On The Quest For A New Powdered Laundry Detergent

[launderess]

Above all being said, one can achive good results with both bio and non-bio on average if one knows what one is doing.

Large raison d'etre for bio detergents is to work at lower wash temps. OTOH non-bio likely will give better results if one keeps to old ways of using plenty of hot or near boiling water wash temps.



As have said, British hospital laundries well into 1970's got blood out of things with nothing more than soap, sodium metasilicate, perborate bleach and hot to very water. Not an enzyme in sight...

 

[mrboilwash]

It looks like the term "Oxi" is not regulated, at least not in the USA which is kind of surprising because bleaching agents are oxidizing agents, so you`d think most consumers would expect some kind of bleach when they read oxi.

About enzymes (that is Protease or Subtilisin which could be a problem) most sources say it`s no issue for sensitive skin, but even outside of the UK some detergents targeted to sensitive skin contain them while others don`t.
So the Non-Bio for sensitive skin is not a UK thing only. The difference is outside of the UK there hasn`t been any scare marketing for Non-Bio.
Then there is an allergy warning printed on the product and listing of the enzyme in MSDSs mandatory in the EU if a certain percentage in the product is exceeded.

Suppose it`s the dose that makes the poison.

 

[launderess]

Oxi actually is an obsolete spelling of "oxy" from chemistry. Don't believe word "oxi" itself entered American English vernacular in a big way until OxiClean was introduced.

It has been off to the races ever since.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OxiClean

While "Oxiclean" is obviously a registered trademark, word oxi is not. Thus anyone is free to include it with advertising, marketing, product name, etc... And they have....

Tide, Purex, All, Persil (Henkel American version), Ariel (Mexican), Ace (Tide sold in Mexico), and others all have "oxi" detergents.

Vanish and Formil among few others have laundry booster products that are powders or liquid formats. There you so see oxygen bleach.

 

[iej]

Handy word that likely means very little but sounds technical in multiple languages.

 

[helicaldrive]

My choices

Tide Original HE powder, readily available, and German Persil mega pearls, both Color and Universal.

Cheer is available in powder form, usually available at Walmart, and I believe it does not have OB agents.

(FWIW I have never been a big fan of the Cheer cinnamon-ish scent, and for some reason P&G stopped promoting it, reduced the price and relegated it to budget status, but I used it for many years on clothes that I didn’t want Tide’s aggressive cleaning power to fade, and it cleaned well enough…)

 

[tdewael]

OP mentioned Nellie’s Laundry Powder. I have been using it for a few years now and absolutely love it. Everything gets clean, I only need to use ½ tablespoon for an entire load, and everything gets clean. Bonus - no unexplained rashes. Packaging is fantastic, too. I’m not left with a ton of plastic that is likely to not actually be recycled.
Formerly I used EcoSmart unscented liquid, but the bottles were huge and plastic, and I grew tired of paying for water. So Nellie’s has been my choice now for a while.

Tammy

 

[iej]

I hadn’t been using powder in a long time and decided to buy a box of Ariel (bio/universal) just to remind myself if it’s any good.

Wow! It works way better than I remembered. Everything came out looking absolutely perfect and I like the current scent they’re using.

What impressed me even more is how little packaging is involved. It’s just a simple cardboard box. I decanted it into a Sistema (Made in NZ) box designed for breakfast cereal that took exactly the contents of the Ariel pack. Printed up a label (I had large printable stickers) for it and now have a very handy powder dispenser. It’s clear, airtight and has a flip up lid and lines up rather nicely with the depth of the Miele drawer when pouring.

I might pick up a box of Ariel or Persil Colour and go back to powder as frankly I’m not impressed with the amount of plastic I’m using with liquids and pods. I know they’re recyclable generally, but even so. If I can use a simple paper box and get excellently performing TOL powders here, I might as well use them.

 

[launderess]

Am slowly going off liquids in favor of powders

Once what one has in stash liquid or pod wise is concerned, that will be end of things. Just prefer powders for various reasons, and have grown to detest pods (am that sick of peeling bits of plastic off dried washing).

Cleared out lint/sump area of the Miele last weekend, and it was fouled with black muck. Am sure it was because of use of liquid detergents. Do many a 120F and even 140F wash, plus add oxygen bleach often enough as well.

Plus am not that sure liquid format detergents are great for environment. Natural tendency for anything made from water is to go off, thus these products are heavy on preservatives, binders and other chemicals to give shelf life.

For whites and colourfast things, nothing beats a good powdered detergent. Things get better especially for stain removal if an activated oxygen bleaching system is included.

 

[launderess]

Oh and other thing....

Notice far less issues with froth and better rinsing with powders..

 

[iej]

Colour powders are still very easily available here from Ariel, Persil (Lever) and pretty decent store brands. 

 

I haven’t noticed any gunk in the Miele filter area, but I have been using their Twin Dos system, which is probably pretty effective. 

The big ecological preference for powder is packing and they are lighter to transport and take up less space in pallets too. Carbon footprint is probably better. I don’t know thought if there’s some manufacturing advantages to liquids? The manufacturers seem very fixated on pushing them. European machines are also still very much designed to dispense powder. They’re messy with liquid via the drawer.

 

I noticed Unilever seems to be really pushing a new more concentrated powder format as part of positioning Persil as more ecological, so maybe powder might make a comeback …

 

[launderess]

Here ya go!

https://hibid.com/lot/123424299/kirkland-laundry-detergent-200-loads?ref=lot-list

 

[maytag85]

Now here’s a detergent I want to try and yes it’s not powdered, but it’s called Swash by Whirlpool. Maybe I’ll give it a try one day to see how well it works.

 

[sudsmaster]

Lately I've been mixing and matching a tsp of STPP with enough Kirkland liquid HE laundry detergent, at least for the Neptune. For the Miele in the workshop, where I pretty much do only white towels, I use Persil powder and/or liquid.

 

 

 

[iej]

Having a browse around, not as many colour detergents in powder form as there used to be. I hadn’t been shopping for them in quite a while. They still exist but two supermarkets I was in didn’t have any on the shelves, but loads of pods, pods and more pods and liquids.

 

[foraloysius]

Aldi Ireland sells Almat Colour washing powder.

 

[iej]

I'll have a look. Is that stuff any good?

 

[foraloysius]

We had a thread about it some years ago.

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?40957_9

I'm using Una, sold by Aldi NL. I'm very happy with that.

 

[iej]

I wonder if it’s the same product ? Una or Úna is a female first name here. So it would be a bit like having a washing powder called Lucy or Steve or something.

 

[qsd-dan]

Update:

Soon after my post I got a bucket Nellies Laundry Soda and have been putting through its paces. It works surprisingly well considering it uses a minimal ingredients.

The Good:

The powder is very finely cut and immediately dissolves even in cold (85F tempered) water.

It doesn't take much quantity to get slippery water results. 2 scoops gets the job done (about 2 tablespoons) for a full load in the 806 with mechanically sofened water. It's still hard to wrap my head around using such little detergent, like I'm using a front loader.

It works phenomenally well on odors. I put it through a test of wearing the same clothes for 3 days straight while working 7-8 hours each day in the yard in 97-102F temps. Not a hint of odor and it has my favorite scent, nothing at all.

It advertises that clothes come out softer than using other detergents which I ignored, but surprisingly this was not a false statement.

The Bad:

Mediocre results on stains.

Has somewhat of a difficult time keeping dirt from redepositing on heavily soiled loads.

I could possibly see long term use causing dingy results overtime.

Thinking about ordering and adding some STPP to see if results improve.

In addition to buying Nellies, I went to the dark side and purchase both liquid and powdered Tide to compare.

Liquid Tide:

Got mediocre results in the white cycle using 160F temps with oxygen bleach and a 3 hour soak. After a couple rounds of those mediocre results, my suspicion was that the hot water was immeadilty slaughtering the enzymes. This was confirmed by doing a pre-wash cycle of whites in warm (120F) water with a 4 minute agitation cycle using no oxygen bleach and only a 20 minute soaking period with excellent results. The problem is, oxygen bleach is nearly useless at these temps.

For shits and giggles I decided to try Costco's Ultra Clean free and clear detergent I use strictly for cold/dark loads. Surprisingly, I consistently got better results than liquid Tide or Nellies using this in 160F temps with oxygen bleach and a 3 hour soak. I assume this detergent is less dependent on enzymes and more dependent on other ingredients to get the job done.

Powdered Tide results to come in the near future.

Still on the lookout for a non enzyme powered detergent (or even liquid detergent at this point).

 

[frigilux]

Your experience with Nellie’s laundry products were similar to mine. Tried them about 6-7 years ago. I was experimenting with many brands of detergent pods/pacs, so used Nellie’s “nuggets”. Performance was passable, but really fell down on stain removal. Loved the tin they came in, though!

Being a die-hard user of very hot (150F) water for washing whites, it took quite awhile for me to realize that the detergents I use (liquid Tide Stain Release, Persil ProClean + Stain Fighter, and as of about a month ago, Tide 10X pods with Oxi) stain removal is much better using temps around 115F. Totally counterintuitive to my old-school brain, but those wonderful enzyme cocktails in top-shelf detergents demand somewhat cooler temps.