Palmolive eco+ - USA - phosphate free

[phillygrl]

I posted this before in the wrong section, please excuse the newbie mistake.

Palmolive eco+ is now in my local Wally World and Family Dollar stores. I bought the lemon scent. It's not as bright white as the old formula, and instructions are to shake the bottle before use. It seems to work as well as the old Palmolive formula in my Bosch dishwasher. Still has a nice bleach smell when I open the dishwasher. It now comes up as the only dishwasher detergent formula at the Palmolive site, but no information on the ingredients, see the link below.

http://www.colgate.com/app/Palmolive/US/EN/DishwasherDetergents.cwsp

 

[nmaineman36]

Thats a bottom dweller of a brand ..according to Consumer Reports...doest clean well and I have never been a fan of gels. They used to have a powder version of Palmolive dishwasher detergent that worked well...why they took it off the market I will never know.

 

[maytagbear]

I think

Seventh Generation dishwasher powder is phosphate free, or low phosphate, anyway, and I know Seventh Generation powder cleans well.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[phillygrl]

I take what Consumer Reports says with a grain of salt. I tried one of their top rated brands (Trader Joe's powder) a couple of years ago. The stuff was horrible. It turned all the black handles on my steak knives grey. Granted, they are cheap knives, but the Palmolive gel never discolored anything. It works as well as any other product I have used in my Bosch. Although I suspect that my Bosch would get most of my stuff clean without any detergent at all.

 

[danemodsandy]

I Don't Understand...

...CP's strategy (or, actually, lack of same) with the Palmolive brand. It's big here for hand dishwashing liquid, but not with machine dishwashing detergent. What's really weird is Palmolive bar soap- it's in Big Lots, three bars for a dollar. I don't really mind that- it's my favourite soap, one I grew up on- but you have to wonder why CP isn't paying more attention to a brand name that is part of their company's name- it is, after all, the Colgate-Palmolive Company.

Their other brands are in disarray, as well. Ajax hand dishwashing liquid is still one of their products, as well as Ajax cleanser, but the laundry products have been sold off to Phoenix Brands, who also are the new owners of FAB- since when do two different companies make the same brand? Rapid Shave is no longer sold in the U.S. at all, only in Oz. Halo Shampoo is gone completely; the name is now on a pricey line of pseudo-salon products not made by CP. Palmolive Soap is big in the U.K., with a bunch of fancy-schmancy "New Age" formulations. There are so many different Colgate Toothpaste formulations you can't tell them apart in the store, and you'd be hard-pressed to find the original, classic formulation. What's more, Colgate seems to be a staple of dollar stores and other deep discounters. Cashmere Bouquet is sold on the same basis as Palmolive, deep discounts, as long as you're talking about the soap. The talcum powder is almost impossible to find and rather expensive when you do.

I'm no judge, really, but this seems to me to be a poor strategy for preserving the value of a brand name, to say nothing of the value of some very fine products. Palmolive Soap, in particular, should be a well-known, pricey brand; it's very good soap for ageing skin, leaving it soft and smooth.

I guess I just don't understand modern marketing...

 

[conate]

seventh generation

Question about the seventh generation stuff: I tried it again, recently, and ended up returning it as it didnt' get the tea and coffee mugs clean.

Am I doing something wrong, since several on this site say it works? I haven't been able to make it work...

 

[~sudsshane]

Palmolive~

I have never cared for the Palmolive dishwasher detergents, especially the gels. The gel does a terrible job at removing, deep, stuck on food and grease in my BOSCH.
The Palmolive Automatic Dish Powder was a great product and I agree, it should have never been discontinued. My guess is the new Palmolive Eco + won't be around for long because phosphates are critical to delivering spotlessly clean dishes.

Give me my Cascade 2&1 "Action Pacs" with Dawn anyday. They are tops in my opinion.

 

[maytagbear]

Seventh Generation Powder-

Works fine on tea stained cups and mugs in my GE. I don't drink coffee at home any more, so I couldn't say.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[phillygrl]

May be the start of things to come

There are a bunch of states on the west coast, and on the east coast surrounding the Chesapeake Bay that have banned phosphates in 2010. Since I live within site of the largest inland lake in PA and OH, I choose to use the lowest phosphate products I can find. The less phosphates going into the lake, the better. All those fish I catch (and love to eat) don't love algae blooms. Just like to do my part.

 

[maytagbear]

Philly-

You may have a wrong impression....I don't think most of us are asking you to justify your product choices. For the most part, we like to throroughly discuss/consider products.

I don't think any regularly posting member has a problem with you or any of your contributions.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[supersuds]

I did not care for the Palmolive gel in the past, but tried it again recently (because of a coupon) and it worked just fine. Seemed much improved. This was the phosphate version.

Phillygirl is right, sudshane, there was a thread recently that all manufacturers were phasing phosphates out of dishwasher detergent within a couple of years. That's the future, whether we like it or not.

 

[panthera]

Phillygirl

I have also tried it and found it worked just fine, at least in the very soft water my partner has.
And that, I think, is the key - Conate lives in a State where the old joke "the water broke before the glass" holds true in many areas (I grew up in Colorado so I believe it). Over here in Germany, phosphate free "eco-friendly" detergents tend to be much better received in the North, with softer water than here where our water is over the top of the hardness scale.
Consumer Reports recently managed to rate the identical same machinery from Roper far above Whirlpool. What was once a really useful and interesting guide has turned into a stupid rag, dumbed down and evaluating consumer goods sometimes with very strange criteria.
We still have 38% phosphate/high enzyme detergents here. For which I am very thankful.

 

[nmaineman36]

I have too tried the Trader Joe's stuff and it doesnt work. One nonphosphate detergent that works well I found is the Ecover Dishwasher powder. They also have the tabs as well. It cleans as well as Cascade and does a great job on pots and pans. In my Miele booklet for the Premiere dishwasher it states not to use gel detergents...just powder or tablets. The Miele Laperla that I have here in Mass I can tell the dishwasher what detergent I am using and it will adjust the rinse aid and water softener. I find that feature is very handy and I can use gels but I have not tried it.

 

[toggleswitch]

~Consumer Reports recently managed to rate the identical same machinery from Roper far above Whirlpool. What was once a really useful and interesting guide has turned into a stupid rag, dumbed down and evaluating consumer goods sometimes with very strange criteria.

I will never forget for as long as I live:
CR started to downgrade Maytag washers (DECADES AGO WHEN THEY WERE STILL MADE LIKE GERMAN WAR TANKS) because the top surface by the loading-lid did not have a "lip" to contain water spills.

I mean, I ask you, who gives a flying F***? What does that have to do with the price of Tea in China?
CR analysists are about as bright as the average consumer. Zero to negative.

 

[jamiel]

I'm not sure there's too much problem with C-P's positioning here...they're pretty clear that they're in 4 markets globally: dental care, personal care, home care and pet care. They've got the flexibility to use their brands how they will by market. In the US Palmolive means (at this late date) dishwashing brand, and only peripherally bar soap. In the EU, Palmolive is much more a personal care brand than a dishwashing brand. They sold off Javex in Canada to Clorox, and I'd guess that the days for them in the laundry detergent business in Australia are somewhat limited, but they seem to have a reasonable strategy against P&G/Unilever/Henkel/Reckitt worldwide: leverage their dominant toothpaste position into the other areas as they emerge.

 

[cvillewasherbo]

phosphates

I thought all of the top rated detergents had enzymes and not phosphates. Cascade Complete works great for us, but I'm not sure if it has phospahtes or not, but I thought that the major manufacturers got rid of those a long time ago when the enzymes came out. I have always heard that Sun and Palmolive DW detergents still have Chlorine in them, and I have to admit, I love that smell, just like I love the smell of a swimming pool, but they don't work as well as the enzymes.

 

[danemodsandy]

jamiel:

I understand what you mean about CP, but if I were looking at their stock, I'd be concerned about what I see in stores. CP products are very often found at deep discounters like Dollar General, Big Lots, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar. To me, that means that not enough effort is going into maintaining brand value. I know that while many of CP's brands have been around for a very long time (more than 100 years for both Colgate Toothpaste and Palmolive Soap), there are many brands that make a virtue of being unchanged in a changing world, like Arm & Hammer and Clorox. The sell-off of FAB to Phoenix was strange, considering FAB's one-time position in the marketplace (right behind P&G's Tide). What would really concern me as an investor is the division of the Ajax brand- the laundry products are now made by Phoenix, and the kitchen products are still CP. That can only lead to consumer confusion, and diminishment of the brand's value. The only four CP brands where I see really effective marketing that results in high-value esteem among consumers are Suavitel, Tom's of Maine, Hill's Science Diet, and Softsoap. Everything else is something people's mothers or grandmothers used, sort of. Sad, because it shouldn't be that way- CP's products are excellent.

 

[jamiel]

True, I hadn't thought about the disconnect between Ajax laundry and Ajax dishwashing/hard surface, but I'm not sure that you don't see the same dichotomy between the "premier" brands and the "secondary" brands through those types of stores at P&G...Dawn/Palmolive versus Joy/Ivory/Ajax, Colgate versus Crest, etc. I think you're also missing Speed Stick and Colgate toothpaste as "world brands" for CP.