Modern vs vintage formula detergents

[twinniefan]

Hi folks,
Would be very interested in people's opinions as to how today's detergents stack up against the old vintage ones which I guess most of us grew up with.
I realise a lot of the brands are still around but do you think that changed formulas, perfumes, etc make these better than the old ones.
I personally think the older formulations worked better, as from what I do recall watching mother do our laundry, our clothes back then seemed to be much cleaner than what our clothes do these days.
This might have to do with (and I am only speaking from my mum's ways of doing things) back then I believe the norm was that detergents were simply poured straight out of the spout in the box and not measured out like thay are today, this of course led to enormous amounts of suds being created,(and likely suds lock as well.)and maybe this led to the appearance of cleaner clothes, although I do maintain clothes seemed to be cleaner back then.
I think that some of todays detergents are pretty average performance wise, i.e. Surf, Spree, Fab and the like and yet they used to be leading brands when I was a kid and indeed some of mum's friends used to swear by these brands and would not change for anything,(for the record Mum was a Rinso gal and nothing else for her.)
Liquids were unheard of back then also and as far as I can recall liquid Aura ws the 1st here in Aus,(happy to be corrected if wrong about this.)and it did not work too badly but it was not as good as most powders.
Looking forward to your views guys.
Thanks
Steve.

 

[polkanut]

When I was a kid,

Mom, and Grandma Wilde were dedicated Oxydol users. Grandma Baumann was a loyal Instant Fels user, and I miss the old formula Rinso, also miss LaFrance & Blu-White.

 

[danmantn]

I can't speak for vintage brands, but about the only thing I have found modern that seem to work are Oxydol (powder), Cheer powder, and Amway's SA8 powder. I do use Target's Up and Up simply because it smell's like vintage 80s Dynamo so much--use it for sheets and towels. Fuller Brush's detergent seems to do a good job, but is expensive, even at the outlet.

 

[passatdoc]

My mother found that "dirt can't hide from new intensified Tide". Tide, first and always. Bear in mind, detergents had phosphates in them back then, so it's not surprising that they appeared to do a better job.

In some California markets and discount stores catering to Latino clientele, you can sometimes see detergent imported from Mexico (technically illegal, since it contains phosphates), sometimes Ariel, sometimes another brand in an all-plastic sac package with only Spanish labeling (can't remember the name). The latter brand has instructions for washing by hand in a tub of water as well as instructions for automatics. So for people who washed by hand in Mexico, it's a brand they might recognize.

I'm not really familiar with machine washing methods in Mexico (i.e. FL vs TL), though the proximity to the USA would tell me that a lot of used TLs make their way to the Mexican second-hand market. I've heard of people who post here about buying Ariel in Latino markets in the US for top loaders, but I don't know whether Ariel from Mexico is intended for use in front loaders, in terms of low sudsing. Perhaps it is ok in a FL, assuming that a lot of people who buy new machines in Mexico use front loaders. Given that many areas of Mexico suffer from chronic drought and water shortages, using FLs would make sense.

I've seen the latter for sale at Big Lots, a chain of discount stores in the US that often sell close-out merchandise at large discounts. However, sometimes the stores customize their inventory to match their clientele. There are two Big Lots stores near me, one of which is within walking distance of a heavily Latino neighborhood. They consistently carry the Mexican detergent in the clear plastic bag. The other store, in a former supermarket space, is twice as large but in a non-Latino area, and does not carry Mexican detergent.

The Latino customers buy it because the brands are familiar to them, plus they clean better than domestic, non-phosphated detergents in otherwise similar wash settings. However, I doubt if most of the Latino buyers are aware that the imported detergents contain banned phosphates.

addendum: the smaller store (near a Latino neighborhood) used to have a nice selection of coffee and tea. The coffee was either whole bean or ground, and often upscale "gourmet" brands on close-out. In particular, one could often find large cans of Melitta coffee for $3-3.50, or boxes of Twinings tea (20 tea bags) for $2. Recently, I was shopping there and could not find the coffee/tea aisle, only a small section with instant coffees. The son of a good friend worked at that particular store as a stock boy during senior year of high school and through the summer, before starting college this fall. He explained that gourmet coffee and tea did not sell well with the heavily Latino clientele, so they got rid of the section and only sell instant coffee, and only imported Mexican herbal teas. When I countered that the other nearby store still sold ground/whole bean coffee and British tea, he replied that individual stores are now customizing the inventory to match the clientele. The result is that Anglo customers who used to frequent the Latino store now go to the other store, which carries merchandise they are more likely to purchase (e.g. Melitta ground coffee and Twinings tea rather than Nescafé and yerba matté).

 

[polkanut]

Jim,

I agree with you. People just continue to buy what works for them, and what they are familiar with as a rule.

 

[passatdoc]

Agree, polkanut. If I were newly arrived from Mexico, not only would I buy what is familiar, but if I also tried a US detergent, I would conclude that Mexican detergents do a better job of cleaning. I doubt if many of the recent immigrants know about phosphates or their ban in the USA.

 

[iheartmaytag]

The two Mexican detergents we get here are Foca and Roma. Both are loaded with phosphates, but very sudsy even in a TL machine.

I would think that the Mexican market would have access to new machines, since most of them are made there.

As for Vintage,
My mother always used Cheer, or Tide sometimes ALL. Tide started giving her a terrible rash and we got away from it for years and when we lived in IL, she used a lot of Oxydol. Now that I do all the wash, it's pretty much Tide in one form or another.

 

[strongenough78]

Ahhhh I miss the vintage ones!

My Mom was an avid Arm & Hammer user. She also kept a small bottle of Wisk around to use as a pre-treater for stains. She'd occasionally use Ajax, Dash, Gain, and when the first Tide with Bleach came out, she started using that. My Grandmother on my Dad's side used Dash exclusively. I miss the smell of vintage Dash and wish they would bring it back. She's now had to switch to All since the demise of Dash. My Grandmother on Mom's side used Tide, then Tide with Bleach when it came out. I agree clothes seemed to come out much cleaner and brighter back then compared to now. I myself have switched back to Arm & Hammer. I was using Gain since I LOVE the scent, but Arm & Hammer is actually cheaper and I like the results a bit better too. And now that I've started using STPP I'm very happy with the results I get.

 

[strongenough78]

Twinniefan....

The only vintage liquid I can think of that was used here in the States is Wisk. It's been around for many, many years. And back when I was a kid, it was highly concentrated. My mom used to use it as a pre-treater. But on the occasion when she ran out of her usual powder, she'd use it in the wash. She had to be very careful with it, cause even with a large load of heavy clothes, a small amount would create mountains of suds, and she'd sometimes have to put everything through a second rinse. In fact, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but Liquid Wisk was around since the 50's I think. Possibly the 60's for sure.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Strongenough78
Yes, WISK For that "Ring Around The Collar"

Besides WISK, I think ERA was the only other Liquid.

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Steve,

I would disagree. Mum used to spend hours soaking and scrubbing, with oxygen bleach, Preen and Sard Wonder Soap. Mum never got rid of the nappy bucket, it just switched from holding Nappies to soaking clothes.

Stuff did come clean, but she put a heck of a lot of effort into getting there. That was with SA8 as the Detergent through the 70's and 80's.

These days, I add a scoop of Drive with no additives or pretreating and 99% of all stains come out in the wash.

I think the enzyme technology has evolved greatly.

Nathan

 

[strongenough78]

iheartmaytag.....

I forgot about ERA. How long has that been around? And that's exactly what Mom would use Wisk for, that ring around the collar, and other stains such as grass stains and such lol.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Era has been around for a long time, maybe not as long as WISK, but I remember Mom trying a sample one time, and didn't care for it that much. She did keep WISK for pre-treating. My Dad was a welder so he managed to get into a lot of stuff that required pre-treating.

 

[ronhic]

for the record Mum was a Rinso gal and nothing else for her.

...and so was mine...

Until, that is, they stopped making it. Then she went to OMO and in 1989, OMOMATIC.

I have a 'thing' for Levers detergents. Give me Drive, OMO or Surf any day over the Cold Powers, Dynamo's etc....though I will use DUO and BIOZET without complaint.

I'd have to agree with Nathan to some extent. Years ago collars and cuffs would be scrubbed, spots sprayed and whole items soaked prior to the wash. Mum's cupboard always had Bio-add, Sunlight soap and a can of Preen and then Nappisan in later years. They've mostly gone now....well, the bio-add and Napisan have....

I think this is partly because she shifted to Front Load in 1989 and just finds she doesn't need to soak anymore but prior to that, yep, the nappy bucket saw stirling service in their house too....

So I do think that modern detergents clean better and for less product.

What I miss is the classic, slightly soapy smell of old Omomatic....proper 3/4 or 1 cup formula....

....lucky I have 2 boxes that I treat myself to every now and then...

 

[launderess]

The Little Blue Jug Is Dynamo!

Recommened by women who used to use powders!

IIRC, Dynamo came out before Era (protein gets out protein was the slogan for the later).

When Dynamo was lauched in our area, every home got a nice sized sample bottle complete with measuring cup. Years later one still has and uses that Dynamo cup! *LOL*

Vintage detergents vs modern, well that is probably going to depend much on what sort of stains and soils make up a bulk of the wash. The old phosphate laden formulas were great for ground in dirt and such, but on their own wouldn't do much to shift greasy/oily stains, as well as those from protein, fruits, gravy and so froth. For that we have enzymes to thank, and I for one wouldn't want to go back.

Enzymes allow doing the wash not only at lower temperatures instead of hot or boiling water, but lower pH (less need for all that washing soda or other alkaline substances to shift oils), which extends textile life.

Being as all this may, some vintage products are streets ahead of what is offered today. Fels Naptha soap will remove stains that other detergents/washday products can't touch.

"Ring Around The Collar",

Wisk, was around for ages (it first came in a can, then switched to bottle), and though lacked enzymes in the original formula, was good for ground in oil stains because of the high level of surfactants (much like soap) that dealt with such stains. Fels soap (which in it's original formula contained a form of petrol), can remove the same soils, and is still used by many for that purpose.

 

[strongenough78]

Ronhic

We still have Rinso here. In fact I see it all the time at the 99 cent store. Classic formula in both liquid and powder.

 

[launderess]

Lever Brothers USA

Or whomever owned the brand name "Rinso" sold it off awhile ago.

The new owners of the detergent mainly deal with "99 cent" stores in the United States, and such.

One can still also find "Rinso" in places such as Oz, but not sure if it is still made by Lever Brothers.

 

[mrb627]

Well....

For Liquid, I would welcome back the vintage Wisk. Love the smell of that stuff.

For Powder, I can almost remember the smell of All Temperature Cheer.

Malcolm

 

[passatdoc]

Fresh Start

Fresh Start was the first ultra-concentrate. I started using it in the early 80s, when I was in an apt with a downstairs laundry room. Much easier to tote a bottle with a handle and a cap than a big box of powder down the stairs while also managing a full laundry basket. It smelled nice, worked well, you only needed one small capful for a full load, and I believe it was also low sudsing (most likely would have worked well in FLs).

At one point it was sold in large plastic buckets at Costco (neé Price Club) and I still have one of the buckets in my garage. I use it as a trash receptacle for dryer lint and used dryer sheets.

 

[ronhic]

One can still also find "Rinso" in places such as Oz

...I've not seen it for at least 12 years, possibly longer.

 

[stan]

You`d be surprised how much cleaner laundry will come out when you do a 30 min presoak in Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda! Old timers called it Sal Soda. My Grandmother use to presoak with it for 30 to 40 min then add very little detergent, ( soap)( Lux or Ivory Flakes) and the clothes came out sparkling bright. Arm & Hammers washing soda is a vintage laundry aid, still being sold! I tried it and it works.

 

[autowasherfreak]

My Mom always used Breeze in her Maytag wringer, and my Grandmother used Oxydol. After we got the Whirlpool automatic in 72-73 we used it for a while. One vintage detergent that I really liked was Yes liquid with built in fabric softener. I remember using Surf, Gain, Tide, Cheer, All, few others.

Right now we are using Purex powder in the front loader seems to work pretty good, Eric's mom bought it when the Sears Ultra Plus ran out.

 

[twinniefan]

Rinso

Imust agree with you Chris I have not seen Rinso for many a year, although I think they did try to ressurect it in the mid 90's from memory but clearly it fizzled, more's the pity.
Yeah I kind of think the same as you Chris I preferred all the old Lever and Kitchen brands too,I think what I actually miss are all the old large boxes of powders, remember the 1kg and 1.25 kg boxes as opposed to all these mini size concentrates, hhmmm I guess seeing all those terrific old boxes in Leon's collection on another thread made me feel a little bit nostalgic for a while.
Thanks for all the great replies good people.

 

[MikeS]

My Favorite Suds

I did the laundry as a boy (to avoid doing dishes every night), but Mom always bought the detergents. Her favorites were powders, of course--Ajax, Bold and Gain. I loved the smell of the old Gain, and boy did it suds up in the Kenmore 800 series! She also bought Action bleach packets (I learned never to handle them when my hands were wet) and Final Touch fabric softener.
My current stash includes bottles of Purex and All, along with a stash of powdered Ariel I buy at the 99 Cent Only Store. For fabric softeners, I loved Purex with Renuzit, but now I'm satisfied with non-concentrated Downy.
The fact that I use several different brands is an indication I miss the old phosphate detergents--though supposedly, I'm doing my part for the environment by using the modern liquid formulations. (Well, I do sneak in a little phosphate Ariel occasionally.)

 

[mattywashboy]

Persil/Ariel all the way...

Hi Guys

My family as far as i know were Persil and Ariel users. My gran used Persil all the time as far as i can remember, she changed to Daz in the mid 90's sometime.

My mum always used Ariel, to begin with it was Ariel liquid and then when tablets became available she began using powder tabs.

Moving to Australia she began using Duo but in the past 6 years or so here she changed to BioZet/Bio Attack or Radiant, alternating between those two as and when they come on special. She is a big one for heading to Big W (Walmart type store) and buying in the big bulk plastic buckets...

Cheers

Matt

 

[jt1985]

Over the years

When I was young, my parents would buy on sale a lot. But there a few brands they bought the most: Dash, Surf and Tide. I remember when I was a kid, the big bright yellow box of Dash near the washing machine. It had the most pleasant scent. We did use Ultra Clorox Detergent for a brief time, as well. I do the laundry now, and tend to use either Wisk Deep Clean or Tide with Actilift.

 

[angus]

Back in the 50's when the parents were starting out, I recall my mother being somewhat of a die hard Dash user. She liked the low suds and the installer of her 1958 Lady Kenmore recommended a low suds product to preserve the washer parts. Of course, Aunt Jennie used only either Fab or Rinso Blue in her Norge Timeline and no one put out a wash like hers. Uncle Pete worked in a slaughterhouse and his butchers' whites would come home with the most awful stains of dubious origin and doleful hue. But she would soak them in a diaper pail until she had a full load and they sparkled every time. I digress...
Over the years, Mom switched to Oxydol (she loved the clean smell)m then would alternate between that, Cheer, Ajax and in the 70's Punch. Kept a small bottle of Wisk for stains but it was way too foamy for her taste. With the exception of Punch, she kept on with those brands for the rest of her life.

 

[thomasortega]

I was going to post this on Facebook, but i had to copy and paste it here because it has really relevant information.

"LOL Unilever is completelly desperate after P&G Brazil launched Liquid Ariel and the "Discover Ariel" profile on Facebook.

First they launched OMO liquid, almost 1 year after P&G launched Liquid Ariel but they din't test the product or it's dose. A single cap can fill the laundry room with suds up to the roof. Perfect to use as firefighting foam. It doesn't clean, rinse is a disaster and it smells like s**t.

Now they created a ridiculous profile on FB. What comes next? Are they going to make a mini soap opera with Omo Liquid? LOL

Poor Unilever. P&G arrived in Brazil only 13 years ago to destroy OMO's tradition and they did it! I still can't believe the Brazilian Ariel is phosfate free and it's really much better than it's European version or it's American "cousin" Tide. Only Ariel to be better than Ariel. It's probably the BEST DETERGENT in this world and I can say that after trying Ariel UK, Ariel MX, Tide USA, Persil, Skip, Cheer, A&H, Purex, Dixan, OMOmatic, Amway's SA8 and many others.

Absolutely fabulous whites, bright colors, hard stains removed perfectly without soaking, without scrubbing, without pre treatment and using cold water and shortest cycle. UNBELIVEABLE UNTIL YOU SEE IT WITH YOUR OWN EYES!

This is the first time I can state this: LIQUID DETERGENTS CAN BE MUCH BETTER THAN POWDER AND IT'S POSSIBLE TO GET REALLY CLEAN CLOTHES WITHOUT STPP AND HOT WATER.

Next test with Brazilian Liquid Ariel: full load of nasty whites, 1 dose of Ariel Liquid, a huge bucket of ice cubes in the washer to simulate American winter cold water and shortest cycle."

By the way, The Brazilian Ariel's formula is different from all other formulas I've tried, even the Argentinian one that comes in a very similar bottle. It also smells good like vintage detergent.

There's also a video... sorry guy's it's in Portuguese and I don't know how to make the subtitles. Could somebody teach me how to do it?

 

[launderess]

Random Thoughts

P&G and Latin America:

South Amercian countries are the current focus for P&G, especially their laundry products. Indeed if one reads annual and other reports by and on the company it is clearly stated.

In most of their other markets, P&G's brands, in particular laundry are mature and loosing market share. It does not help matters that during the current economic recession consumers on both sides of the pond have trended down from TOL products. Many other laundry products out there give the same or equal results as Tide, Ariel, or Lenor, and cost less.

IIRC, P&G never had a real huge share in the South American markets, and is now taking steps to address this, thus help it's overall balance sheets.

Liquid Laundry Detergents.

It wasn't that along ago the the major surfactants (soap, washing soda, borax, petrol based detergents) et all required warm if not hot water to give good results. The invention of enzymes, and more importantaly "Frankenzymes" that will work in cool or even cold water changes the equation quite abit.

Combined with modern surfactants a laundry detergent with enzymes no longer requires near or high pH levels, along with hot water to shift soils and stains. This can lead to good results along with prolonged textile life as things aren't subjected to the harsh laundry conditions.

Also consider the nature of "dirt" for most laundry days has changed. Fewer persons do the sort of "hard labour" that resulted in ground in clay type soils, for which powdered detergents (especially those with phosphates) excell at shifting. Today while you do have food stains, the rest of the wash is likely bodily oils and the like, again these are easily dealt with via enzymes.

Aside from incorporating a type of bleach, liquid laundry detergents are easier to compose because many ingredients do not require separation. Powdered detergents often have certain chemicals "coated" to keep them stable (for long shelf life), but also from either being activated before use, and or deactivated by other chemicals in the detergent.

Tide's liquid versions offer a more chemically complex formula than powders, including an advanced enzyme system.

Liquid detergents are also easier to formulate for clean rinsing. Leaving out washing soda, and Zeolites reduces the amount of residue left in textiles. This powder residue is trapped between the fibers and is one of the causes of hard/scratchy items, and the eventual dull grey appearance.

For commercial laundries the buzz has been about pH neutral detergents for some time. For ages the primary means of cleaning textiles was to open the fibers by using alkaline substances (soaps, washing soda, et al)and hot water. This allowed dirt to be flushed off laundry, but the problem is often hard water minerals and other residues became trapped in textiles as the fibers closed down. Again what one got was eventually hard, scratchy, dull, gray laundry.

If the wash pH is kept near or at neutral, textile fibers do not swell, and associated problems are averted. This also leads to longer textile life as well.

Finally ounce per ounce it is possible to cram more cleaning power into a liquid form of detergent, than powders. Though at some point depending upon composition you move towards a gel or slurry as water content is decreased.