Real Vintage Dishwasher Detergent

[bellalaundry]

I found these two boxes at a thrift store yesterday. They are mini sized...I don't remember this size being sold in stores. I wonder if they were considered trial sized?

They also remind me of vintage advertising pictures I've seen where the happy purchaser is given a small box along with the owners manual.

Any ideas how old this stuff is?

Guy

 

[tomturbomatic]

Those were probably the packages that manufacturers packed in new machines. That practice was abandoned in favor of coupons.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

detergents

What detergents were these?

 

[bellalaundry]

They

are both dishwasher detergents...

 

[agiflow]

Reply # 2

Jerome they are All and Electrasol.

 

[launderess]

Economics Laboratory Inc., changed their name to Ecolab in 1986, so that box of Electrasol was made before then.

All laundry detergent was developed by Monsanto in 1946 and patent was sold to Lever Bros. in 1957 along with everything else "All" brand name related (Concentrated all, Liquid all, and Dishwasher all..) That action found Lever Bros. on crosshairs of federal anti-trust actions, but they ultimately prevailed at trial.[this post was last edited: 5/2/2025-21:39]

 

[gelaundry4ever]

electrasol

I miss the days of Electrasol and Jet Dry. They had a variety of scents and products to choose from. Now, it's mostly fresh scent under Finish.

 

[launderess]

That Electrasol was loaded with phosphates.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335642813057

Interestingly Electrasol box shown in OP isn't bilingual. Packet also gives St. Paul Minnesota address meaning product was produced in USA.

 

[combo52]

Vintage powdered dishwasher detergent

Depending on the age of the detergent, it probably lists the phosphate content on the side of the package under the pour spout.

I still had a half dozen boxes of phosphate powdered dishwasher detergent. I was using it very slowly in the second house up in the mountains, even with soft water and vintage dishwasher. It didn’t work worth a damn anymore. I didn’t realize why my whirlpool dishwasher was working so poorly had to buy some new pods and now it works beautifully.

So it may not work that well try it out and see I ended up pouring it all into big containers and using it in the pre-wash cup on my whirlpool power cleans here in Maryland and then putting a good pod in the main wash cup that seemed to help a little bit and it got rid of the old detergent over the last year. It’s all gone now

John L

 

[gansky1]

 

I found a good-sized stash of vintage Cascade at an estate sale some years ago, snapped it all up.  I brought a box to Arizona a couple of years ago so we could "christen" a never-used KA dishwasher at Roger's.  It smelled good and was free-flowing out of the box but it didn't dissolve in the cycle, leaving bits of the powder on most of the load and machine. 

 

[Unimatic1140]

I agree with what others said, I've never had good luck using vintage dishwasher detergent unfortunately. Dishwasher detergent seems to have a shelf life that does expire with time.

On the other hand I've had extremely good luck and results using vintage phosphate laden laundry detergent. As long as moisture hasn't settled into the box and the powder isn't all clumpy it seems to work as well as when it was new. I recently got a 5lb box of mid 1960s Cheer and boy does it work well, it suds up beautifully with one cup and rinses out perfectly. It has a light clean scent that's just enough and in no way overpowering like modern detergents. Climbing into bed at night with freshly washed sheets with the light scent of vintage detergent is a treat to behold.

If I could afford to only use vintage laundry detergent it would be all that I would ever use.

 

[launderess]

You know how it it is, to get something one wants usually means taking something one doesn't want.

Recently this meant a job lot of vintage laundry supplies including a huge box of older A&H powder detergent.

Not expecting much but intrigued by fact stuff is loaded with phoshates cracked open box to see what there was. Bit of clumping and other bits but using a small scoop put small amount into a jar of water then put on lid and shook. To one's amazement there wasn't much froth but water was entirely clear. Not a trace of sediment or cloudiness to be found.

Decanted contents of box into a Kirkland powdered detergent plastic container salvaged from recycling tip. Use the stuff on not so soiled things such as bed linen and or when off visits to local laundromat. Those machines have such short wash cycles (about 6 mins) that using any of one's enzyme laden top shelf detergents is bit of a waste.

 

[supersuds]

A little confused by your statement, Launderess, that the Arm & Hammer was "loaded with phosphates" in light of the box saying that it contained no more than 0.5 percent phosphorus by weight. The box of Cheer Robert has could well be 20% or more. But if you're getting good results that's the important thing.

 

[supersuds]

My experience using older detergents tracks Robert's. Sometimes there's no scent but occasionally there will be a box that has some light scent left, most noticeable if you are outside when the dryer is running. I'm using Late Sixties Drive at the moment and it not only cleans well, it's much lower sudsing than many contemporary detergents, Tide, for instance. Wonder why it didn't catch on.

 

[angus]

Drive, I believe was a "controlled sudsing" product when it was introduced in the late 60's as part of the initial push for enzyme detergents. Each major manufacturer had their first new offering (P&G with Gain, Lever with Drive, Colgate with Punch and even Purex with Brillo). I think it might not have caught on because soon after the initial enzyme product launch, there were reports of factory workers at the detergent facilities having skin rashes and respiratory issues from working with the enzyme products. To compound this, the whole phosphate/water pollution thing started, So then manufacturers had to scramble to reformulate their products to conform to new local/national regulations. At that point, some started weeding out their poorer performers and some brands started disappearing. Finally Lever, while their products performed well, never had (or used) the advertising muscle of P&G or Colgate. You really didn't see too many commercials for Lever detergents other than All with its 3Bs (Bleach, Borax and Brighteners) or Liquid Wisk. Commercials for Drive, "Fluffy" All/Cold Water All and Rinso with Color Bleach were not that common. And commercials for Silver Dust and Breeze were non existent. .

 

[combo52]

Vintage arm and hammer laundry detergent

Reply number 11 .05% phosphates is not a highly phosphate detergent, I’m not sure that Armand Hammer really ever contained very much phosphate. Somebody else can correct me if I’m wrong.

I’m sure it’s still works OK because you’re very soft water in New York as I’ve often suggested if people want to talk about their results with various dishwasher or laundry detergent, etc. they should always state their water hardness. It makes a huge difference.

John L