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NO suds, NO indication that the detergent is doing anything at all.

But the clothes came out clean, albeit lightly soiled anyway.

The ball is slightly visible at the 2 o'clock

8-19-2006-21-16-25--jasonl.jpg
 
Conclusion

I'm not sure about this. While the clothes were washing I reached in and felt the water and it wasn't "slippery" like when regular detergent is in. There were absolutely NO suds at all in the water. My first impression was:

1. It doesn't do ANYTHING
2. The water wasn't warm enough to activate it.

#2 sounds plausible because the water from the cold tap was warm enough so that the machine didn't need to turn on the hot tap. I confirmed this by shutting off the cold tap and the water stopped coming in altogether. Then selecting "hot" water for the wash temp, the hot water starting coming in. Apparently the Kenmore Oasis has a very cool "warm" setting. So now I'm going to do a load of towels on HOT water to see if the Oxiclean does anything.

So far, as it stands, It's a dud, but it might change my mind with the towels.
 
I don't get Oxyclean

I have done similar things with this product as shown on the TV commercials. I have used it as a carpet cleaner, and there are few stains that it gets out. I used it as a laundry detergent and was not impressed. Now it seems like so many products have this additional "product" added to it, but doesn't seem to do anything.

Same with the "Orange Glow" product. This stuff did nothing on my deck, it did not do as good a job at degreasing as other typical products.

I am not surprised the "detergent ball" didn't clean your clothes.
 
I saw these at Target a couple of weeks ago. I was skeptical - and still am, you'll have to keep us posted on how it goes. The water not being slippery makes you wonder...

Do you leave it in for the whole cycle? So that's two washes then? What effect does fabric softener have on it?
 
In the third picture, it seems that the ball has similar consistency to bar soap. I wouldn't put it on a washcloth in the shower (LOL), but have you run it under water to see if any comes off?

Did the clothes smell clean at the end, or did you use liquid FS? I do have to wonder at the water not getting "slippery" either; it should since there's not much in there to begin with.
 
how does the detergent ball know the difference between a compact front loader and a mega-load, "canyon-capacity" machine? can the package instructions be scanned?
 
The clothes from last night didn't smell clean at all, so it didn't work. I had to rewash with Tide.

I'm trying with hot water and towels right now. I threw away the carboard box but the instructions were pretty simple. Put it together, throw it in the washer. If it doesn't work with the towels, it's getting tossed and I'm going back to Tide HE.
 
It's working!

Well, I'm washing with hot water and colored towels and it's definitely dispensing detergent. The water is slippery and I can smell it.

It will only activate with a certain temperature and the tepid temperature that the Oasis deems as "Warm" just isn't enough to make it dispense. :-(

So that also means, it won't dispense if you use a cold rinse.

Also, you cannot use Chlorine bleach. Ummmkay. So what's the use? I can only use this thing with the colored towels on HOT water.
 
I have never been convinced of the effectiveness of Oxi-Clean. My wife on the other hand, swears by it. I guess different strokes for different folks.
 
I think it cleaned ok. The towels are spinning right now so I'll find out soon. There was a dirty wash rag in the mix so we'll see how that came out.
 
GARBAGE!

It didn't clean worth a S***. I could still smell the bath soap and body smell from one of the wash cloths. Not very clean if you ask me.

It's TideHE for me.
 
Yep Jason, trash that thing. None of those "throw" in the washer ball things ever get in my machines. NEVER. They don't work, but the boxes and labels will have you beliving this a "bad M***** *****R. They are right, they are bad and don't work-period

steve
 
I always thought Oxi-Clean was the worst, most gimmiky thing ever - until I, out of desperation, bought some during the kitchen floor rehab project, and it was a lifesaver (or floorsaver, if you will) when it came to getting the adhesive and old wax off the floor.

But then we found another use: I like to walk around in my white socks, which causes despair in certain circles on laundry day (Have I mentioned that John does the laundry?). My solution was just to throw the socks out and buy new when they got too dingy, but he started to wash them in Oxi-Clean (which we had in abundance after the floor project was done)

All I can say is Zowee! Them socks is WHITE!

So it does have some uses ;-)
 
I don't use OxyClean in the wash cycle because it seems to exacerbate my sudsing problems (very soft water---I get more suds in the first rinse than there was during the wash cycle) but I'll use it as a soak agent and it gets out even old stains.
 
Ain't even been married 2 months...

And already suffering with "blue balls"

tsk tsk...

*really hauls azz*
 
Well, Jason, thanks for being the brave one to give the OxiClean ball a tryout. I would think part of the problem is that it probably takes most of the wash cycle just to dispense and disperse enough of the cleaning agent, especially with a low-water level machine (i.e. the CabriOasis, FLers, etc.).

I like the no-sudsing aspect, but if it doesn't clean well, then it's useless. Too bad; it would have been fun to watch it tumble around in the Frigidaire...
 
Water temperature of cold water supply

By this time of the year, our cold water is at its warmest. Coming out of the tap it registers 86 degrees on an instant read thermometer. 85 degrees is the "cold" setting in most programs that offer cold wash on the Miele W1918. In some programs there is a tap cold below that. In most programs on the W1986, cold is just tap cold, even for the wash. In the winter, I use the warm setting with the hot water supply reduced to just a small amount and achieve this temp manually for the other washers. I also add hot water to the rinses that are tap cold only. I thought that a comfortable cold for laundry was about 70F, but, I actually like the lower 80s better.

If the temperature of your cold water supply is of any importance to you, would you mind sharing your tap cold water temperature readings? I thought since we are in locations all over the United States and have members in other countries too, some in places where it is winter now, we could compare and contrast now and maybe take readings again in February. I know that some people are on wells that maintain a steady temperature year round, so that could be interesting also. Tom
 
The "cold" water here is probably about 85-90 degrees. So maybe that's enough for the washer to think the water's "Warm" enough without adding some hot to it. Apparently it takes above that to activate an Oxiclean ball because it would NOT activate in the 85-90 degree (taking a guess) water that was in the machine, but it certainly activated for straight hot water.
 
ATC

After owning a Frigidaire-made machine (a Frigemore) and a Kenmore (WP made) machine, they handle temperature control differently.

On the "warm" setting
The Frigdaire starts with HOT water and add COLD when the temp reaches the setpoint and will cycle the cold tap on and off.

Kenmore top-loaders start with both taps on and will kill the hot or cold water depending on temp.

The Oasis starts with COLD water and most probably turns on the hot tap if the cold is too cold.

On the "Cold" setting
Frigemore starts with COLD and may add HOT in spurts to keep the temp right

Kenmore TLs and Oasis do the same I think.

On the HOT setting
All start in Hot and Bob (appnut) has reported that if the water's TOO hot it will add cold.

The Frigemore method makes the most sense to me. Start with HOT and then add the COLD, where the the Kenmore system is the opposite. Maybe Frigdaire's idea of WARM is warmer than Kenmore's idea of warm.

But in any case, the Oxiclean didn't do well for me and TideHE works just great in any controlled temperature.
 
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