Mrs. Meyers & Vaska

[whirlcool]

Today we were shopping and noticed that our local grocery store now sells both Vaska & Mrs. Meyers detergents. We are looking for something gentle to wash our bedsheets in. Last month we bought a bottle of Ivory Flakes liquid and it seems to do a good job.

Some versions of Vaska & Mrs. Meyers have nice fragrances to them. How do they clean? Our sheets generally do not get that dirty or stained. Since these are pretty pricey, I want to get an opinion from people who have used these before.

Are these just useless "boutique" detergents that don't do much?

 

[AZREOspecialist]

! VASKA ALL THE WAY !

I'm so glad I found you! I recently started using Vaska a couple of months ago and it has become my go-to detergent for most items. There is something magical about Vaska that leaves my clothes so much softer and fluffier than other products - without any fabric softener and after only one wash. I use the lavender detergent and lavender fabric softener, which leave a faint but pleasant scent. The detergent cleans well overall. In fact, the manufacturer claims Vaska cleans better than Tide, but it lacks enzymes so I wouldn't rely on it for heavy-duty cleaning. For sheets, towels, and everyday items that don't have a high degree of soiling, Vaska is a great choice.

I have Tide HE w/ Bleach Alternative and Persil for items where I need to take more of a "nuke it" approach.

 

[launderess]

Have A Bottle of Vaska Lavender Laundry Liquid

Aside from leaving things softer, find it does not clean anything badly soiled all that well. Despite advertising claims found it did not shift stains, even simple ones and often had to relaunder items. Laundry feels softer because for one thing you aren't using washing soda or soda ash as with powders. Also the product does contains some sort of fabric softening agent IIRC.

The scent while nice in the bottle does not last once items are dried. Mind you I line dry things and can barely detect anything afterwards.

I use the stuff for bed linen and or anything else not too soiled or stained. If used in a front loader you really have to watch the dosage. The stuff can create tons of froth that won't rinse away easily.

There are several threads over on ThatHomeSite's "appliance" forum about Vaska.

Once this bottle is done (thank god I got it with a discount coupon), won't bother again. Have several bottlles of Linen Wash in my stash and can simply add lavender essential oil for scent.

Oh regarding Vaska's claims about it's lavender detergent "disinfecting" laundry, don't believe a word. While lavender does have some anti-bacterial properties there isn't nearly enough of the pure essential oils to do the job.

IMHO despite it's lavender scent and heavy promotion, Vaska products aren't that much better than the various other "garage" laundry products out there such as "Linen Wash", "The Laundress", and so forth.

 

[whirlcool]

What I found strange about these detergents was the placement in the store. They were not in the laundry detergent aisle, but in the aisle with the ammonia, Comet Kitchen cleanser, floor cleaners, etc. I found them almost by accident on the bottom shelf. But they did have a wide selection of different scents and scent free.
The pricing is about what soap.com charges, minus the shipping charge. I may pick up a bottle next time we are in there. We both love the lavender scent.

 

[AZREOspecialist]

The Laundress and Le Blanc/L'Amour products (Linen Wash, Silk Wash, Towel Wash, etc.) are crap in my experience. All Le Blanc/L'Amour products contain such a high amount of perfume scent that it's sickening, even after washing and drying. Washing, drying and hanging a load of towels made my bathroom smell like perfume. Imagine wiping your face in something like that. Gross! If you want to turn your clothes into air fresheners, I definitely recommend Le Blanc and L'Amour products.

By the way, if you buy anything Le Blanc or L'Amour and then don't like it, don't bother calling the manufacturer or sending an email requesting a refund. They will tell you to take a hike. At least their crappy customer service matches their crappy products. The fact that they don't stand behind their products should say a lot about their products.

The Laundress products have been reviewed on GardenWeb and the consensus is that it's a rip-off "boutique" brand that does nothing well. While Vaska may not nuke all the dirt and stains out of your laundry, you don't always need such a strong product, especially with sheets and towels. In those cases, you want to combine cleaning with softness. Vaska is perfect for those items, which it will clean well and leave you with fabrics that are soft and have a wonderful feel.

If you want a natural product with enzymes for better stain fighting, I would recommend Clorox Green Works and Seventh Generation's new 4x Concentrated Liquid.

 

[mysteryclock]

Agree - Vaska is a nice product for very lightly soiled items, few of which we get around our house, apparently! I still have the last big bottle of it we bought, and I use it for very delicate & wool items that shouldn't be washed with a full-on enzyme detergent -- none of which belong to my kids!

One thing to watch out for - in my Bosch Nexxt FL I had frequent problems with over-sudsing using Vaska, to the point that I'd sometimes have to run a whole another wash cycle with zero detergent of any kind just to get 'em out. Even though it says "HE" I don't think they have adequate anti-foam/suds agents, if any. The problem is especially apparent if you wash suds-producing items like towels, or use an internal heater during the cycle.

Small doses and loads seems to be the key.

 

[franksdad]

I've used the Mrs. Meyers Clean Day geranium laundry detergent with good results. The fragrance left behind is faint but delightful!

 

[whirlcool]

We would be using these detergents in a WP TL DD machine, so sudsing wouldn't be too much of an issue.
I think we are going to try a bottle of Vaska Lavender detergent to see how we like it.
What do you all think of Bio-Kleen?

 

[mrb627]

Ivory Snow

I bought a small bottle of Ivory Liquid this past weekend.  Haven't used it yet.  Thought about a bottle of Dreft but figured one at a time...

 

Malcolm

 

[whirlcool]

When we used the small bottle of Ivory Snow we bought a few weeks ago I think of babies and baby bedding and blankets. It leaves a light scent on sheets washed in it. Not overpowering, but you will think of babies when you get into bed at night!

But it does seem to clean very good.

 

[whirlcool]

OK, we went to our local grocery store and found that all varieties of Vaska was on sale for $7.99. That's a great price!

So I bought a bottle of the lavender detergent. It smells nice. Took it home and washed some bed sheets. 100% Egyptian Cotton. I found that when washing with this Vaska the room smells wonderful. It's a clean, fresh scent with a hint of lavender.
I started out using a capful & 1/2 for a set of queen sheets. Just for testing purposes, I added a white kitchen towel to the load. The towel was mildly stained. Before I started the washing machine, I pretreated the towel stains with hydrogen peroxide.
After about 3 minutes of washing, the detergent really foamed up. But rinsing was not that bad. I just had to do two extra rinses to get rid of the suds. After drying the sheets were not as soft as usual. They really weren't unobjectionably stiff, just a little stiffer. The thing I noticed most was that when completed, there was no smell whatsoever on the sheets. Just the smell of fabric. The kitchen towel came out clean. No leftover stains.

I next tried a load of towels. They came out clean, but were noticably stiffer than when washed with FOCA or Persil. Once again, not really stiff, but stiffer than normal. I used 1 capful of Vaska with an extra rinse and the last rinse was clear. This amount of Vaska seemed to be the sweet spot for our WP TL machine with moderately hard water. Once again, the towels had no smell to them when done.

Then I did a mixed load of jeans and dark cotton t-shirts. The jeans had some blood stains on them. I pretreated with Hydrogen Peroxide. When rinsing, I noticed a layer of scum on the top of the rinse water. This is like when you use Borax in your load. I never seen this before. I was wondering if it was left over detergent from previous washings. The shirts in this load were not dirty with dirt, but just smelly from being worn multiple times while working outside with the dogs and on the garden. Everything came out clean (as far as I could tell with dark clothing) and odor free.

So my final opinion is that this is a nice detergent to use for mildly dirty clothing. It does work well on smelly clothing too. But you'll have to add a little fabric softener to get the clothing really soft. On the t-shirts I added 1/4 capful of Downy April Fresh and that seemed to work nicely. This detergent is also nice for people who don't want their clothes to have any smell to them at all. And at $7.99 for a 48oz bottle, I found that this places Vaska as a midpriced detergent. But the smell when washing is really quite fantastic.

But isn't this what everyone else said in the posts above this one?

 

[AZREOspecialist]

@ whirlcool

My experience has been nearly the opposite of yours. I have a Miele W4842 4.0 cuft front loader. I use 1/2 capful for "regular" loads and 3/4 capful for packed loads. I see some suds, but they quickly disappear and laundry is suds free after the 1st rinse. My clothes come out so unbelievably soft that I don't even need fabric softener. Vaska definitely leaves my clothes light, soft and fluffy compared to Persil, Tide HE, etc.

If your fabrics feel stiff or harsh after using Vaska, I suspect you are using too little detergent or your clothes are not rinsing completely. Everyone over at GardenWeb who has tried Vaska has had the same experience as I have. It leaves your clothes incredibly soft and fluffy without any added fabric softener.

 

[whirlcool]

I am using a top loading machine. A Whirlpool DD machine to be exact. Most of the reviewers are using front loading machines, could this make a difference? Could it also be that other users are using the Vaska fabric softener too? I didn't use any fabric softener.

If I added any more detergent, I'd have suds coming out of the wash tub. The final rinse is crystal clear, so I don't think I have left over soap in the clothing. This is the first time I an using Vaska. Maybe it takes multiple washings in it to get the softness every says I should have?

I am drying the clothes on Low-Knits setting on my dryer. The towels were not stiff like they were line dried, just a little bit stiffer than normal. Maybe my idea of stiffness is someone else's idea of soft?

I am not unhappy with Vaska, in fact I rather like it. While I thought I'd like the idea of totally fragrance free laundry, in actuality I am not sure I like it so much. I think I'd like a little bit of that nice clean smell you get from Vaska, so I may try their fabric softener.

It's not that I don't like Vaska, in fact I rather do like it.


[this post was last edited: 4/28/2011-14:04]