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"Not sure testing powders would do them any justice, though. Since they are tested in cold/cool water at 75°F, most powders would not perform nearly as well as liquids at that given temp. If they were tested in warm or hot, that’s were the power comes out."

Perhaps true for USA offerings, but powder detergents across pond have been formulated to perform at temps low as 20 degrees C.

Am speaking of TOL offerings by Henkel, Unilever and others including those from commercial/industrial laundry suppliers.

https://www.germanfoods.shop/Persil-Professional-Universal-Laundry-Powder-Detergent-130-Loads
 
While there has been some sucess in getting consumers to reduce wash temps, many won't allow that choice to interfere with results.

In Germany long the land of boil washing average temp has gone down to about 40 degrees C. However Germans aren't willing to give up "boil wash" results. This combined with fact powder laundry detergents are still rather big sellers in that country means products have to step up their game.

Thus powder detergents in Germany and other parts of EU still can give "boil wash" results at temps low as 20 degrees C to 30 and onto 40 degrees C.

https://www.test.de/Vollwaschmittel-Die-Besten-fuer-Weisses-4770157-0/

https://www.test.de/FAQ-Waschmittel...Ihre-Fragen-5073601-0/#question--1294740484-0
 
Launderess- US Tide detergents are formulated to work well in cool water. Don’t have much experience with other American powdered brands. Will say that Amway’s SA8 powder definitely likes to work in hot water, much like Persil Non-Bio. I should pick up a box of Henkel Persil to see how it compares to the UK formula. I picked up a box of German Persil years ago, but found it sudsier than the UK counterpart.

Also: Friends are in Ireland for a couple of weeks and they picked up a box of Ariel pacs to bring home to me. This is the same couple who brought back small boxes of powdered Persil & Ariel when visiting England. That was my first experience with UK detergents.
 
Posted this awhile back and am doing so again to drive home a point.



For a few decades now detergent manufacturers have been telling consumers to turn down the dial temperature wise. They claim and are supported by independent consumer testing that warm, cool or even cold water is perfectly fine for their enzyme laden products.

Top and even some middle shelf bio detergents are perfectly capable of delivering good to excellent results at lower temperatures. More so powders with advanced activated oxygen bleaching systems.

OTOH when using non-bio detergents as testing in video above shows higher temps are better.

Why is this? Usually because non-bio detergents rely more heavily on bleaching systems to remove marks and soils instead of enzymes.
 
It`s interesting to see Original Gain as the worst liquid detergent, after all the stuff is not that cheap.

Not a new insight that bargain brands of the big multinationals are their money makers which means you may save a few cents but you get a much worse value for your money compared to a TOL product.
Of course you might get away by increasing the dose but where are your savings then?

As to cold water is better than warm or hot because of the enzymes I`ll bite my tongue, it triggers me but I see it`s pointless and I don`t want to derail this thread.
 
"It`s interesting to see Original Gain as the worst liquid detergent, after all the stuff is not that cheap."

Every laundry detergent from P&G sold in USA has a niche. That and not meant to compete head on with main TOL money maker, Tide.

Gain began well enough with "Micro Enzymes".





But P&G also introduced Tide "XK" with enzymes at about same time.



Over years Gain became more about scent, fragrance or "long lasting freshness", than cleaning performance. That is if one wanted or required heavy duty cleaning or stain removal, Tide is what one chose. OTOH Gain scratched another type of itch.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjOKu_psFA

P&G is famous for introducing new technology with one detergent in their stable before giving it to Tide. Oxydol had oxygen bleaching system long before Tide With Bleach. So did Biz (as pre-soaker and wash booster) which even was activated oxygen bleach. Once TWB was a solid hit neither product was needed and P&G sold off both Oxydol and Biz brands.

Gain was kept on but again occupies a different niche from Tide. Thus CR's testing showing Gain having poor results isn't surprising.

Happily situation isn't a case of either one or other. All one need do is use some sort of booster product with Gain such as oxygen bleach or some sort of "booster" product (which P&G offers of course) that will give Gain the oomph missing from Tide.
 
Frigilux

Frigilux- Really? I am shocked by that. Usually I notice a fair bit of decline with anything less than warm/40°C. It doesn’t look like they have reformulated them recently either (thankfully).

David- I will say, the Persil Sensitive is quite good. I can’t say if performance decrease recently with the newer reformulations, but it doesn’t look like the Sensitive version was impacted. Though, it no longer appears on CR testing.

Coldzymes are just a fancy way of getting people into trusting washing in lower temps with marketing. There is a chance the enzymes in newer formulations are slightly different so that they are more active at a lower temp. Though, it does not explicitly state that.
 
lakewebsterkid- I’ve been surprised a number of times by stains removed from kitchen towels in cool water using a good dose of a top-performing detergent. However, I really should purposely stain a few flour sack towels with ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, coffee and chocolate syrup, and perform tests that have a bit more veracity. Then I’ll know if the enzyme detergents are actually doing better in cool water or not.
 
Thanks to Launderess for the vintage detergent ads!

Glenn- The kid on the football field in the second commercial who says, “With that outfit you belong on the bench!” is definitely Christopher Knight. Have 95% confidence it’s Mary Jo Catlett in the first commercial. Good eye!
 
persil advanced clean

So how is Persil Advanced Clean formulated? I've always found they work and smell better than Tide in my opinion due to less suds and a more pleasant fragrance. Maybe it's just me, but the Tide scent was off putting to me especially after the power pods oxi+odor.
 
That's definitely Chris Knight, and was probably done right before he began playing Peter Brady in '69. I have multiple pics of him, most from the publicity department of ABC-TV. He was overall my favorite "Brady", and the show was something I watched every week without fail. In the Summer of '72, my mom, sister, and I were in the Los Angeles area visiting relatives. A family friend worked at ABC (a department head), and he was going to try to arrange for me to meet Chris and Eve Plumb while there. Unfortunately, they were filming in Hawaii that week, and we had to leave to come home before their return. Extremely disappointed to say the least. I'd also hoped to see them when they filmed at King's Island the next year, but I was sick that day.
 
Each of the big three detergent manufacturers of the time (P&G, Lever and Colgate Palmolive) introduced new enzyme detergent products to market around 1966 or so. Each was given an "action" name - Gain (P&G), Drive (Lever), Punch and Burst (CP). Purex, with a smaller market share also got into the act and introduced Brillo Enzyme Detergent. P&G and CP then added enzymes to their main product offerings. As I recall there were only a few brands not reformulated with enzymes: Cheer, Bonus, Duz, Dreft, Salvo tablets (P&G), AD, SuperSuds (CP), any of the other Lever brands like All, Rinso, Silver Dust, Breeze and Wisk, and of course any of the granulated soaps like Duz, Ivory Snow or Flakes, Octagon, White King and Instant Fels.

In the case of Gain, it seems like it had been reformulated multiple times over the years, and each time the focus became on more intense fragrance - but until more recently, it always performed reasonably well in CR's tests. In fact when "ultra" powders were first introduced in the 90s, Gain with Bleach powder ranked at the top along with Tide with Bleach at a lower price point. But as more and more intense fragrance options were introduced, seems like overall performance declined. No great loss as none of Gain's fragrance options are even remotely tolerable - to me anyway. But to each their own....
 

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