Tide Coldwater Free HE - 6 tests

[mysteryclock]

This is a follow-up to my Tide w/ Actilift question thread from a while back. I decided that (for now) Actilift didn't sound like such a swell idea (stay-in coating?) so I got some Tide Coldwater Free HE to try based on the excellent reviews of regular Tide Coldwater. Not the easiest product to find in both Free and HE, but they had the 100oz / 52 load size at Target for $13.99, which is pretty reasonable.

I'm coming from using Persil Megaperls (Color and Universal) as my main detergent and Persil Color Gel as my pretreater. To be an accurate test I've gone cold-turkey over to Tide to see how it goes as a daily driver in my Bosch Nexxt FL.

The six tests, most not planned :

1 - Ketchup ground in and dried on the sleeve of son's light gray sleeved two-tone t-shirt. Washed with a load of darks on cold (rarely used around here), NO pretreating, and it completely removed the stains. Everything else in the load came out clean and un-scented as well. Can't remember the last time I ~haven't~ had to pretreat ketchup and other concentrated tomato stains on cotton with Persil, otherwise they never seem to come all the way out.

2 - Socks. My wife *loves* to wear white socks around the house in the winter, and unless you're Martha Stewart yelling at "the help" to keep your floors scrubbed daily you can imagine what socks look like on the soles by the end of the day. Tossed them in with other whites on a warm cycle, and they came out blindingly white and clean.

3 - Kitchen towel - had a clean white "flour sack" kitchen towel fall into the edge of the roasting pan shortly after a turkey came out of the oven, unbeknownst to me. Found it after dinner after it had soaked up most of the cooked turkey fat. Washed it on warm, profile wash (cold fill to warm) with other kitchen towels and whites, and everything came out spotless. Couldn't even find the turkey towel amongst the others at the end!

4 - Underwear. GI bug visited us over the holidays and one of the boys "didn't make it"... twice in a row. Threw the results into the washer for a quick wash (25 minutes total, only about 5 washing) just to get them clean enough for the rest of the whites, with a small dose (below line 1.) When the cycle was finished not only were they prepped but actually spotless and completely odor-free. I went ahead and washed them with the rest out of an abundance of caution (and did an empty LCB load later at night to clean the washer) but honestly, they were probably 100% clean after just the super quick wash.

5 - Jeans. ground in grass/mud stains. Washed on cold with a full load of other jeans and came out first time, no pretreating.

6 - Oil on cotton t-shirt. Frying bacon in the new non-stick and got some grease spatters on my 100% cotton t-shirt. Out of habit I pretreated with the same Tide, just from a little squeeze bottle, washed about 20 minutes later with a regular load. All spots totally removed.

So far I'm very impressed as you can tell. And, importantly, no itchy issues in the house which is always a concern. Only thing you have to watch out for with Tide is overdosing and suds when you use too much detergent with too small a load. Still working out the exact amounts but I use line 1 or 2 on the cap for almost everything, only going to 3 for packed-in-full loads that really need it. The bottle I got is measured for 52 loads at line 2, which seems like a very reasonable number.

I will probably be selling my stash of Persil soon, once I'm 100% sure nobody is going to break out. I have an unopened box of Persil Megaperls Color and bottle of Color Gel, and a 1/2+ box of Universal Megaperls if anyone's interested. Email me here.

 

[launderess]

Good For You!

Am that well pleased with my bottle of the *new* Tide "Free & Gentle HE" detergent that am also seriously considering not bothering ordering Persil any longer. Mind you have sevearl boxes remaining from the case purchased, so it could be awhile.

Have laundered and or soaked badly stained table linens in the stuff and everything comes out quite clean, and yes, there is not any trace of scent. Unlike the previous "dye and fragrance" free version of Tide (both HE and regular), which did have a masking perfume, and it kind of smelled "off". I know it was a perfume because when the offending items were laundred again, not using that version of Tide, you would smell the scent in the wash water as it drained away.

Looks like P&G is finally getting on the ball. However as you say will keep my eyes on results for awhile.

 

[sudsman]

John

What temp is your cold water? cold can mean anything from 32 to 90 also what was your warm temp? that can range from 80 to 100 depending on the machine or the cold water temp.

 

[mysteryclock]

According to the Bosch manual, Cold is 60F (15C), Warm is 95F (35C), Hot is 125F (52C). From what I understand the Bosch guarantees the temp by blending the water input and/or running the heater to reach the target through the washload. So the numbers should be pretty close to that. Mine also has an "XXtra Sanitary" cycle that will reach 170F (77C) but I don't use it that often because it runs so darn long (2+ hours.)

 

[dirtybuck]

I'm thinking about buying a bottle for laundry on Saturday. Will I get the same results in using warm/hot water or should I use the regular Tide w/Actilift?

 

[launderess]

If Consumer's Reports Previous Tests Are Any Guide

Tide Coldwater works best in cold, cool and slightly warm water. From very warm to hot the performance degrades. One can only guess that the enzymes used are designed to work best only in cold or cooler water, and high temps deactivate the buggers.

OTOH many verions of Tide (w bleach, various liquids, Free&Gentle), work just as well in warm as cold water. Again I've soaked linens clean using nothing more than tap cold water and a bucket (or bathtub), and Tide F/G. Mind you sometimes I do blend a little hot to make "lukewarm", but am careful to keep the water cool to cold in order to prevent setting stains.

 

[sudsman]

Thanks John

Below 60 will set some stains like blood just as hot water will unless a alkali is used and most households do not have that available to them. The 95 temp is really close to a perfet wash temp for blood and such stains and is cool enough to be considered cold water too. Was not that many years ago hot was always considered 140 to 160 times have changed . again thanks for the info. Mac

 

[jetcone]

I thnk what we are seeing here

is, as Laundress pointed out, the power of the new enzymes. They do amazing work, they are now custom tailored to specific stains. The work formally done by ......shall I say it??.........the "p" word.............phosphates is now carried by enzymes!

I have been experimenting with several species in "SPLASH", and it is amazing what I can get out , week old blood out of cotton, 2 day old spaghetti sauce out of linen.
All, as Mac says, on warm water and 20 minute washes.

Mysteryclock: on #4 why did you skimp on detergent on that wash??
Are you finding the suds level in your NExxt too high? The early Nexxt machines had suds problems.

 

[mysteryclock]

Jetcone,

Wasn't really skimping on # 4, but for that first quick wash I had only two junior-sized items in the entire big machine and I didn't want an ocean of suds! The second wash got a regular dose. That being said, I do have one of the early(er) Nexxt machines with the big paddles and those can really kick up the foam if you're not careful. I also think the rinse cycle on these machines is too long / vigorous too, but otherwise I really like them. As Sudsman indicated, the temps are pretty good choices and I like that I can do a cold-fill + heater on any normal selected cycle.

Launderess, I've had good results so far washing things directly on warm / hot, but that could be because of the increased surfactants as much as enzymes if your description is correct. Probably should do more profile washes on the really nasty stuff to get max advantage. How very European!

 

[sudsman]

John

How long are your washes on your machine?

 

[mysteryclock]

Sudsman,

Regular cotton is 1:00, probably 20-25 of which is washing, and the rest rinses (two by default I think.) I usually use the "Bleach" (without any bleach) and "Extra Rinse" options which give me one quick and one long extra rinse, bumping it up to 1:15. That's ~without~ cold-fill + heater, btw... using that requires the "Heavy Duty" option which adds at least +30 to any cycle, typically.

PermPress is about -5 shorter than cotton, with a different spin profile to reduce wrinkles IIRC. Temp Boost (150F) is +20 with a hot fill, and XXtra Sanitary is well north of 2:00 depending on options. The Quick Wash is 25 by itself, and the other various cycles (Wool, Delicates, etc.) are in the 30-45 range.

Of course, all those boosted-heat options would run faster on 220v but this is just a 120v machine. Still, the ability to reach 170F is pretty good for 120v!

 

[sudsman]

Jon

The main reason I choose a 18 to 20 min main wash here is to cut the water and supplies. I found that by using that formula I could use 1/3 less detergent . Sure the increase in formula time is about 8 mins more. but with the amount of detergent saved in a day with the amounts we use here it comes to mega bucks in a months time. Also a water saving too as instead of 2 shorter washes. And water in this area runs almost the same price as our gas bill, and that is well over 5k a mo. so any saving on water or detergent can make a BIG difference in a institutional laundry. Even a 5 /degree drop on water temp can save $$$

 

[dirtybuck]

TIDE TIDE TIDE!!!

I'm curious as to whether the Actilift formula will work it's way into the other P&G liquids (Cheer, Era Gain) anytime soon, or is this strictly intended for Tide products?

 

[mysteryclock]

Sudsman,

Is that 18-20 minutes for the whole wash & rinse(s), or just the wash portion? If the wash, then you're saying that by extending the time by ~40% you're able to get the same performance out of significantly less detergent? Did you keep the temps the same when you extended the time?

BTW, are you still impressed with the P&G Pro stuff or are you back to... Ecolab?

 

[sudsman]

John

the main wash is 18 mins our total formula time is about 55 on most loads depending on soil content. I have had a MAJOR problem with the P & G reps. they want (of course ) to use as much product as possible with out a hint as to saving anything. Ecolab rep is wonderful about trying to help us save as much as possible. Still use P & G for just a few things but mostly Ecolab and Ultra Plus now. An YES that is correct by extending the wash time we save detergent and get still get the load clean. We did keep keep the wash temps the same. However Ecolab rep gave me a sample of a product that he is going to bring in an 2 or 3 weeks and try in this area. It is a yellow Citrus smelling powder. He gave me about 3 lbs and we tried it on ambulance work ( our worse) and @ 100 did a excellent job in 12 mins. with NO bleach. I am looking forward to the trial of it , There is no name for it yet on box just says formula E89. From what he tells me they are going to have 4 different versions for different parts of the country due to water and climate differences. He did tell me that it would not work at any temps above 115 and would actually break down . mac

 

[launderess]

P&G has a long history of keeping it's newest and best developments restricted to Tide (their prime brand), then after awhile allowing things to trickle down to the rest of the family.

At first Tide was the only laundry detergent from P&G to incorporate their advanced "activated bleaching system", (Tide with Bleach), but now we see Gain, and the others have it has well.

So given time one expects we shall see "Actilift" move on down the product line.

P&G really has a problem in that many consumers are balking in paying high prices for things, including Tide detergent when they find others work just as well, and cost less. To what extent P&G will try to push benefits/value in order to goose sales is anyone's guess. Tide sales *gasp* have been slipping slightly lately, but that could also be due to the current economic crisis.

Energy savings:

The mantra for both consumer and commercial laundry is to turn that temp dial down! *LOL*. In both Europe, UK and the United States, there is a push to reduce consumption of both petrol, and or in the case of across the pond, electric power which much comes from nukes. On that score countries like France and Germany can either try and reduce domestic consumption of energy, or build more power plants. Considering how hard a time governments have building new nucelar plants, the former is a better option.

If one examines commercial detergent options from both sides of the pond you will find more and more offerings designed to work at temps <120F. Boil washes, much less hot are being used less and less. If a commercial laundry, or domestic housewife can obtain the same results using lower wash temps,it saves funds and helps the country conserve.

 

[maytagbear]

Using Tide with Bleach powder at the moment---

TEMPORARILY ran out of Sears Ultra Plus, and have not been able to get to either Sears Hardware or Sears to get more, and have been using Tide With Bleach.  (Oh, how I am getting the biggest Ultra Plus in the orange box they have, when I can get my mitts on Ultra Plus).

It cleans very well, but it STINKS.  I hate the smell of it.  I also hate how the scoop for Tide With Blech (typo, but I am keeping it!) is MUCH larger than the scoop for Ultra Plus.




Rinsing is also a problem, and I have had to poke my Maytag's "Extra Rinse" button, even though I have been using a hair less than the package says.




I just hope the other varieties of Tide are less obnoxious!!!!




Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[spiralator60]

Tide With Bleach

Lawrence,

What scent of Tide are you using, the Original, Mountain, Ocean, etc? This issue of the strong, lingering, smell is something that drives us crazy, also, with both the powder and liquid versions. At the same time, you might say that I have standing orders to stick with Tide, because it is such an aggressive cleaner. In the interests of peace and harmony, lots of experimenting goes on when I do laundry.

One work around that is working at my house is to add Borax along with the dosage of detergent and water softener. For a front loader, a third of a cup is usually enough to address the smell problem in most typical loads, although sometimes a little more is used with larger or dirtier loads. This was determined after some trial and error. For a top loader, I would start off with a half cup, and work from there.

The rinsing issue is a tough one, especially with towels. Like you, I use a little less Tide and select an additional rinse. While the results are usually satisfactory, particularly (for me) with the Original powder scent, the experiments will continue to see what works better.

 

[maytagbear]

The designation on the box

is: Tide With Bleach, original scent.

However, I continue to think of it as "Tide With Blech!" (Rhymes with "Yeck!")

I have a smaller (thank goodness!) box of "31" loads.

When I am at a store, I will get some borax, and try your idea.

Thank you, Sprialator.

Lawrence/Maytagbear