Sta-Puf Fabric Rinse & Other Long Gone Products

[launderess]

Someone needs to bring this back!



Never heard of Bonus detergent. Must have been a regional thing.









https://archive.org/details/dmbb47808

Dash!

https://archive.org/details/1958CommercialForDashLaundryDetergentno.2
[this post was last edited: 3/5/2017-04:25]

 

[toploader55]

I Loved Sta Puf.

Had a nice clean scent. Not at all per-fumy.

 

[abcomatic]

My favorite was Rain Barrel from Johnson's Wax Co. in Racine, Wisconsin. I liked the scent,clean and not all of that strong flowery scent that is out there now.
I liked Final Touch too, a different scent than Rain Barrel was but still a good product.
I won't use any fabric softeners now at all.

 

[frigilux]

Sta-Puf wasn't thick and gooey, either; didn't clog the softener dispenser on our 1960 Kenmore. Sta-Puf was purchased when it was on sale; otherwise we used similarly non-viscous Hilex lemon-scented fabric softener. It was a pretty yellow color, much like the background of this forum, LOL.

My mom also used Bonus detergent when it was on sale, so it was definitely available up here on the open prairie. Since the towels were rather thin, she'd give them to me to use when I was a kid.[this post was last edited: 3/5/2017-14:32]

 

[appnut]

Sta-Puf was the first FS my mom used.  then Texize.  when the "blues" came out (Downey & Final Touch) came out, she used that a lot.  We got free sample of Sta-Puf in the Kenmore 800 in 1970.  I asked so many questions the salesman gave me several more bottles of it before we left the shopping center (we had to go back through sears after we'd been elsewhere in the mall to get back to the car. 

 

[launderess]

Did no one catch on

That buy stuffing those towels in boxes of detergent you got less product overall? I mean there is only so much room inside so something has to give.

 

[angus]

Apparently a lot of people didn't catch on since those detergents plus premiums were fairly popular. I noticed two things- didn't matter which one was used, Bonus, Breeze, Duz, Silver Dust - the boxes were the same size as other brands but the quantity of detergent was less and the usage instructions usually had you using more which leads one to believe that these products might have contained more filler than their non premium counterparts. For example - Silver Dust and Breeze, both Lever Brothers products instructed you to use 2 cups for large or heavily soiled loads, while other Lever non premium products (Drive, Fluffy All, Rinso Blue/Sunshine Rinso or Rinso with color bleach) called for 1.5 cups for large or heavily soiled loads. So either they consciously decided to really take the customer to the cleaners with the cheap quality towels and glasses along with a lesser quality product or just encouraged wastefulness with the 2 cup usage - these products were no bargain. I recall my mother used Breeze a few times (mostly for dishes and general housecleaning) and the "bath towels" in the King Size were small, thin and probably not worth anywhere what the total cost of the product ended up being.

Bonus was a relative latecomer to that lineup around 1968 or so. It was widely available in the Northeast but I don't recall that P&G ever distributed samples - it just hit the market. Of course maybe they stopped distributing samples - I don't recall that they ever did that with Gain either when it was introduced.

Anyway, Bonus wasn't around more than 5 or 6 years - then it sort of disappeared.

 

[frigilux]

Launderess and Angus--- You'd be amazed at how people can turn a blind eye to getting less product if there's something free inside the box. We always had softened water growing up, so my mom was very parsimonious with detergent, usually around 1/3 to 1/2 cup for a full load. She also used a suds-saver so that further reduced detergent use.

Launderess, thanks for posting links to all the videos!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember those glass containers for StaPuf before the plastic bottles.  I liked the fragrance of Staley's StaPuf better than Texize Laundry Fluff, but both took 1/3 to 1/2 cup per load. In Europe, laundry fluff means lint. The more concentrated blue products could not be used in the dispenser of the 1958 Lady because it flipped over at the end of the spin as the fill started so the blue stuff, even diluted as much as possible would leave a blue streak across the load. Warm rinse water was better at flushing it out of the fabrics. Winter cold water was less effective.

 

[washman]

Hi frig!

 

[supersuds]

I have a couple of small boxes of Bonus in my collection. Although they have the same picture on the front, the one on the left says it has 6.1% phosphorus and to use 1 and 1/4 cups for a normal load, while the one on the right has 9.7% phosphorus and says to use 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups per load. So it was around long enough for them to fiddle with the formula.

 

[supersuds]

Other "premium" brands gave you glasses, dishes, and spoons. I remember seeing those glasses in somebody's house. They were nicer than the jelly jars, anyway.

I suppose I'll open them one day. As Launderess once said, there's no point being one of those people who dies with a lot of unused detergent!

 

[strongenough78]

Man I would love to see Dash back in the stores. I miss the scent of that stuff and it really did an excellent job of cleaning. My Grandma used it religiously from the time it came out til they stopped making it. I loved the smell of Sta-Puf too.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The nice thing about the dishes and glasses was that they did not take up as much room, proportionately, as a towel because they held the detergent instead of displacing it.

 

I remember the big bags of detergent that had a towel stitched to the end and, possibly big bags of flour that had a towel stitched to the end. Some, maybe the detergents, had terry cloth towels, while the flour sacks had dish towels sewn to the ends. I remember the colorful cascades of towels hanging over the ends of the bags on the shelves. I expect that many of us spent a good deal of time in the detergent aisles reading boxes and labels and sniffing detergent perfumes.

 

[iheartmaytag]

My mother used sta puff. I remember her swearing if she missed the rinse. Sometimes she would have one of us kids stay with the machine. We were supposed to call her when the wash water drained so she could add the softener. I would usually volunteer because I could lift the lid and watch the clothes swish.

I also remember her boiling starch on the stove too. Then she would pour the boiling pot into the second "wrench". After the spin she would put my dads trousers on these stretchers to dry. Then she pressed a crease so tight it would cut you.

 

[angus]

Still have my pants stretchers and use them on my cotton chinos. It makes ironing a whole lot easier!!