UK members - new detergent alert!!!

[kirk280980]

Hi all -

Guys and girls in the UK, and anybody visiting these shores, get yourselves down to your nearest Sainsburys store and check out their new own-label detergent. You might be in for a bit of a surprise.

The product is called Performa Megaperls, and takes the form of tiny little beads of detergent rather than the usual finely textured powder we're accustomed to. Sound familiar? And the scoop included in the carton is exactly the same as the one pictured on the www.persil.de website.

Yep, it's made by Henkel in Germany. Could be Persil in disguise, or maybe it's one of their other brands, but either way it's something that we haven't had in the UK until now. So if you've read all the raves about Henkel detergents and have been wondering what all the fuss is about, now is your chance to find out for yourself.

Of course I picked up a small carton just to try it out, and so far I've been impressed. Very impressed. Most detergents clean normally soiled loads just fine, and this one is no exception, but give it something challening to work on and the results have been fantastic. T-shirts that have turned dingy over time, and suffered the occasional mixed-wash mishap, were restored to their original colours after a single wash. And this stuff must be crammed with bleach, because on whites it works like nothing else I've seen before.

The scent comes across as rather odd at first, kind of like bath soap, but once you get over that initial reaction it's really quite pleasant. And believe me when I say it's extremely concentrated; the recommended dosage in hard water is 1 full scoop, but 1/4 to 1/2 scoop is plenty for a nice soapy-looking wash that rinses well without the suds getting out of control.

Pretty sure this will become a regular addition to my "stash", so I only hope it sells well and they don't discontinue it! If anyone else has the opportunity to try this detergent any time soon, I'd be interested to know what you think about it too.

Cheers,

Kirk

 

[lavamat_jon]

Hey Kirk,

I grabbed 3 12 scoop boxes of the powder (Non Bio, Bio and Colour Care), and some Bio tablets on Saturday - made a special trip down there to get them . Also got some of their "Perform" fabric softener, which is the same as Vernel. They smell absolutely gorgeous too - and to top that they are exactly the same as the Persil Megaperls Louis has sent me from Australia. Must say that even in the hard water here Kirk, I've only needed half a scoop or so (I've been measuring out 50ml on the P&G scoops) and had excellent results!

However, I must admit there was one stain that it wasn't able to wash out yesterday - some yellowy petally stuff from the sticks in the middle of the flowers (whatever you call them lol) that had transferred onto a pair of jeans from a pot of flowers leaning against my leg in a car - had to rewash with Ariel. That said, I must admit I was probably being a bit too hopeful with the dosage (of the Perform Bio Megaperls). But for everything else, I must admit that the Perform detergents really are up there with Ariel for cleaning - which I have found cannot generally be beaten, especially now the Unilever have cocked up the new Persil formulations (the splat Persil as I call it LOL).

What variant have you been/are you using? I'm thinking of buying the bigger boxes (36 scoop i think) next time I'm down Sainsburys way - although I'm working through 2 135 wash boxes of Ariel Hygiene and Ariel Non Bio, and a 45 wash box of Ariel Colour, there's always room in my stash for 3 more boxes or so .

BTW - I must admit that when I went into Sainsbury's I was rather disappointed by their range of branded detergents - last time I went (bout a year or so ago) they had 45 wash boxes of almost any detergent, but they don't seem to do as big a box anymore. I also noticed that Sainsburys still sell McBride detergent under their own name - perhaps Perform is out there to compete with the TOL brands? (Ariel etc).

Take care mate, has been a while since we have spoken!

Jon

 

[lavamat_jon]

Oooopsie...

Sorry Louis, but somehow I managed to confuse the Netherlands with Australia!!! LOL

Jon

 

[westyslantfront]

Sainsburys

I remember Sainsburys for pork pies and sausage rolls. Do they still make them? Cannot get them here in USA.
And now Sainsburys is making their own detergent??

 

[lavamat_jon]

Hey westy,

Nope, Sainsburys is a *huge* supermarket here, 3rd most popular to Asda and Tesco. They have huge stores all over the country. They did however start off as a small butcher shop in the north somewhere. Not tried any of their fresh stuff lately (we don't shop there), but I've heard it is pretty nice.

The Performa Megaperls detergent is made by Henkel for Sainsburys

Jon

 

[westtexman]

My Megapearls Came in Today!

After about 1 1/2 weeks of waiting in agony, my Persil Megapearls and Megapearls Color came today. I already have a HUGE box of Henkel Persil Powder, which smells AWESOME! I love the results of the powder, and will try the megapearls tonight (I have a load of whites just waiting for it). Anyway, it's a shame that we cannot get detergents like that here in the US, without having to special order them and pay out the wazzoo for them ($46.50 for each box of 54 loads). I will say, however, that due to differences in water hardness between the US and the UK, I should only have to use about 1/4 of the dosage recommended, so I can imagine this stuff will last forever!

Tex

P.S. I'm glad we're winning Jon over to something besides Ariel. Ariel is great and all, but why limit yourself to just one detergent when there are so many great ones out there! LOL.

 

[kirk280980]

Hi Jon -

Glad to hear you've discovered it too, I did wonder at the time whether you had or not! Normally I don't give own-label detergents a second look, as most of them are made by McBride and I've never found any of their lines to be particularly outstanding, so finding out this was something entirely different was a nice surprise.

Have only tried the Bio variant so far, in the 12 scoop size (these tiny cartons still contain a plastic scoop by the way, you just have to rip the box open to get to it), but plan on giving the other varieties a go in the near future. Now I know I like it, I don't mind committing myself to several kilos of the stuff and will go for the larger size cartons next time.

Obviously I wasn't paying much attention while shopping, because I didn't even notice the new fabric softeners. Will have to check them out properly next time I visit the store. Nor did I even think to look at the liquids - have they changed too?

Know what you mean about the poor selection of brands and sizes in some stores, and I think the popularity of tablets might have something to do with this; they do get a lot of shelf space nowadays, and smaller stores will sooner stock these instead of huge boxes of powder. Still I guess we're lucky in that powder is generally still readily available here, as many US members lament the fact that it's often hard to obtain anything other than liquid in some areas.

By the way, you can expect to see me in chat again very soon - after having severe problems with AOL for quite some time, as of today I now have an internet connection that works *properly* once again ).

Tex -

As much as I enjoy finding and trying new detergents, there was a time when I would use nothing but Persil liquid. Was nice to have a reliable standby that could be regarded as a firm favourite. Since they discontinued it, and replaced it with something that just isn't the same, I haven't had any luck in finding anything that can really take its place. So my fickleness with regard to detergents was probably borne out of necessity more than anything LOL.

Cheers,

Kirk

 

[lavamat_jon]

Hey Kirk,

Have included pics of the stash I have of the Sainsburys Megaperls alongside the Persil Megaperls that Louis sent me from the Netherlands. Exactly the same smell and ingredients as the Henkel Persil (at least as far as my Dutch goes anyway LOL). I'm still at the experimental stage with it yet, and it didn't wash out a stain out of my jeans which Ariel managed to this morning, however that said I am more experienced with Ariel than with Megaperls, and it's early days yet

I calculated the amount of washes out of the small 12 scoop box BTW and it seems that I can get 25 washes out of it - it's so concentrated. And that's in the dreadfully hard Lincoln water we have here!!! The megaperls have very quickly become my 2nd favourite detergent, I am using both Ariel and the Megaperls equally now .

BTW, the Sainsbury's liquid, standard powder, and some fabric softeners are still made by McBride - only the Perform products are made by Henkel. Don't know about you, but these must be pretty popular as when I went on Saturday afternoon (about midday) the shelves were almost empty of the Megaperls!!!

I will be on until 3 or so this morning if you fancy popping onto AOL or Yahoo for a chat

Take care, and enjoy the pics!!

Jon

 

[lavamat_jon]

And picture no 2...

(BTW, you can see my big 135 wash boxes of Ariel Non Bio and Ariel Hygiene in the background, and the 45 wash of Ariel Colour too :-D)

 

[nickuk]

UK members - new detergent alert !

Hello John from Lincoln, it's Nick here from Chelmsford ! We have spoken recently on the Garden Web forum. Discovered where else you've been hanging out.....

.... and also where my old buddy Kirk has got to! Kirk, we emailed a few times about three years ago. At the time you were on the Persil liquid, and I was on the Ariel Liquid. I remember that you had just got a Jetsystem. I was moving house at the time and I remember having a very interesting chat with you one day when the electrician came to do something to our earth and pulled the plug on us. We didn't speak after that... but I'm glad to see you're still about.

Yes - the new Persil liquigel, strange stuff. Still not sure what the smell is but it reminds both my wife and I of something from the 80s! VERY cross that they added brightner to the the non bio in the new stuff because the old non bio liquid was so great for...well...so many washes. Don't think you can get a heavy duty non bio liquid without a brightner now, apart from the environmental ones, and I'm not a big fan.

So I trecked across town today, baby and all, to visit Sainsburys ! Bought some Henkel bio megaperls (small box) and both sorts of perform softner. Had to decant the whole pack into a large saucepan to find the scoop lol. Couldn't decide which softner I preferred and had one of those supermarket moments - so just bought both. The blue one reminds me of Benilyn or something medicinal so at face value I prefer the pink - but of course it may all come out totally different in the wash. Also bought a bottle of perform for delicates - because I am not happy with Persil Silk and Wool simply because I think it smells vile, and the only alternative I believe is Woolite which, oddly, I find is harsher on blacks that a persil non bio tab ! Seriously ! Have tested this theory a few times to prove to myself I'm not going mad....

Am looking forward to using the Megaperls and - yes, John, I'm gonna use powder! I think it has to go in that little drawer at the top of the machine (lol) I'm so used to using the tablet nets.

Got very nostalgic reading that the perform softner is Vernel -FWIW I used to use it in Cyprus (ex girlfriend had a house there) and Dixan Power Plus powder (also Henkel) which is easily the most popular detergent in Cyprus. They do sell Lever Persil in Cyprus but it's not as popular. In Greece, though, just across the water, it's Henkel Persil ! The appliance we had in Cyprus was a Zerowatt washing machine - bought in the late nineties. To say it wasn't very good is being polite.

Kirk - just to update you, I've had a baby since we last spoke and he makes for fascinating detergent testing......for a start he's totally allergic to Lenor (all scents inc. sensitive) and I think he's either allergic to Fairy non bio tablets or Surcare - I never pinpointed which and just haven't bothered using either since. He can tolerate most either stuff (inc.bio) but I have been tending to use Persil non bio tabs and Comfort Pure. I know that he's fine with those and they are products I quite like. Since discovering these forums quite recently I'm getting a taste to try different stuff again !

John has very helpfully told me that non bio powders contain more bleach than their biological counterparts which has alarmed me a bit because I have been using Persil non bio tabs for all my washing inc. blacks......... I run them with one tablet on a 30 degree delicate wash (`quick' option selected) and the wash is only 12 minutes. I figured at such a low temp, low dosage, low exposure time, that it probably wouldn't harm much and I've been really pleased with the results but now I'm doubting my system. I wouldn't like to think of myself as having inadequate laundry practises. Trouble is, I kinda like using an oxygen bleach product on all colours because it deoderises and sanitises stuff like black tee shirt underarms, black underwear.... I'm having a bit of a crisis guys, can you tell me what you think ??!!! I'm not bothered about it having more bleach for white washes obviously - I always run the whites on the full 2 hour job anyway and get lovely results.

John - I used Daz last night on some whites and was really impressed with the scent, as you said. Didn't notice the icy whiteness cos there was no daylight but the cleaning was fine. I note your comments regarding Surf, so I'm sure that my positive experience was based on the tablets when they smelled alright (I haven't tried any of the new stupid fragrances) BTW, at the same time as they won the Which? award for best whites wash, Sainsburys Novon colour tablets won the best colour products award.

However, Which did a detergent test within the last six months and it was all change. I'm not saying I give much credibility to the results - this is just for your information. They were ranked as follows:

Bio powder
# 1 - Ariel
# 2 - Persil, think Daz was third and Bold was way down there just above supermarket own brands...

Non bio powder

# 1 - Ariel
# 2 - Persil
# 3 - Fairy, then supermarket stuff.

Color - all I remember is Persil powder won because it cleaned better on protein stains....

They didn't really say too much about tablets or liquids (my guess is they didn't test them), just saying that powders consistently performed better than tabs and that liquids were basically rubbish in their last test so they weren't gonna bother this time.

John, as an Ariel fan, do Ariel bio and Ariel Color smell the same now ? Bought a box of the newly revamped Ariel Color / Style as it's called and it nor smells very similar or the same as the green, whereas about four years ago it smelled totally different.

OK this is far too long so I should stop. I'd be really grateful if you could shed any light on any of my issues - especially the thing about my blacks !

Speak soon,

Nick

 

[lavamat_jon]

Hey Nick,

I have used the Persil non-bio liquigel before and I also thought it smelt very retro! However, one major gripe I had with the liquigel is that it sudsed up terribly - even half the normal dosage sent my AEG into a suds lock and triggered extra rinses. I think as far as liquid is concerned you can't beat the P&G stuff - right consistency, doesn't foam too much, and rinses out beautifully.

As others may know around here, I was a big Ecover nut until they sodded about with the formula about a year ago - I used the powder and was actually very impressed with it but they seemed to have done something with it in the way that it would no longer wash out of the detergent drawer - would leave clay-type lumps behind. I tried the liquid after this, and to be quite honest the liquid never cleaned very well at all (clothes would smell mildewy when dry), and smelt god-damn awful! Their fabric softener is still quite good though, and I still keep a bottle handy - it is good on towels as, apart from the recently-discontinued Lenor Easy Iron, is the only softener that allegedly doesn't affect the absorbency of towels.

Glad you bought the Megaperls - they really are top notch stuff! I used half a scoop on my whites the other day and they came out absolutely gleaming! Good thing is that they are concentrated, in fact from the large 36 scoop pack I have now I calculated that I could get approximately 100 loads out of it - all for £4.89! I also have both softeners (I bought the moonflower & ylang ylang the other day), and I think that, whilst both different, they both smell great - definitely enough to rival Comfort Blue!

BTW - another alternative product I've seen for silks & wools is Stergene - not tried it before (I'm using Woolite at the moment), but after what you say about Woolite I might try it next time! (I only have 1 dose of Woolite left as it is). I can't stand the smell of Persil Silk & Wool either - I think it smells like a hairdressers salon! FWIW, I *think* the Sainsburys Perform liquids (not sure whether this includes the delicate one or not) are made by McBride, along with the cheaper and mid-range own label Sainsburys powders.

Although Nick non bios do contain more bleach than biological counterparts, I have found that Ariel Non Bio causes considerably less fading than Fairy Non Bio did - darks are still dark with Ariel Non Bio, whereas stuff washed in Fairy over the years has greyed out considerably over time. Curiously I have also found Fairy to pill fabrics (not sure as to exactly why), but that combined with the fading on darker loads made me switch to Ariel Non Bio powder - which for the near future at least I will never look back on - after all I have got to work through a 10 kilo 135 wash box LOL. If you have noticed little fading with your Persil Non Bio, then it should be safe to stick with it. I just use Colour washing powders just to guarantee the colour of my clothes - after all I have spent a lot of money on my clothes, I don't want them looking worn out in a years time or so .

The icy whiteyness of Daz is less obvious indoors, but you really do notice it with a load of whites hanging on the line in the sun - really is a spectacular sight . The smell is great - very old-school. BTW - regarding scents, my older Ariel boxes (I still have the stuff with the old logo) of Bio and Colour smell exactly the same... I do however know that the bio tabs and colour tabs smell different from each other. Which version of Ariel did you try?

Take care! Feel free to email me personally too whenever you want

Jon

 

[arrrooohhh]

Hi everyone!

What exactly are megaperls and how are they different to ordainary detergents?

Thanks!

 

[hoovermatic]

I have seen this new Sainsbury's detergent but didn't get any yet 'cos I am working my way through a big box of Persil with essense of Comfort. You say it is concentrated - I have MEGA soft water due to a mains softener and for a really dirty load of whites I use about a tablespoon of detergent, which is why it takes so long to use a box of it. Sounds like I would have to count out these Megapearls to avoid overdosing!! Does anyone know what happened to Radion? I used to love the smell of that and would love to get my hands on some.

 

[nickuk]

Whatever happened to Radion ?

Radion was rebadged `Surf with Sunfresh',I think during the crossover the box had both brands on it for a while. Unfortunately, since then, Surf has lost the `sun fresh' scent as part of it's shake up. Alas, I don't think Radion is still available in terms of scent but IMHO Surf is probably very near to it in all other aspects. It might be worth giving the currently available yellow surf a go..might be similar.

Megaperls are mega concentrated detergents. With a small - medium load yesterday I got oversudsing with 30ml of powder. Megaperls are just slightly larger than usual grains of powder. They remind me of the old Ariel futur powder you used to buy in bags a bit, in appearance and dosage.

 

[kirk280980]

Hi Nick -

Great to hear from you again, it has indeed been a long time since we last spoke but I do remember our chats and often wondered how you were doing. Pleased to hear that all is well, and congratulations on becoming a father - sounds like he's keeping you busy!

And what's this I see... you've been out and about picking up new detergents to try already? These discussions do tend to have that effect, and before you know it you have a big stash of various powders, liquids, tablets and fabric softeners on your hands ). Only problem is finding somewhere to keep it all, in fact that's the only reason why I'm currently trying to narrow the selection down a little here.

With regard to using non-bio tablets on dark colours, and whether or not this is good for your clothes, I'd be inclined to say that you should simply base your judgement on the results you're getting. Are you pleased with the way your clothes have been coming out so far? If so, there's a lot to be said for just sticking with whatever you find works best for you. There are scores of people out there who have never once felt the need to use a colour detergent, simply because they'd rather use just one product for all their washes.

Forgot all about Radion until now, I too was disappointed to see it go. Never used it that often, but it made a very nice change every now and then. Surf was a particular favourite too, back in the days when it only came in one variety, but since they went crazy with the fragrances it hasn't appealed to me at all. As for Daz, I haven't used this for about 10 years now, and cannot for the life of me remember what it smells like. Guess that means I ought to give it another go in the near future, in order to see if it holds any familiarity after all this time.

Would love to see Ariel Futur make a comeback, along with all the other concentrated powders that disappeared when tablets first came on the scene. The funky little "Arielator" dispensing ball it came with was in itself a huge novelty at the time. Hopefully P&G will run out of new marketing ideas at some point, and revive this one... aaahhh, detergents we have loved and lost LOL.

Cheers,

Kirk