Laundry liquid or powder ?

[spoodles]

"If you pour gel into a bowl of water, the gel will sink

Powder wouldn't dissolve properly either if you dumped a load of it into a bowl of water and just left it sitting there. Gels aren't designed to be used like that, so you can't really claim they're aren't good for that reason.

If gel didn't dissolve your clothes would be covered in the stuff, never mind the inside of the machine and it would've only lasted on the market for about 6 months!

 

[launderess]

Exactly

Quite right.

If one takes a ribbon of toothpaste into a glass of water it will sink to the bottom. However upon agitation of the water the stuff will break up.

IIRC most laundry gels are dispensed via the dosing cap. Once the machine has filled and begun tumbling the contents are discharged into the wash water and laundry. The tumbling action of the machine will force the product out of the cap and mix it into the load. Long as the washing machine is not over loaded and thus the contents free to move there shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I love powder, despite the downsizing of the box in proportion to the ever-increasing price! To me, it seems like it is a lot less harsh to was my daughter's clothes in, (compared to a strong-smelling blue liquid, which reminds me of what I see in the detergent drums at the car wash!) but I hate the way it gets so caked up & wasted because it's hard to break up those clumps, lumps and chunks!

I have a bottle of liquid I use for our stuff (though I use the powder for white--'cause IT'S WHITE!--See?) but either really does do a good job...

-- Dave

 

[matthewza]

I like Purex liquid as I get 104 - 108 washes out of the 96 wash bottle. OMO auto liquid is amazing though! Its awesome on stains but its expensive and in winter a big bottle only lasts 2 weeks so kinda pointless for a family. Powders are just as good and last longer. I put the powder straight into the drum of my TL and FL. X-Pert, OMO handwash and Skip Perfect White are the powders we use. I wash in cold in the TL (except for towels, bedding and whites) and 30 degrees in the FL (except for towels, bedding and whites - 60 degrees)

 

[mayguy]

Powdered all the way.. I've tried liquid Tide a year or so ago, and it had way too my scent! I went back to Tide powered right away!

 

[launderess]

Did Some Wash This Weekend Using "Older' Wisk

From one's stash. This is the version similar if not the same as still sold in the solid red bottles with the older logo/label rather than the new "HE" stuff on shelves today.

Used only about one ounce per load in the Whirlpool portable and things came out quite clean with that lovely vintage Wisk scent. Did add just a bit of Tide "HE" free and clear liquid for two purposes; to cut down suds and add a bit of cleaning kick (enzymes).

In general one does like liquids when using laundromat washers as the cycles are so short don't feel that the powders have time to really get going before the wash water is dumped down the drain.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I normally use liquids, but I'm currently using Roma powder.

 

[danemodsandy]

Powder Person Here

I use powder because - in spite of the politically correct misrepresentations in many ads today - liquids are not good for this planet.

They incorporate two major problems:

1) Their bottles are made of petrochemicals, and please don't talk to me about recycling, because the dirty little secret of recycling is that not all that much actually does get recycled. The idea of recycling works far better as a mechanism for reducing consumer guilt than it does to reduce waste.

2) They contain water, which is heavy and therefore costly to ship, in both the ecological and financial senses. Newer "Ultra" products contain less water than former products, but they still contain water, which means they weigh more than powders.

Give me a powder with almost no water content, shipped and sold in a biodegradable cardboard box made with renewable resources, every time. If our detergent manufacturers were actually as serious about ecology as their ads would have you believe, they would be pushing powders, not liquids.

 

[qsd-dan]

Both!

Kirkland Environmental Friendly liquid soap for cold water (tempered 83F) washes. It's designed for front loaders, but I just use a whole cup of detergent in the 806's instead of 1/4 cup for front loaders. 83F spray and deep rinses.

Kirkland Signature Institutional powdered soap for warm (tempered 120F) and hot (155F) washes. One ounce of STPP in both warm and hot loads. Two ounces of powdered oxy bleach in hot only. 120F spray and deep rinses for both warm and hot loads.

Liquid Tide for greasy/oily loads with two ounces of powdered oxy bleach and two ounces of STPP. Washed at tempered 120F, followed by two 120F spray rinses and one 120F deep rinse.

 

[washer111]

Omo Powder

We use Omo Powder. Suffice to say though, it always comes caked in the box (thats right, its a fairly soft block, but caked, compared to other brands of powder).
I have no control over this, because we mainly buy what is "on special" due to the exorbent prices of everything.

I have noticed that some clothes are coming out smelling like B.O. or a gym-sock (mildly though) on some occasions. We use Vinegar in the machine every so often, with the Deep-Rinse option selected to help keep the machine clean.

We wash in COLD water all the time, because the hot tap in this kitchen has some issues:
1. It leaks from EVERYWHERE (around the handle shaft)
2. Its one of those "portable washer" taps, that has 1/2 the thread of a regular tap, thus requiring two washers for the thing to seal
3. The pipe-run is a little long, whilst we use a Simpson 8Kg top-loader (the dreaded "Lint 'n' Snot" cycle. They can produce lots of "Simpson Snot," but the recirc. pump died!), the Solar hot water heater isn't the most reliable, so "wasting" hot water on washing is out of the question.

When we get our Front Loader (Asko machine), we'll be using the 40º/60º option for our "daily" wash - since Mum is European, and knows thats what you SHOULD be using for daily wear, not this "Use cold water to save energy, even though you have a Solar Hot Water System."

 

[MrX]

I've tried lots of different liquids and none of them seem to be capable of shifting things like pasta sauce stains. Where as powders, even colour (non-bleaching) ones produce excellent results without fuss.

I'm using Persil Super Gel in Belgium at the moment simply because that's all that was available locally in a convenience store and I didn't want to go the whole way to the proper supermarket

 

[tolivac]

Bottles and plastic bins made from petrochemicals---but boxes made from trees-neither could be considered really green.I HATE boxes-so inconvenient and messy.Plus the detergent won't "keep" in them Loved the "petrochemical" jar Fresh Start came in.So convenient in the days of apartment laundramats-boxes would always spill--making a mess.The Fresh Start bottle sealed well-no spilling-and measuring from the bottle to its caps easier.For boxes-you needed the "scoop" like thing and pouring from the box into it always was a mess.Same thing for pancake and otther food mixes-GET RID of those stupid boxes and put them in a binlike jar.would be easier-and they would keep better.Mice can chew thru boxes-and smell thru them too,but have difficulty chewing thru the bottles.

 

[aquacycle]

@tolivac

Funny you should mention your dislike of boxes, my sister has the same thing. She buys huge boxes of Persil at Day to Day or Makro (wholesalers) and empties the entire thing into a plastic, reuseable box that she has on top of her washing machine - it's like one of those under-bed storage boxes with the clips on either side. She finds it keeps the detergent from going all over the floor when scooping it out and it means she can chuck the cardboard box straight in the recycling.

 

[tolivac]

For green folks out there-the detergent and other similar boxes aren't recycled out my way-they go into the dump compactor---then to the landfill.If you have curb trash pickup here-the boxes go into the trash truck-then to the dump.detergent bottles go into the recycling bin-the bin is emptied into a recuycler vehicle-compartments-pulled by a pickup truck in my area-small town.In larger cities-recycling vehcles are larger and have bigger compartments-some have a sliding compactor head the driver can slide over a bin-and compact the contents-of course the bottles make a delightful breaking and crunching sound.And--some single stream recyclers just use a beat up rear load compactor truck to pick up recycling goods-you separate them into your bin-but they get mixed and crushed together in the RL truck!Must be something for the recycling center to separate that.

 

[chuffle]

And not to take this thread totally away from the topic...

...living in my part of rural Pennsylvania, we do not have mandatory recycling - ours is voluntary. Those of us who wish to recycle, must take recyclables to a collection center provided by the county. In my garage, I have four totes, one each for metal, glass, PETE and HPDE plastics, and waste paper and corrugated cardboard. At the collection point, I have to further separate my recyclables into aluminum and steel, clear, brown, green glass, and paper, and cardboard. I do it when my bins are full, but the majority of folks on my road chuck everything into the weekly trash pick-up, as it is more convenient. Every year or so, the county places a notice in the local newspaper, stating that due to under-use, the voluntary collection centers may be discontinued.

Joe

 

[danemodsandy]

Tolivac:

With all due respect to your preferences and position, there's some difference between petrochemical-based bottles and cardboard boxes.

It's true that both use resources. But trees are a renewable resource; when you cut one down to make cardboard boxes, you can plant another.

Once you've pumped oil out of the ground and used it, you have depleted the amount of oil left on Earth; there will never be more than there is. Every day there is less.

Also, if these two things end up in a landfill, the outcome is very different. A plastic bottle takes decades to degrade, and puts chemicals like BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene; look it up sometime for an eye-opening read) into the soil. A cardboard box decomposes quickly, and puts fewer chemicals into the soil, though the printing on a box can contribute some.

I think your sister's approach is a good compromise between convenience and ecology - even though her storage container is plastic, it's durable plastic that won't get thrown out after one use. Her discarded cardboard boxes are not the problem that plastic bottles can be.

 

[tolivac]

Landfill decomposition----In modern landfills-trash buried in them no matter what---takes decades to decompose.Reason--No oxygen,and sunlight-the filled items are buried under a layer of cover-usually dirt excavated when the landfill "cells"are dug.A Cell is the excavation the waste is put into-the waste is compacted by heavy landfill compactor vehicles and bulldozers.when the cell is filled-its covered with dirt left over when the cell was dug.Anyway--since the oxygen and sunlight is cut off-these are need to get the waste to decompose.So----the cardboard detergent box will linger in the fill just as long as the plastic bottle.It won't make a diffrence.That is the disadvantage of fills.Experiments have been done in past fills-A large boring machine drills up items buried in the fill-They make great time capsules--Newspapers buried 40 years ago--still intact and can be read.Same with other items Of course glass bottles are broken from the waste handling-and metal items crushed.But the point is they don't DECOMPOSE in a landfill.That is what allows some buildings to be built on them.And for paper-and other items-we are using trees faster than we can grow them becuase of the demand for paper or cardboard.Recycling can work--but each time cardboard or paper is recycled-the fibers are cut or weakened in the process.so the paper or board is lower quality and weaker.Across the street from the transmitter site where I work the land is owned by Weyerhauser.they farm trees on the land-and they cut them down more quickly than before.Often after only a few years of growth.the trees are chipped or shredded right at the site-the truckloads of chips go to the Weyerhauser mill in New Bern,NC-to be made into paper items.The larger trees are trucked intact to the mill to be sawn into lumber.
So,between the bottles or boxes--they are not always recycled,and they don't decompose as one would think in a fill.I just use which one is most convenient.