Via detergent from Sweden: preliminary results

[passatdoc]

As you may have seen last week, I brought home two large boxes of "Via" detergent from Sweden, which seems to be Unilever's premium detergent sold in Sweden. Some readers here speculated that it may be similar to the UK version of Persil, sold/marketed by Unilever.

I have never used UK Persil (I've only used only the German version) so I can't compared fragrance/texture directly between it and Via, but after five loads with Via, it gets everything clean, suds rinse out completely in our hard SoCal water (no suds whatsoever on the door), and it has a clean, light fragrance. Best of all, it was no more than $5-6 for a large box (at least a kilogram). It's close to the performance of German Persil, for a very reasonable price. For this reason, I suspect that what Unilever sells in Sweden as Via may be very close to, or identical to, UK Persil.

 

[passatdoc]

ps

The box I brought home is marked "40-60C" and, not surprisingly, I have only used Via for "warm" water wash loads, not hot or cold. As the weather cools, the cold water pipe temperature is dropping to the point where it's too cold for cold water washing anyway (my Frigidaire 2140 FL lacks heater and Auto Temp Control---latter is useful because in winter it assures a roughly 30 C cold water wash by adding hot water as needed to the cold water supply), so until late spring, I wash mainly on Warm.

 

[supersuds]

Do you know if it has phosphates? Just curious.

 

[passatdoc]

Don't know off-hand, but lemme look at the box and see if there is any disclosure.

 

[passatdoc]

yep....

Via contains sodium tripolyphosphate.

http://www.via.se/pages/page63.php?iid=558#ing_db

 

[launderess]

Due To Water Hardness

One finds STPP is still a common builder for powdered detergents in the UK/EU.

With water in some places hard enough for one to skate on, it is pretty hard to formulate powdered detergents that work well across all areas of a region without phosphates. One also has to consider care of the washing machine, which includes the built in heaters found in all front loaders on that side of the pond. Without good and powerful means of dealing with water hardness, heating coils would soon become encrusted with scale deposits.

With Zeolites being phased out, and borates may soon be next, there aren't really too many options left.

L

 

[mrboilwash]

Passatdoc, your link to the Via page is only a GENERAL list of all possible ingredients that MAY occur in Swedish Via detergents explaining their effect in the products and on the environment.
You can try this link and choose your specific product to check for phosphates. Seems like all current Via powders are phosphorus free and zeolithe based.

http://www.unilever.com/PIOTI/SV/p3.asp?selectCountry=SE&language=SV&brandid=VIA

 

[passatdoc]

Well, what do you know?

Vielen Dank, Mr Boilwash, Du hattest recht, in part because I discovered (after checking the box twice) that I purchased Color Classic, rather than the 40-60 product. Color classic is recommended for 30-60C and does not, per the link below, contain STPP.

http://www.unilever.com/PIOTI/SV/p4.asp?selectCountry=SE&language=SV&productid=1903925

 

[mrwash]

Via...

...is called "Persil" in UK or "Skip" in France or "Omo" in Austria

 

[passatdoc]

OK, that's good to know. In essence, I purchased the Swedish version of UK Persil (obwohl NICHT deutsches Persil von Henkel, da weiss man noch nicht, was man hat....).