What is your Favorate Laundry Soap and Softener?

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Hey Terry---Peach Vernel Fabric softnener

I am---as you can see, a Miele Fan. They import it from Germany for sale.when I buy it, I usually get it either from Miele dirrectly for 8.00 for a 750 ml bottle9it is kind of small for American standards of huge), however, it is concentrated and takes a while to use it. I usually buy 4 or five at a time. There are several places in Seattle that i go from time to time that sell it like Albert Lee Appliance, Crossroads Appliance, or in Salt Lake City of all places, Smith Crown, (they are so nice to do business with)
 
German Persil and liquid Surf

I too am a fan of the German Persil (Henkel),as other people here have posted it cleans quite well and rinses out properly with very little foam and I have become quite fond of the liquid Surf range in recent months as the deli where I normally gert my Persil has sold out and have not had it for a long time now.
I find the Surf range leaves a nice fragrance through the wash which seems to last for a number of days after washing and it is a nice thin liquid not thick and gluggy.
I dislike fabric softener and so I do not but it, however my sister does have a little soft spot for it and so gets some every now and then but she only uses it on her own clothes IO wont have it on mine.
I think my favourite Surf is one called "Sunshine Fresh",although the "Tropical Fresh",is quite ok as well and of course you cannot discount the "Ocean Fresh" as well,oohhhh decisions!decisions!
I must confess that I really enjoy seeing the suds on top of the wash water when I wash, it reminds me of a giant snow cone.
Nurse! cup of tea time I think.
Cheers.
Steve.
 
our favourites....

...are ARIEL COLD WASH ACTIV COMPACT POWDER for the general wash (whites and colourfast items) and ARIEL COLOUR LIQUID for the rest of washing except woolens and silks which we wash with the outstanding PERWOLL (Henkel, Germany)!
Nearly everything we wash with cold water, as I've already mentioned here in the forum. The new ARIEL COLD WASH is really a step forward! It actually washes better and also rinses out better, too, even in cold water!
We usually do not use conditioners and, NO!, we have no harsh towels!
From time to time I add a bit of blueing (AZUR from Spain as there is no liquid blueing available in Germany anymore) to the wash-water when doing whites to keep them as utmost white as possible!
Pre-treating is seldom needed, but if, we have SIL (with petrol in against heavy grease stains) and self-made grime-away soap (containing soft-soap, bar-soap and ammonia) as well as OXY-CLEAN BOOSTER (bleaching agent) plus DAN CLORIX (chlorine bleach for the nearly hopeless stains!) at hand!
Ralf
 
Mike...

Thats a nice looking Electron 1100 :)

Id LOVE a Computer control 1100- We scrapped one about a year ago, the main pcb was dead and obviously obsolete :(. Such an amazing looking machine tho- especially for over 20 years old!!!

Seamus
 
Favorites: Tide powder-original scent(which doesn't really smell like the Tide from the '50's. Oxydol(where can I get that anymore)?

All time fav. fabric sofener would be: Rain Barell by Johnson and Johnson. ( that isn't made any longer either).
 
I like bargain-brand Sun powder, for the vintage-y smell and (with the proper agitator) dramatic sudsing action. I used Fresh Start years ago and loved it, but it's become very hard to find in the Mid-Atlantic.
 
We have all the different flavors of UK Persil liquids on hand. I like the smell of the Non-Bio liquid and the purple for Colours the best.
We also use Tide with Bleach, All HE, Cheer HE liquids.
As far as powders go, I like Persil(UK) Non-Bio best.
Fab powder is also on hand.

Except for the Tide and Cheer, all are very low sudsing and rinse out clean. While we have the Persil Aloe Vera liquid, I don't really like the smell.

And every now and then we add some Borax to the load.
 
my favorites are..

Original Tide powder, Tide cold water powder( works great!) Original Woolite liquid. I was given a half box of Cheer powder in "Fresh linen" scent. It worked great, with a very pleasent un-overpowerin smell. Fabric softner(s)Finishing a costco size bottle of Suavital "field flowers", its ok, but just abit overwelming, (I won't be getting it again.) Got a cosco size jug of Downy April fresh waiting to take Suavitals place. Im interested in tryin some of the Downy Simply pleasures scents.

Rich
 
Ace, Ariel, Foca, Tide Coldwater powder. Fresh Start is excellent for suds control but I'm almost out.

Downy Advanced (have 3 bottles left), or some sort of Suavitel.

Takes a while for me to go through a supply of anything so I don't get much opportunity to try new things unless I specifically splurge on it.
 
Persil Non Bio powder for Whites and Lights which i usually buy in 5Kg Boxes but if the tabs are on special offer i use them instead.
If im in the mood i will occasionally use the Bio powder but not too fussed on it.

I would love for them to reduce the amount of fillers in Persil and just sell a "Micro" product, would be an excuse to bring out a new powder wash ball too. something i like to use.

Persil Colour Liquigel which is may Daily Driver of coloured cottons and robust colour synthetic items.
Other memebers have expressed the great rinseability of the New Gel Tabs, ive tried the colour ones and the '94 Hottie does not like them at all.
They dont really rinse as well IMHO as the regular old tabs and certainly not as well as the liquid or powder variations.
I would not like to try them without pressing Super Rinse but i dont think that would happen seeing as that button is kept pressed in on all washes done by me! lol.

I find they also take a good 10 mins to break down in the wash, which is not good in a machine that only washes for 25 minutes on a 40*c Non Colourfast Cottons wash.

Persil Silk and Wool which gets used on all jumpers from Wool to Acrylic and work fleeces, maybe i shouldnt but i also use it on my Gortex coat and have not noticed any compromise in breatheability or waterproof properties.

Persil Handwash and Twin tub for the handwash items I have but it sometimes gets into the Automatic washer (very naughty! hehe) on handwash and wool cycles whn i cant be bothered to stand at the sink washing such items and when ive been hiking/walking in the local countryside. cleans muddy canvas hiking boots really well and sometimes trainers if ive been cutting the grass.

Comfort Easy Iron Concentrate is my Daily Driving Softener but i like to have some Blue Comf in and also the odd bottle of Comf Pure too as a change.

Nick
 
Hi, Nick. :-)

Good choice of detergents there! ;-) I promise I will e-mail you very soon. :-)

Regarding Persil Gel tablets, I have not used them for very long, so I do not know if they rinse out better than the standard tablets. I would agree that the standard tablets do indeed rinse out very well, as I was saying to the other Nick recently. :-)

Without any proper tests, from memory, I would say the standard tablets do rinse out better, but that is only because there appears to be less foam at the end. However, I guess that is the real test of how ‘rinseable’ (hehe) they are. :-)

Sorry if I confused the issue regarding gel tabs versus standard tabs. :-) My personal take is that the standard ones are the best, and we have used them for many years without problems. We are all different of course, but I would happily recommend UK Persil tablets, especially the non-bio, to anyone; they are a ‘safe’ choice.

Regards,

Carl :-)
 
My Favorites

I love Tide Coldwater, and Tide with Bleach powder, but they don't like my skin. Same thing goes for most other detergents with enzymes. I'm getting curious about the Roma detergent over at K-mart too. Seems like a great bargain (just wonder if it cleans well).

I have been using Trader Joe's liquid and the Purex liquid here lately (budget considerations), and I like the Purex Free and Clear the best. I'll have to try the Seventh Generation powder once we get ahead again after the surgery.

I use whatever dryer sheets are on sale, or whatever ultra house brand liquid softener is on sale, but my favorite (sheet and liquid) is Downy Simple Pleasures Vanilla Lavender.
 
The Vintage Stuff

Loved the old Oxydol, and Fab with "Lemon Freshened Borax" :-)

I also miss the pink Sta-Puf, loved the smell of that stuff.
 
Have been using Persil tablets ever since Sainsbury's discontinued their Perform Megaperls powder, and so far I've been pleased with them. Usually prefer having more control over dosage, but then you can't always have everything and it's something I'll just have to get over. Probably made easier by the fact that they are convenient to use, and clean and rinse very well.

Still use powder for cycles with a prewash, with my favourite being Ariel. The new version has a very refreshing scent, perhaps a little on the strong side but I quite like that!

For fabric softener I like most varieties of Comfort and Lenor, and tend to switch each time I open a new bottle so as not to get bored of one particular scent. Also like Bounce as well, and always keep some on hand for jeans in particular.
 
what do you think of electrosol tabs

what do you think of electrosol tabs.Do you think they clean any better than (say) cascade
 
I use a variety of laundry products, but the core detergent is Sears Ultra Plus HE powder, supplemented with 1/3 by weight STPP. For a softener, I recently purchased a huge jug of Kirkland fabric softener. Some people hate the fragrance but I kind of like it, better than Downy. Plus it seems to work very nicely on bath towels. I use Tide HE liquid or Method HE liquid on those, leaves them softer than a powder will.
 
My favourite detergent is Omo (which is the same as UK Persil). It rinses out much better than the Dixan I used for a while. Ariel is still one of my favourites too, I always got the whitest whites with it.

At the moment I am using Neutral softener which is scentless. If you use a strong scenting detergent you still smell it when this softener was used.
 
Powders

Louis , I wonder if the UK OMO of old was a lesser Persil??

Seamus, the Electron is a fab machine, was giving it a test run and it worked fine...the only mishap was the next day I put a load in the MaytAsko and for some reason came down into the kitchen early....thank god I did, I noticed a reflection on the floor....WATER....I hadnt switched the outlet pipes from the Hoover....thank goodness it wasnt the other way around, the Hoover uses so much water I would have been flooded...LOL
 
Louis - it was until the 80s I think. My grandad has a story about a time when my nana (who is Scottish) first moved to England with him many years ago, and went to a shop and asked for some Omo, but the shop assistant didn't understand what she was saying because of her Scottish accent! (Sounded more like "Umooo" LOL)

Jon
 
And then there is the story of women in putting boxes of Omo in the front windows during the wartimes, meaning "old man out" and she was available for some afternoon delight.
 
HA!! We've all fallen for Launderess's trick questio

Oh, I don't know about that. Launderess seems to like to use old timey (perhaps due to her Anglophile background) terms for modern items. So she may have meant "Laundry detergents" when she wrote "Laundry Soaps". Backing up that idea is that there are precious few actual laundry soaps on the market these days. Since the demise of Ivory Snow soap flakes (which turned into just another synthetic, albeit mild, detergent), all that's left are various laundry soap bars like Fels or the Mexican import Zote. Although I did pick up a big blue bar of "Island" soap at a south seas market a couple of years ago. It's made in Samoa or Tahiti or some place like that. Smells a lot of tallow, with no other fragrance, and I imagine the deep blue dye helps to drive away the yellowing.

If I were to try a laundry soap, I'd probably pre-dose the wash water with STPP, and then grate some Zote or Island, or even Ivory bath bar soap, into a small container and add enough until the Neptune starts to look like it's getting too sudsy. I would most likely use the grating attachment for my 6 qt 475 watt Kitchenaid Epicurean mixer. It would be a first ;-).

Then again I'm working a lot of overtime these days and I'm just happy to be able to get through a week's worth of laundry on a Sunday (with line-drying thrown in for good measure) with my usual assortment of laundry gasp detergents and boosters.
 

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