Tide HE Turbo

[wishwash]

Let me start by saying that I normally wash cleaning rags in liquid Arm and Hammer on a heavy duty cycle using hot water. They come out "clean", but never the same as they once were. Thus, many of them are trashed.

Today I tried washing them on a normal cycle, hot water with some Tide HE Turbo. They came out cleaner than ever! Almost like new. Now I know why the stuff costs so much.

Are there any other detergents that work this well without being so relatively expensive? I'm fond of Purex's scent, which is close to Arm and Hammer, but CR rates the two about the same. They don't come close to Tide. Persil is apparently the top contender right now, but I can't stand the smell.

 

[gusherb]

Arm and Hammer is near bottom of the barrel, only thing less effective is Xtra, which is also a Church and Dwight product. Pretty much anything with a decent number of enzymes will work well. Tide and Persil have among the most enzymes. Wisk is ok too, not crazy about its scent though.

If you're looking to save money you could go with powdered Tide HE Turbo, which will go a ways longer for what you spend.

 

[gusherb]

Arm and Hammer is near bottom of the barrel, only thing less effective is Xtra, which is also a Church and Dwight product. Pretty much anything with a decent number of enzymes will work well. Tide and Persil have among the most enzymes. Wisk is ok too, but crazy about its scent though.

If you're looking to save money you could go with powdered Tide HE Turbo, which will go a ways longer for what you spend.

 

[appnut]

I use Tide He Turbo (actually with bleach alternative right now), but I only use it for whites, kitchen towels and napkins, and extremely dirty stuff and save a bit of money by using Gain for the rest of the laundry. 

 

[lordkenmore]

>I use Tide He Turbo (actually with bleach alternative right now), but I only use it for whites, kitchen towels and napkins, and extremely dirty stuff and save a bit of money by using Gain for the rest of the laundry.

I think there is a lot to be said for this approach...

As far as Arm & Hammer is concerned... I got a small bottle on sale recently. It's probably not their most powerful (it's unscented/sensitive skin oriented). I am not entirely sure if it's even good enough for my day-to-day use. It certainly doesn't seem powerful enough for nightmare loads. However, it may be a nice a choice for bath towels--it seems to rinse easily, and towels typically only need basic freshening, not heavy duty cleaning. We'll see.

As for Persil's scent, I have to I'm curious about Persil, but have not tried it yet, mainly because of commentary about the scent. Many people don't like it, some say it's very strong. I, personally, don't like strong scents, and am finding myself preferring unscented more and more. But...it might be worth considering as part of a detergent collection. Even if I hated the scent, I, personally, would probably be able to live with it for some applications, such as cleaning rags.

 

[gusherb]

That's what I've been doing is using the non enzyme based detergent on towels. I used Arm and Hammer a bit ago and they increased the strength of the scent. It's absolutely putrid to me and gives me an instant headache. Like a strong perfumy smell. I'm using powdered Ariel now and have a bottle of Purex to work through.
The clothes always get the enzyme based stuff though. I've taken to using unscented detergent and then adding softener for smell, this way I can control exactly how strong it is. Very little does the trick for me.

 

[murando531]

I almost exclusively use the Tide HE Turbo powder. It seems to perform the best and have the best balance of scent, and never has issues with oversudsing. I've tried the liquid and pods, but the liquid left behind underarm stains more so than the powder ever has, and the pods, I'm convinced, are at least 99% suds. The pods are great performing but only do well with a full load, which doesn't always happen.

The Mountain Spring scent is now available in HE Turbo, and is now my go-to because it smells like the -true- Tide Original Scent. The "new" Original has grown on me and is a decent scent on its own, but the Mountain Spring is what I remember growing up.

 

[wishwash]

Arm and hammer does decent on our daily clothes, but I have noticed a difference with Tide on those cleaning towels. I'll probably keep a bottle of Tide on hand for work clothes etc. I have yet to try Gain though, that might be my next purchase.

 

[helicaldrive]

Have you tried Cheer?

I use Tide and Persil for whites and Cheer for better color retention in colored items. It cleans very effectively for me -- even gets people's head smell and oily stains out of pillowcases. The new HE Cheer makes less suds than Tide HE Turbo, and rinses out easier. It's cheap in price only. Its cinnamon-y scent is unique. I think it outperforms other detergents in its price range. JMO. I'm curious if others disagree...

 

[ilovewindex]

Persil and Gain here

Persil for clothes, Gain for everything else

We use scent boosters, fabric softner and dryer sheets... There are 3 guys here, and one has a thing for smells... I guess it covers up the smell of his 20 year old young guy stench.. IDK... His boyfriend used ALL until I got rid of it.. He likes doing laundry so i let him... I just keep tight rains on what cycles are used and so forth (NO COLD WATER WASHES EVER!)

 

[wishwash]

I'll give cheer a shot too.

 

[joeypete]

I've used Cheer many times and it's pretty good. Has a nice smell too.

 

[lordkenmore]

I think the problem with Cheer is the availability... It's not carried as widely as Tide, and I suspect Tide would have better sales.

That said...I have used a modern Cheer powder, and found it worked well. One selling point: this powder apparently lacked optical brighteners, which would be nice for some loads. Not sure, however, about current status--I know Cheer has added OBAs to many of their products. There were, the last I heard, some hold outs, but it's been at least a few months since I checked.

 

[frigilux]

Lord Kenmore: Don't let concerns about scent keep you from trying Persil. I've used only the top-rated ProClean 2 in 1 version. You may recall I was startled, initially, by the strong scent. That has been tempered by the Maytag's automatic dosing. I was obviously using more than was required in softened water. It's actually a clean, classy scent, although it is my understanding from those who have used several versions of Persil that each has a unique scent.

 

[askolover]

I personally love the smell of Persil...all of them, but Tony hates it.

 

[lordkenmore]

>Don't let concerns about scent keep you from trying Persil.

It's not unlikely that I'll try it sooner or later, scent concerns aside. I am curious about the cleaning power.

I actually gave some serious consideration to Persil 2 in 1 a couple of weeks ago--it was on sale at my usual grocery store. However, unscented Tide won--mainly because it's unscented, and we have line drying season again. For some things, I want the only scent to be the fresh outdoors scent.

I won't care as much about detergent scent when the next dryer season tumbles around.

 

[helicaldrive]

Oh! Aldi's Tandil

Aldi has a house brand of detergent, Tandil. It comes in a compare-to-Tide variety, and a compare-to-Gain variety. $6 for a100 oz bottle.

I've never tried it.

Aldi does not generally sell junk anymore, like they did in the 1980s.... At that price what do you have to lose?

Whether it's as good as real Tide, I'm skeptical. But some people say it is, and other people say that it works just fine for them with virtually no suds and they love the price.

 

[askolover]

It's a Sun product.  We've used CVS's Basic brand of detergent off and on when it was on sale for $1.99 for a 100oz bottle and it also is made by Sun...does an ok job.

 

[joeypete]

You can't go wrong with Tide...I may actually try some when my current stash runs out. Right now I have a bottle of the old version Tide Mountain Spring liquid, Persil 2-in-1, and a big box of Sears Ultra Plus with FS. People ask me for advice a lot on detergents and I always say if your clothes don't get really dirty, you can pretty much go with any lower priced detergent along with a stain remover and do just fine. That's really my case but I love trying different detergents. I would just stay away from the ultra cheap brands like Xtra or Sun.