MRX
One reason so many Americans went and or still go "nuts" over European laundry products such as Persil, is for quite awhile they were streets ahead of anything else here for use in front loaders.
When Miele first began selling washing machines in the United States, there was zero to little in the way of "low sudsing" detergents that performed well and rinsed cleanly.
P&G first attempts at "HE" Tide seemed merely to add a bit of anti-foaming agents to the normal formulas of that product, again with lopsided results. The stuff still would create mounds of suds if incorrectly dosed (and it didn't take much for that to happen), and wasn't didn't rinse cleanly.
Being as all that may, found when using American products juiced with STPP and extra oxygen bleach, got decent enough results.
Used Persil for awhile, but after the first box (and a free one of Tide HE), yes would say there wasn't *that* much of a difference in performance (see above), to warrant the prices Miele wanted.
However since then every single bit of Persil and other European detergents in my stash have either come as a job lot from eBay, or sent directly from overseas,usually with something else such as linens. This has brought my costs down to where they are cheaper than buying Tide or an American detergent.
It seems P&G is getting on the ball and moving some versions of Tide more in line with their European offerings such as "Ariel". The new Tide "clear" liquid cleans quite well and rinses clean. Froth issues seem to have been dealt with as well, though you should probably becareful on dosage regardless.
Should things continue along as they have been going with government pushing more "efficient" washing machines, expect laundry products especially TOL versions such as Tide to more and more resemble their European cousins. Afterall it was the major take over of H-Axis washers in the market place there which influenced the detergent market.
