POD 8/20/17: Salvo Detergent Tablets

[frigilux]

Before there were pods/pacs there was Salvo! My mom bought them once when they were on sale, but didn't care for them. As with today's pods, she missed being able to fine-tune dosages. The ad is obviously aimed at the younger, liberated, more worldly 1960s woman. No drudgery of hauling around powdered detergent, bleach and other wash additives for her. Just drop in a couple of Salvo tablets and you're off to meet your hunky tennis instructor for a 'lesson.'

Notice the instructions for Salvo say to use hot (140 degrees) water for any load that can stand it. No doubt that helped ensure the tablets dissolved properly.

Perhaps an AW member with vintage Consumer Reports magazines could let us know how they were rated for cleaning power in comparison to other detergents of the day.

Vim was the other brand of tablets from that period. They were smaller, so four tablets were required for each load. That also allowed one more options for dosing compared to Salvo.

All images from Google.[this post was last edited: 8/20/2017-08:10]

 

[washdaddy]

My mother used Salvo when we were growing up for anything she washed in hot or warm water. If she was washing darks it was in cold and she used just a small amount of liquid all.

She used Salvo for years while we grew up until they start pulling phosphates out of detergents than it was onto Powdered All for hot/warm washing...Still kept up with the liquid All

 

[lesto]

Looks like a Maytag Highlander in the photo. My mom only bought Salvo once or twice. I loved how they would make such a loud clang when you dropped them into a solid porcelain tub machine. Mom was a dye-hard Tide user.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Vim

For the UK, Lever's 'Vim' was scouring powder!

 

[ea56]

My Aunt used Salvo in her Westy Slant Front as soon as the hit the market. I remember this vividly because I wanted my Mom to buy them too. But Mom wasn't interested, she liked her Tide or Oxydol. I recall that tyou could hear the Salvo tablets bang around the tub for the first minor so until enough water had entered the tub to dissolve them.
Eddie

 

[brucelucenta]

I just loved Salvo tablets! I also remember in the 70's when they quit making them. There was a great close out sale at a store I bought things at and I really stocked up on them and used them for months afterward. I had good results with it. My Frigidaire and Kelvinator liked the lower suds too!

 

[tomturbomatic]

In our area, we had great coupons in the paper for Salvo and Vim and great in-store promotions for them. I remember when a little package came in the mail and it was a trial size of Salvo tablets. The same thing happened with Vim. We used a lot of both brands in the Westinghouse. Mom would break one Salvo tablet in half for partial loads.  They always cleaned very well, but we had a water heater set to 160F and the washer just a few feet from it.

 

[mrsalvo]

Salvo was my all time favorite detergent. It had a fantastic smell, really clean but not overpowering. I thought it cleaned pretty good too and no need for a second rinse. My godmother used Salvo and asked my mom to buy some, but like Eddie's experience, my mother wasn't impressed and always bought Oxydol or Tide. To this day I cannot stand the smell of Tide, too sweet. I still miss Salvo, when I buy detergents now I still keep my eye out for Salvo, hoping they'll bring it back even thoough I know it's long, long gone.
Bruce, thank-you for posting the picture of both Vim and Salvo. Never tried Vim, never recalled seeing it when I was a kid, so I know very little about it.

I so miss Salvo. Maybe I should try Roselie's Low Sudsing Detergent!!!

 

[golittlesport]

ah, Salvo!

When I was a kid my Mom used Dash until we got a free sample of Salvo in the mail and she was immediately hooked. She never bought another brand of detergent until they stopped making Salvo. She said she loved the nice clean scent, not over-powering or too sweet.

My grandmother used Tide in her Frig Unimatic, but my mom hated the scent of Tide and the amount of suds it made. "You don't need suds to get clothes clean!!" She was ahead of her time. LOL

Mom had a Westy slant-front Laundromat and she would drop one tablet in the tub, add laundry and away we go. No mess, no spills, no other additives. Keep it simple.

I remember seeing a movie once, can't remember the name, and a baseball-loving boy was helping with the chores and was in the basement pitching a Salvo tablet across the room into a Westy Laundromat.

 

[maytag85]

One laundry detergent my mom misses a lot is Bold Plus. I remember that my mom always bought Bold Plus, and the memories of our ol 1997 Maytag Dependable Care. I remember my mom bought Tide Powder a couple of times, but it faded darks badly, and they were washed on cold.

 

[launderess]

As one recalls

Those Salvo tablets were also known as "hockey pucks". This because of their ability to emerge after a wash cycle totally intact. That and during the process you got to hear the things banging against drum.

It was enough to give tablet detergents a bad name, and soon Salvo, Vim and any others went the way of Dodo. That was until the 1990's when some bright blubs brought them back (Tide, Purex, Wisk, Ariel, etc...), only to see the things withdrawn again from market rather quickly.

Have a NOS box of VIM tablets in my stash. Am on the fence about cracking it open and using, or just keeping for show.

 

[appnut]

We used it some after both brands came out.  The house next door with the LK Combos used both brands as long as they were on the market. 

 

[wayupnorth]

They must have been worth 5 cents apiece as their old tv ad said "A dimes load of Salvo is best."

 

[toploader55]

I remember my Mom bought Salvo and put them in the Filter Flo Pan of our V-12 1961 GE. Or 1962.

Only to find out that the tablets did not dissolve in the pan and our clothes were rinsed with Salvo as well.

She immediately went back to Cheer.

 

[cornutt]

I knew one family that used Tied. They had a Frigidaire and I remember the lady of the house saying that she liked it because it didn't suds up... she had tried Tide in that machine at some point and had a major suds lock that came out around the edges of the lid and ran on the floor.

 

[gansky1]

I remember having Salvo tabs only once, probably when I insisted we use the Sunday paper coupon. We went back to Dash in the Filter Flo immediately after that box was gone.

 

[DADoES]

 
We used Salvo for a short time when I spied it at a grocery in the neighboring town.  The local grocery apparently didn't carry it.  I don't recall seeing Vim anywhere.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

My Grandmother used Salvo

That, and Amway SA8. Echoing what others have said, I remember the Salvo tablets clanging around in the machine, in this case a 1962 Whirlpool. I remember them hitting the upper curves the Surgilator most.

I got my Mom to buy a box of Salvo once, as Greg said she went right back to her favorite, All powder, after they were gone.

We had a water softener so we needed All's low sudsing feature.

 

[washerlover]

My Mom tried Salvo in our '61 Frigidaire Custom Deluxe and hated it because the soap tablets wouldn't dissolve. She was a tried and true White King D user...and apparently as of late I have learned that she also didn't like her Frigidaire. I remember her standing there with a big wooden spoon pushing the clothes into the water to help it along. She still does it in her 2010ish GE but doesn't like that when she opens the lid, the action stops. I've offered to fix that for her, but she insists she's okay with how it is. The woman will be turning 89 years old in November and still going strong doing hers and my Dad's laundry!