Prewash

[launderess]

Cannot speak for other side of pond, but here in USA as of 1970 presoak products were no different than detergents, loaded with phosphates.

Axion, Biz, Amway Trizyme.. were all > 60% phosphates. Biz was lowest at about 61% but rest were over 70%.

https://books.google.com/books?id=m...oQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=White King soap&f=true

 

[iej]

Miele seems to automatically run a prewash on the W1 machines if you select heavy option on the soil level query for the auto dispenser.

The only time I could see it as being useful is if the clothes are actually soaked in something that's going to wash back into the water, like maybe something absolutely covered in mud.

I find it genuinely useful for muddy football gear. That's about all though. I mean what else gets THAT dirty?

I guess maybe something like a completely messed up table cloth or baby clothes that have been absolutely covered in food or .. worse or very messed up work overalls perhaps?

It's an option that's still available on a lot of European machines, and a bit like the boil wash cycle, I think it's very rarely used.

From an environmental point of view, it seems like a waste of resources. I've never seen a front loader (certainly any I've owned) fail to do a good job if you use the right detergents and a good wash cycle i.e. not the 15 min quick wash or something ridiculous.

I definitely remember using self-service commercial machines in a laundrette in London in the mid 2000s that all did a prewash as part of the standard cycle, which was very short, very splashy and very deep. Definitely cleaned the clothes well, but it was using a lot more water and chemicals than a typical household machine.

 

[ozzie908]

Use pre-wash

For soiled kitchen cloths as I tend to use them for getting things out of the oven and if they spill the cloth catches the mess and saves cleaning up.

Some cloths with heavy staining IE tomato benefit from a prewash before the main hot wash of which I tend to choose a 75c temp, Have used the 95c to clean the machine and whiten towels but have stopped using it as a normal temp due to electricity prices rising.

Have also started to save all whites and take them up the shed to wash/boil in twin tub thus reusing hot water over and over then after a good spin to get the detergent out I put them in a whirlpool top loader to rinse it does a great job !!

Austin

 

[launderess]

Persil energieverstärkt 1989

http://www.linse.uni-due.de/files/PDF_in_Katalog/publikationen/ESEL/he198501.pdf

 

[launderess]

Interesting.....

Understand a bit of that German commercial for Persil. Well not exactly what is being said, but the advertising pitch in general.

This "neue" Persil had common protein enzyme (subtilisin) and used sodium perborate as oxygen bleach.

Results one achieved depended upon temperature for certain washes.

Kochwasche - is "boil wash" hence the pile of whites in front of box marked so.

Buntwäsche - is coloured fabrics that one washed at 60 degrees Celsius

Feinwasche - cold or warm wash (30 or 40 degrees Celsius) for things made from rayon, synthetics, but not wool or silk. The latter would be harmed by enzymes.

Thanks to addition of enzyme no presoak product was necessary.

Like Ariel in other commercial Persil box says this product is " hauptwaschmittel" indicting it is used in main wash, not a presoak product. However of course one could use it so if wished.

https://www.sbazar.cz/APoloapo/detail/118425345-retro-krabice-persil

 

[rolls_rapide]

Reply #20: Ariel

The original Ariel was in a packet with blue emblem, and was a high-sudsing enzyme powder for twin-tubs, and suitable for use in the likes of the original slanted Hoover Keymatic, and Hotpoint agitator top-loaders.

When my mum got her Hoover automatic in 1980, the only two detergent options were P&G's low suds enzyme Bold Automatic or Lever's low suds Persil Automatic. She never liked Bold, so used Persil instead.

Ariel Automatic appeared somewhere around 1982. This was in a box with the green logo, and was a low suds enzyme powder.

 

[foraloysius]

Ariel

Overhere in the Netherlands Ariel was available with the blue logo as a low sudsing detergent for automatic washing machines. That is the same as the one in the first commercial Launderess posted in Reply #3. I used that detergent in my Philips AWB119 toploader that I bought in 1982. I think I used a box or two before the move to Ariel with the green logo.

 

[iej]

Ariel in the UK originally launched as a high suds, enzyme formula aimed at top load machines (mostly non automatic), which were still dominant in 1969 when it launched. Bold was marketed towards automatics.

Ariel launched two years earlier on the continent and may have been an automatic (low suds) formulation from the beginning in some markets.