It's been 14 months, and I'm finally down to my final box of UK Persil Bio, which I've been using to wash heavily-stained loads of kitchen whites using the Sanitize cycle on my Frigidaire. Results (coupled with the use of liquid chlorine bleach) have been nothing short of stunning, and the detergent rinses out well even in my mechanically-softened water.
The last time I ordered from the Brit Superstore, three large boxes cost me $148.00. Thinking it might be prudent to try a top-scoring US detergent, I did a load with liquid Tide HE with Bleach Alternative (or Color Clean Bleach...whatever they're calling it this month). The results were almost as good as Persil's---I could see very faint traces of stains on a couple of items, something which never happens with Persil---but the mountains of foam created by the 1 hour wash tumble actually triggered my machine's over suds protocol, the first time this has ever happened.
The tub was almost completely filled with a thick foam by the end of the wash cycle. I was surprised how much of it was expelled by the slow balancing spins (these machines have no suds-kill flush). After making several attempts to spin, the machine stopped for a minute, and the timer added about 14 minutes, which turned out to be two extra rinses. All the detergent was removed by the end of the cycle.
I use Tide for other loads on shorter cycles, and have not had this happen. Tide is always too sudsy as far as I'm concerned, but it cleans well, so I deal with it. But this was ridiculous!
I really wish P&G would get over the whole suds issue and make an ultra-low sudsing HE version of Tide with Bleach Alternative.
But that little experiment led me to an obvious conclusion: Spend the damn money and order three more boxes of UK Persil Bio.
The last time I ordered from the Brit Superstore, three large boxes cost me $148.00. Thinking it might be prudent to try a top-scoring US detergent, I did a load with liquid Tide HE with Bleach Alternative (or Color Clean Bleach...whatever they're calling it this month). The results were almost as good as Persil's---I could see very faint traces of stains on a couple of items, something which never happens with Persil---but the mountains of foam created by the 1 hour wash tumble actually triggered my machine's over suds protocol, the first time this has ever happened.
The tub was almost completely filled with a thick foam by the end of the wash cycle. I was surprised how much of it was expelled by the slow balancing spins (these machines have no suds-kill flush). After making several attempts to spin, the machine stopped for a minute, and the timer added about 14 minutes, which turned out to be two extra rinses. All the detergent was removed by the end of the cycle.
I use Tide for other loads on shorter cycles, and have not had this happen. Tide is always too sudsy as far as I'm concerned, but it cleans well, so I deal with it. But this was ridiculous!
I really wish P&G would get over the whole suds issue and make an ultra-low sudsing HE version of Tide with Bleach Alternative.
But that little experiment led me to an obvious conclusion: Spend the damn money and order three more boxes of UK Persil Bio.