Sudsing laundry detergent

[jasonlittle]

I was curious as to what types of laundry detergent members here use that still create lots of suds. Everything I try turns up with no suds. I have watched Washin videos on YouTube and the type of detergent used creates lots of suds and that is what I want with my wash. The suds in the picture is all I can get. And that is with a full scoop and a small load with plenty of splashing.

 

[frigilux]

A healthy dose of Dawn dishwashing liquid along with your detergent should do the trick. However, you will have press your Maytag’s “Six Extra Rinses” button.

 

[DADoES]

 
Arm & Hammer liquids typically are very sudsy.  Roma and Foca powder (Mexican detergents) can be sudsy.

Keep in mind that suds is not an indication of cleaning power with modern detergents and most products have ingredients to limit or control sudsing.

 

[launderess]

While you may still find some high foaming laundry detergents out there, P&G along with others have finally seen sense; HE/front loading washers are here to stay and thus changes were needed.

You don't find high froth detergents (except for small niche markets like hand washing) in Europe or anywhere else front loaders dominate washing machine market. All that froth was never necessary and hinders good washing performance.

For awhile P&G played fast and loose with Tide and some other of their brands, but ever increasing federal energy standards meant something had to change. Modern washing machines themselves will add extra rinses if over sudsing is detected. This and or consumers will reset their washers to rinse again to get all soap out. Either way it is a waste of resources that isn't necessary.

 

[earthling177]

A long time ago I've lived in South America, and, for a few years, one could not find a controlled-suds laundry detergent for love or money.

Mind you, even Skip, which was at the time the only one, was still rather high-sudsing compared to stuff sold here, and they stopped making it for a couple of years until OMO Máquina finally showed up. If I remember right, OMO Máquina was still not as low sudsing as All used to be here either, but better than having to decide between too little detergent so you wouldn't have to spend all day rinsing (but it wouldn't clean enough) or enough detergent to clean, but then you'd have to stay by the machine removing the excess suds cake (so it wouldn't overflow into the machine and make the motor go on the fritz) and then spend all day rinsing. Notice please, that that was with top-loading washers, they stopped selling front-loading washers where I've lived for a good two decades or so, I'm told. In fact, OMO Máquina only showed up because front-loaders were making a come back.

(Incidentally, stuff that suds up enough to cause a suds-lock during the spin rinse will probably wear out washer parts way faster, particularly belts, if the washer is not designed to let the belt slip in a controlled way. Even then, you'll be replacing that belt sooner than usual.)

So, I look at folks asking for high sudsing detergents and I'm vaguely tempted to bring some *real* high-sudsing stuff from South America one of these days to watch people using it.

Let's see how long the "urge" to see suds last.

Even "high-sudsing" stuff here, like Tide, was pretty well behaved compared to stuff elsewhere.

Me, I am so freaking glad that no-sudsing detergents finally started selling in US. And one of the best things about no-sudsing laundry detergents is that you can double or triple the amount if the load is correspondingly dirty, and be done in one cycle instead of pre-treating everything, soaking, washing, rinsing multiple times. Once and done, yay!

I'm vaguely afraid they'll stop selling no-sudsing stuff one of these days, though.

Cheers,
      -- Paulo.

 

[jasonlittle]

Thanks for the info guys. I’m not wanting an outrageous amount of suds. I just like to see some in the wash. When I was a kid there was always a nice amount in my grandmas and mothers laundry. Nowadays I usually don’t get any at all. The picture I took today was more than normal. And I also use fabric softener with every wash. Every time I’ve ever seen a lot of suds The fabric softener does away with any left over in the rinse.

 

[thomasortega]

OMG Omo Máquina

Paulo eu não acredito! I can't believe you also remember Omo Máquina. That's so cool!

That was probably the very best Omo ever made.... and that fresh scent, OMG... It was so wonderful I'd probably eat it or use it in the bathtub (no, I never did that stupidity)

I also remember when Skip was sold in Brazil (and recommended by Brastemp) Brastemp washers at that time came with a full size box of Skip.

Unilever also had the super expensive Omo Ultra, which had a "different" box (just like the small Tide Box we have nowadays, with a scoop).

Do you also remember there was a liquid detergent called "Dínamo"? It was a watery blue liquid and that thing would create absurd mountains of suds. The dose for a perfect suds lock was half cap for a full load of really dirty clothes.

By the way, What washer (or washers) you had in Brazil? Did you have a dryer? They were extremely rare at that time (well, until today most people in Brazil consider dryers as a horrible useless appliance that only wastes electricity.)

 

[supersuds]

It occurs to me that one thing you might try is adding some STPP to soften the water, if you're in a hard water area. This usually causes an increase in sudsing, and it might improve cleaning power, too.

Alternatively, you could look for a box of vintage detergent on Ebay, although they're generally grossly overpriced.

 

[earthling177]

Thomas:

Gosh, I am not even sure if I remember stuff in the proper order, it's been nearly 30 years, if not more.

Am I confusing OMO Máquina with OMO Ultra? I think this was around 1988 or so, and I do remember the smallish box with a scoop. Did OMO ultra last more than a year or two? Or was OMO Máquina introduced in 1992 or so?

Anyway, around that time we had a 6 Kg White-Westinghouse toploader, and we switched to a 5Kg Frigidaire frontloader maybe 6 months or so before they stopped making Skip.

The Frigidaire, I was told, was an attempt by Whirlpool/Brastemp (if I have my info correctly) to test the waters against the 4 Kg Enxuta frontloader that was introduced a couple of years or so before to expand their line (they used to have a 2.5 Kg machine, I think). The Enxuta line didn't even have a proper suspension, just a microswitch that detected imbalances and cut the induction motor from 2 poles (high speed) to 4 poles, I think (low speed) and the pulley would act like a CVT and magnify the change from tumbling speed to spinning speed. The Frigidaire machine was made in Argentina from a design that had been previously made by Philips in the UK and I think they just considered the factory obsolete, so they moved it to Argentina. The Frigidaire/Philips was the first machine sold in Brazil that could heat the water to 90C and had a dispenser with pre-wash, wash, chlorine bleach and fabric softener compartments. It was a decent machine, but only spun at around 500-550 rpm or so. It used a fixed pulley system, but the induction motor was more sophisticated, I think it had 2 and 16 poles settings, so the switch from tumbling to spinning was simpler. It also had a proper suspension.

OMO Ultra was the first version of OMO in Brazil with enzymes, I think. They had stopped making Bio-Presto in Brazil about 3-4 years before, I think. Bio-Presto had been the only enzyme detergent at that time, after a bitter fight in the late 60's, early 70's between BioZima, Bio-Presto and another brand I can't remember.

And yes, Dínamo I remember in the early to mid-70's, a blue liquid -- my mom bought it only once, I think, and said the only good thing about it was the scent, she didn't like the excess sudsing. It did have a scent that reminded people of the more expensive deodorants, something not exactly like, but between Très Brut (green spray bottle) and Embassy (in a blue spray bottle). I am now not sure if I have the names for the deodorants right either.

We had a large Brastemp dryer, most people who had a dryer used to buy the small ("portable") model they sold.

 

[tomturbomatic]

One thing that could be holding down your suds is the fabric softener remaining in your laundry.  STPP is a good suggestion as it would enhance sudsing yet not contribute to hard to rinse suds.

 

[DADoES]

 
Fabric softener residue definitely reduces sudsing on the next run.  I must be careful with Foca dosing in my F&P Intuitive or suds can fill the tub to over the agitator during Eco Active ... but that's much less likely to happen if I used softener on the previous load.

 

[thomasortega]

1992 was Omo Ultra... It came in a Tide-like box (top open) and a plastic scoop. Right before Omo Ultra, there was Omo Dupla Ação com Lipolase (the first Omo with enzymes, but it had only one type of enzyme)

Omo Maquina was released in 1997 or 1998 and lasted for about 2 or 3 years. It was a huge evolution because it had a bunch of enzymes and an absurd amount of foam suppressants. You could put a whole box in the washer and you'd literally see not even a single bubble.

Enxuta was a disaster, but at the same time it was a great washer. It was actually a copy of the European Eurora washer. I say it was great because ENxuta was a tiny company and their CEO had balls to cause a headache to the giant Brastemp. Thanks to the infamous President Collor plan that froze savings accounts, Enxuta sold 5 times more than Brastemp and Pereira Lopes (White-Westinghouse, Lavínia, Prosdócimo and Clímax) together in 1991. People had no money (bank accounts frozen) and Enxuta was the cheapest automatic washer on the market.

I remember those "Frigitemps". It was made by Aurora (Alladio) in Argentina.

Among the scary things we had in Brazil, mid 50-s we had Frigidaire front loaders They looked more like Bendix washers and mid 60-s we had Frigidaire front loaders that were actually Westinghouse spacemates. Even more scary, a Spacemate with the badge "made only by Chevrolet", like all GM-Frigidaire products in Brazil.

 

[launderess]

If you can find some of the older formula Persil liquid, it may fit the bill.

Latest incarnations seem to froth less and are easier to rinse, but prior offerings were another matter.

 

[jasonlittle]

Thanks for all the responses. I am going to get some of the small containers of a few different soaps and give them a try. I’ve always used tide which works well but was wanting to find something with a little more suds.

 

[maytag85]

Ever since I’ve been using a lower and or smaller dose of detergent in my Maytag A606, everything seems to come out cleaner and feels and smells cleaner as well. Don’t even fill the scoop or cap part the #1 or #2 mark, and I mainly use #2 for more heavily soiled items.

 

[kb0nes]

Persil liquid forms heavy suds with my artificially softened water. I have to dose carefully as a result. I never liked any of the Persil liquids as much as I liked their "Pearls" dry product as a result.

 

[givemehotwater]

If you truly wants suds, and I mean truly want them... forget the "HE" Liquids like Persil or Arm & Hammer.

Instead, go to your Local Wal-Mart or Kmart and buy either Foca, Roma, 123, Blanca Nieves, or Viva Detergent. Many of those are still designed for handwashing and machine washing, but are not HE. In a lot of ways, they are extremely similar to Powder Detergents of the 60's, and are intensely high sudsing & frothy. I guarantee you will find what your looking for.

Some stores like Walgreens, also carry a powdered "Ariel", but some of those packages are HE, and will not froth as much.

 

[jons1077]

Safeway Select

I’ve been using Safeway Select Mountain Fresh powder detergent in my vintage GE top loader. It gets very sudsy! I also have a water softener which helps.