Stain Removal Capibilities of Modern Detergents

[zanussi_lover]

Does anyone think the cleaning power of detergents has gone downhill over the past 5-10 years?? Remember the days when you took a load out the machine and admired the cleanliness and how your wash was spotless.

It seems like most detergents are focused on fragrance and freshness over cleaning performance.

I have noticed when i do a wash at 40 or even 60 degrees, Bleachable Stains Like Pasta Sauce, Coffee and Tea still remain, and we have adverts telling us to buy Ariel Stain Remover and Vanish as "Detergent always doesn't always get stains out first time!"

I find stain removers like Ariel Stain remover and Vanish are part of a money making scam, as aren't there stain removers in the powder?

What happened to putting on a wash with Daz, Persil or Ariel, setting it to 40 degrees and getting perfectly spotlessly clean clothes?

and the new and improved powders they tell us about, are they better than the previous formulation?? I think with each "New and Improved Formula" they have removed some of the stain fighting ingredients, concentrated it a bit more and then put the price up and put less washes in the box.

I dont want to boil my clothes to get them spotless, i would like them spotless at 40*c!! without any vanish or stain remover added.

 

[ozzie908]

IMHO

New detergents are a con as why should you have to buy extra stain removers have they taken them out of the powder to sell seperately?
I have gone back to big box Ariel and to be fair its better at getting everything clean and white again I have had to boil wash a few things to remove the low wash temp grey tinge so am never again using low temps on my whites as its false economy when they are not clean.

Austin

 

[zanussi_lover]

Ariel at 40*c

Ive used Ariel,

but Ive always washed at 40*c, as its the optimum temperature for most things, I do Darks at 30*c and Whites at 40*c. But even at 40*c Ariel should remove Pasta Sauce and Tomato stains easily, i was disappointed, as I remember 10 years ago when i was at school, Ariel Essential would have got everything out, as i used to use it on my whites, my PE kit and school shirts and white sports socks, and everything was sparkling and Spotless at 40*c!

they were even spotless when i used Daz Powder (then known as Daz Complete, Dye-lock)

 

[aegokocarat]

my candy seems to manage to get stains out whith no detergent,
not sure about the aqualtis, vansish is a scam, i dont see whats wrong with hand kneeding wyour washing in the sink with powder to pretreat the stains before you start the wash, my mother does this with realy dirty stuff.
i use gels on very non shiftable stains as it can bee scrunched in and then washed, i use powder most of the time
just my thoughts on it
Tom

 

[spoodles]

Until they invent a detergent that can remove pasta sauce easily in one wash, they can shove their 30ºC and 30 minute wash claims where the sun don't shine! Adding a stain remover never seems to make any difference for me either.

Detergent ads are getting as bad as beauty product adverts with all their "styled with lash inserts", "styled with hair extensions" small print. i.e. "you will NEVER look like this!".

Persil's latest one has small print on-screen that reads "Tip: wash immediately" whilst the voice over is claiming it can get any stain out of clothes in a 30 minute wash cycle. Any old detergent could probably clean a really bad stain away if it was washed immediately for 30 minutes.

Ariel had one that claimed it could get white socks gleaming and the small print said "Tested on household dust". Yes dust, the trickiest of all stains... not!

 

[aegokocarat]

and another smal print aon stain remover ads is "excludes wool,silk and leather"

 

[zanussi_lover]

Detergents used to clean well

I actually think 10 years ago and even 5 years ago detergents cleaned perfectly well, Ariel Futur, Ariel Essential, Ariel with Quickwash Action, these were all based on the same formula, to clean well at 40 degrees.

Even Daz and Surf Cleaned better than they do now, and I remember the Surf Cleans 99 top stains or your money back campaign they did in 2002, which was excellent.

 

[AZREOspecialist]

Today's detergents can't even remove simple oil based stains from dark cotton fabrics without leaving a dark splotch. I have soft water, so the addition of STPP seems useless for me. I remember years ago my mom used to get everything clean with Fresh Start powder - and without pre-treating anything. Same with Tide. I'm talking about 15-20 years ago. Yet today when I buy a bottle of Tide HE and use it at recommended amounts, it creates a lot of suds and also leaves dark spots on my cottons where there were stains previously.

Is there anything I can add to my detergent to get that "old fashioned" clean?

 

[whirlcool]

It seems that tons of companies are "debundling" products. I think this is one of them. Like Ryan Air, the airline charges you for each and every little thing (including use of the loo, one euro please!) other companies are taking the same approach.

Want stain removal, buy it separately. Want bleaching action, by that separately.
It's an easy way for companies to boost revenue. Did you know that last year the US airlines made literally billions of dollars in profits from simply charging you for your checked baggage? I think we are going to see more and more of this from other businesses as soon as they figure out a way to do it.

In the meantime we get our money pressed out of us like you would squeeze olive oil out of an olive!

 

[lavamat_jon]

I use Persil/Ariel/insert special offer brand detergent here

...and I have no problems whatsoever with the cleanliness of my laundry - as long as I don't skank out and buy Asda Smartprice or eco-friendly washing powder my washing is always clean; and you've seen it for yourself Kyle lol.

This is with normal, modern, shop-bought detergent, on normal wash cycles...

The only time I repeatedly had trouble with my laundry was when I used Ecover solidly for 2 years (all out of good, if disillusioned, intentions), god only knows how I put up with half-clean laundry for so long

Jon

 

[launderess]

Perssonally Found Many Of Today's Offerings Quite Good

Ariel "Actilift" Gel avec perfume "Alpine Fraiche"
Persil Sensitive
Tide "Free Gentle" HE Liquid
Tide Cold Water "Free Gentle"
Persil "Petite et Pussiant" avec Savon de Marseille"
OMO "Petite et Pussiant" (name of scent escapes me at the moment).

Mind you what always seems to work for Moi when it comes to very badly stained items is to start at cold water and heat to 120F or at least 100F. Depending how bad the marks are may even go up to 140F, but find since so many TOL detergents now contain enzymes that are activated in cold water the long wash from that temp to hot or boiling isn't required.

Also in an effort to keep electic costs down and or not tie up the Miele for ages will often bung badly marked items into a wash tub for soaking. Using some of the older "Biz" formula and or a good liquid detergent such as the aformentioned Tide verisons, then leaving overnight. The Hoover or Whirlpool are good for this as well as the tubs with lids closed hold heat quite well.

One often does the latter step when one has lots of napkins but not a large tablecloth or something else to balance the wash load. Find doing mostly nappies alone they tend to bunch up and cause the Miele to go out of alignment when spinning.

 

[paulc]

I am

a self confessed detergent wh**e. I love when new products are released and have tried just about everything on the market. I am a sucker for unusual or pretty packaging! I am constantly on the search for the "perfect" detergent. In the 90's Safeway used to stock Dixan Megapearls which I loved. They cleaned my chef whites a treat, smelt like a soap powder should and I loved the packaging.

Nowadays I tend to gravitate towards Persil. I was so exited when Method introduced their detergent here, had read so many great reviews of it on various websites. I loved the idea of no dispenser and had high hopes of it's cleaning ability, I must say I loved the smell but found the cleaning disappointing on coloureds and darks.

I try a new detergent for a while, then it gets donated to my sister when I go back to Persil. She has not bought detergent for ages!!! I am currently using Persil Bio tablets after an unsuccessful flirtation with Bold ( 90 wash box was on special ) and find it cleans and whitens great. Using Persil Small and Mighty Bio on my lights and darks although not on the 30min quick wash, I tried it on that programme but results were not up to my standards, it does however work on cycles with short option selected on my machine (50 to 60mins in lenght) which suits me as I HATE long wash times!!!!

 

[optima]

I used to love Biological & Colour care Safeway Cyclon powders years ago they really worked wonders, then it changed for the worse when it switched to Morrisons Cyclon. I agree with you all on todays detergents. Ariel actilift with febreze bio gel is crap on whites & that's at 60deg. Washing @ 15deg doesn't bear thinking about though i do love the scent. I tend to stick with aldi's almat bio tablets & powders because they perform better. I only ever use gels & liquids only in the colour form because the bio & non-bio formula's just don't clean to a good enough standard. At the moment i'm using these Mcbride Almat lavender bio tablets & there superb & living in cumbria in a soft water area i can get away with using just 1 tablet.

 

[strongenough78]

So far I've been happy with the Sears Ultra Plus here in The States. Previously I was using Arm and Hammer with Oxi Clean booster. That stuff worked good too. I went with the Sears because at the time it was a much better deal, you use very little of it, and everyone else here seemed to love it so I wanted to try it. Very little to no suds and everything comes out clean. I'll probably go back to the Arm and Hammer whenever I run out of the Sears and if it's not on sale at that time. Tide seems to be overpriced so I don't bother with it. Gain is a good one too.

 

[MrX]

Quite honestly, no, I haven't.

Chuck the laundry in with Persil and they come out clean.
I've noticed absolutely no problems at all.

I mostly use Persil Colour powder and regular Persil or Ariel bio for white clothes.

Never really have the slightest issue.

Some liquids don't work as well. I was disappointed with their ability to shift pasta sauce.

 

[zanussi_lover]

Optima

I have the Almat bio & colour tablets, my housemate had a few almat non bio tablets that she didn't like for some reason and i tried them and they are better at removing grease and stains from whites than the bio tablets, they probably have a higher level of bleach in them.

I dont think Almat are made by mcbride i think they are made from a German Company, Luhns i think.

 

[optima]

Almat tabs

Yes you are correct zanussi-lover.


They are manufactured by Dalli-Group in Stolberg Germany. I just really thought it was a Mcbride product. It's the Aldi Magnum dishwasher tablets that are manufactured by Mcbride group.

 

[joe_in_philly]

I like to try different detergents, but generally use Tide. I am trying to get though my older formulation of powder so I can try to compact formula. But I have had no problems - in fact, I have the same bottle of shout I had when I bought my washer 8 years ago. If I have very dirty or stained items, I either use the heavy soil setting or stain treat option, and they come out. I always thought that was one of the advantages of a FL washer - no need to pre-treat stains.