The unit-dose detergents are coming....

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Just realized something about the Tide pods...

I used another of the pods yesterday, this time on a load of gym clothes. I had used a standard capacity machine, which when full holds 17 or 18 gallons of water vs. the 22/25 gallon fills of my large capacity Kenmores. I thought perhaps a stronger concentration would work better.

I noticed a stronger detergent scent, both around the machine as it was operating, and in my clothes. The scent was something very reminscent of some detergent from long ago, but I could not remember which... I think either someone here or a friend of mine said the same, but I remembered was it smells like just now.

The scent is that of late 70s / early 80s YES detergent. Remember that stuff in the blue bottle? The scent is a near duplicate of it. There are some old TV ads on YouTube if you need a visual refresher.

Now if only someone could duplicate Lemon Fab from the 80s, and Wisk Power Scoop.

Gordon
 
Post# 569265, Reply# 23 1/15/2012 at 15:00 by jerrod6

I really like the Persil Liquid Color Gel 1.5L bottle I buy, but won't again buy the Universal Gel, as it simply is not effective on whites & lights. Any Persil powder or Megaperls have zeolites in them and fade color wash. I will NOT use Cheer or any detergent powder that says made for colors, because all of the new powders contain sodium percarbonate, which is a bleach!
 
Post# 573908, Reply# 40 2/6/2012 at 13:41 by KenmoreGuy64

I totally agree, I loved the Fab Lemon Scent powders, but they made too much suds in my washers. The Wisk Power Scoop powder also had the BEST scent, it was so pleasant and not overbearing, and low-sudsing. I used to also use Canadian Lemon Fresh Tide powder about 10 years ago, it was real nice! My Amway SA8 Legacy of Clean has a rather light lemony scent, it is very good stuff!
 
Cheer Detergent & Sodium Perborate

Cheer powder has long contained sodium perborate. It is part of their "colour protection" system.

Oxygen bleaches cancel out chlorine, and the theory behind including perborate is that it will help neutralise the later substance used most often in local tap water.

On it's own in warm or cooler water temperatures perborate bleach will have little affect on colourfast textiles. Even in hot water most all oxygen bleaches do not remove color the way chlorine bleach will. Again this will vary as to how sensitive the dyes used are to oxygen bleach and other factors.

It takes water temps of 140F and above to really get perborate bleaches going. This is the reason they were included in most all older European detergents. All that boil washing activated the bleach. Once wash temperatures began to drop to <140F or even <100F activators were developed to give the same performance.
 
NYT Business News 2/15/12 TIDE Pods roll out

At the link is the story on page B3 of the ad campaign for TIDE pods. Among other things, it will feature "attractive models--hunkymen along with stylish women--are shown popping out of washers in fashionable outfits after joining the pod squad." That's their wording: "hunky men" before mention of "stylish women"! There is a new website at tidepods.com.

 
OK, setting aside for a moment discussions about dose control, liquids vs. powders, etc. could there be some actual, legitimate benefits to this kind of separated-compartment packaging? I.e. are there ingredients they are using that are both highly effective at cleaning but at the same time completely impractical to combine before wash time due to the chemistries involved?
 
Well, I know that there once was a stain remover product by Vanish. It was a liquid in a two-compartment bottle. Once both liquids came together on the fabric, they would start to fizz and form bubbles.
 
Had Same Thing Here

But sold under "Spray and Wash" brand.

Basically it's the old story of how enzymes cannot be combined with liquid oxygen bleach (hydrogren peroxide), so some clever blub got the idea of a dual chamber bottle that kept the two separate unil dispensed.

This is also behind the design theory of those little plastic packets where oxygen bleach containing product is kept away from powder.

Powdered products with enzymes and oxygen bleaches aren't affected in the same manner as developments have been made in chemistry to allow for coating of both the percarbonate/perborate substances and enzymes to prevent either from being bothered by the other after being mixed. Such coatings also help keep the product stable for shelf life long as the contents are kept free from moisture.
 
It still amounts to manufacturer control of dosing and for many, that is overdosing. My needs are not those of the average consumer. My 80 load box of powder TIDE he lasts several months because the FLs take a coffee measure of detergent, sometimes a little more or a little less and about that much STPP. This product might be great for families that do large loads and it would be easy to carry to laundromats, like Fresh Start was in the 70s, but it is not for many of us who know how to get our laundry clean.
 

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