd best selling detergent behind Persil and above Ariel which is in 3rd place).

Agree, it washes great, but does not soften as well as a separate product. But the scents of them are amazing (comes in a few different ones, and PG change the scents fairly regularly). I believe the UK market calls for longer lasting scents as opposed to US customers.

We have the Unstoppables range here, and we have some from Comfort (Snuggle). I wish we had Gain Fireworks and Purex Crystals, but neither of these brands are in the UK.

 

[mayguy]

I can't stand the scent of the scent booster.. I almost fell over when I did the first load.. I gave it away to my co worker as I can't stand scented stuff anymore.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Sam's Club "Member's Mark" brand

I think I did an over-kill washing the Gain scent boosters w/ Gain detergent, in both loads...  At least one should have been washed in one of what was three samples of this detergent:

 

 

-- Dave

 

[joeekaitis]

Wasn't it only a few years ago that the laundry detergent industry was championing the "Free 'n' Clear" movement with products proudly bereft of dyes and fragrances? What's with the current "Leaves chemicals in your clothes and that's a GOOD thing!" mentality?

 

[DADoES]

 
Marketing.  Change the marketing frequently to keep (new) products moving.