@newwave
Re: number of rinses, on my Frigidaire 2140 (a division of Electrolux), there are two rinses (with spins after each rinse) standard on the Heavy, Normal, and Perm Press cycles. (perm press has a brief final spin to minimise wrinkling, but then these fabrics don't absorb water like heavy cottons). You can add a third rinse with the "Extra Rinse" button.
I have limited amounts of German (Henkel) Persil, or Unilever Persil (Persil in UK, Via in Sweden) brought back from European visits. My "perm press" loads are my work clothes, which are "office casual" wrinkle-resistant 100% cotton trousers and shirts from LL Bean. (
www.llbean.com). On these, I use my limited supply of European detergent. Such loads dried on a Perm Press cycle (starts out warm, then cools to ambient temperature before end of cycle), if hung up immediately, look as if they have been professionally laundered and ironed. I am frequently asked for the name of my cleaners, with people assuming that these clothes have received professional treatment.
For loads of sturdy cottons, bedding, and towels, I use the one readily available US powder properly formulated ("HE") for front loaders, which is Tide HE. I use 45 ml per full load and I still have a small patch of suds on the door when finished, so it appears that even three rinses aren't enough to rinse away all soap residue. There are never any suds left when using European detergents listed above.
Launderess has posted here (in a different thread) that she suspects the "HE" detergents sold here are not really reformulated. Most likely a suds suppressant is added to avoid oversudsing. FL sales are now about 50% of all new washer sales, but if you consider all the TLs still out there in homes across the country, FLs are far from 50% of all machines IN USE in the country. So with TLs still dominating the market in terms of detergent needs, there is little incentive to rework the formula.
Some of the other brands marked "HE" here, including those sold by Sear (Ultra Plus) and Kirkland, use the "HE" logo on the box but also state that the product is made for use "in all machines", the only difference being they recommend using less in FL than TL. Yeah, right, why use a product that is designed to work in higher-sudsing TLs. Looks like the only reformulation was at the printer's where the box was printed!! I know that some folks here have posted good FL results with Sears Ultra Plus HE powder, but I am reticent when the box states that it is "for all machines".
If Proctor and Gamble ever brought Ariel to the USA, Tide's share of the FL market would be wiped out in weeks or months. One can buy Germal (Henkel) Persil here, but it is sold only via Miele dealers. Miele excercises strict price control on its dealers. Anyone caught discounting prices will lose their license to sell Miele. A medium box of Persil powder runs about $45. Granted, the box will last a long time at 30 ml per load, but that's still a lot of money.
PS: Darren, it's a long, complex story, but in a nutshell, Electrolux licensed a US company to make vacuum cleaners in the USA from between the World Wars. Part of the agreement was that the US vacuum company had exclusive right to the use of the name "Electrolux" in the USA, and on my first trip to Sweden in 1975, I was amazed to discover they made far more than vacuum cleaners.
Frigidaire had been a quality brand when it was part of General Motors. GM spun off the division in 1960-70s and it became sort of a ho-hum, also-ran brand. Electrolux bought the company in c.1986 as a way to begin selling their products in the USA by using an old and trusted name, if not as "Electrolux". Later the US vacuum company went out of business and Electrolux bought back the right to use their name in the US. Frigidaire now sells MOL consumer products with Electrolux being more TOL.
To some degree, Frigidaire has become a conduit for the "Europeanisation" of consumer appliances. Example: convection cooking is commonplace in Europe and has been around for decades. In the US, it's been around for years, but usually only on TOL models and brands, in the past found only on "professional" brands like Thermador, Viking, Wolf, etc.
When it was time to give my old BOL range (new with the house in 1988) the heave-ho, my options were limited: behind the range was a gas line plus a 120V outlet. 240V could not be installed without ripping out some walls and cabinets. The architect who designed the house assumed that any upgrade would simply be a better gas range. The controls and lights can operate on 120V power, since gas supplies the cooking heat.
At that time (2001), most convection ranges in USA were electric and needed 240V. Excluding the $5000 professional ranges (Wolf, Viking, Thermador, Dacor, etc.), only four companies in USA offered a gas convection range in their "normal consumer" (non-professional) product lines: KitchenAid, GE, Jenn-Air, and Frigidaire. The first three companies charged an extra $300-400 (above their similar range without convection), while Frigidaire charged $100 extra. The result was a price of $700 instead of $1400-1500 (yes, $1450 for a GE with convection, and we're talking in white or black, not stainless steel). The KA or Jenn-Air might have been worth it, the GE looked clunky and ugly, and the Frigidaire looked sleekest of them all, for 100s less. (note, these were free-standing gas ranges, not the higher-priced slide-in, no-backsplash, counter depth ranges which often cost more than freestanding with similar features).
The range I bought has been upgraded to a model with a fifth burner, higher BTU outputs, and grates that span all the way across the cooking surface. My range has one high output burner, but the current model has two, which are 16K instead of my 12K. Both have a low output simmer burner. It sells with either simple convection (just a fan) or heated convection (wrap-around heating element around the fan) which are priced about $50 apart. The current price is about $800-900, still quite moderate when compared to the competition. One of the best features are the dishwasher-safe grates, so the cooktop still looks brand new. Cast iron grates of course must be cleaned by hand, so porcelain-coated grates that are DW-safe are a big plus.
I think their (Electrolux) philosophy was that advanced features found in Europe need not be restricted to TOL models, and that you'll sell more if you cater to the MOL consumer who wants some upgrades at reasonable cost. Today, nearly all MOL-TOL companies offer gas convection ranges, but back in 2001, only four did.
I think the same philosophy helped Bosch gain DW market share here. I used to think of them as a company whose dishwashers started at $1000 and up. So I was surprised to learn, when my old GE POS needed replacement, that US prices started at $500 (in 2001) and that the Integra Design (controls in door rim, plain metal front) began at $600. Bosch could see that the market for $1000+ dishwashers would always be limited, but that people willing to pay $500-800 were a much larger market segment, one that was pretty much the exclusive province of KitchenAid for years. So if they offered machines with fewer features but the same build/operational quality, they could capture some of KA's market segment, and it appears they have achieved this goal.
PS: the Frigidaire range continues to give excellent service in its ninth year of use. Oven remains properly calibrated. Like any gas range, the heat is vented into the kitchen, but it would be rare to have the oven on for more than two hours, so this rarely becomes an issue. [this post was last edited: 8/17/2010-11:13]
