Worst Laundry Detergent

[daveamkrayoguy]

re: Eastside Pride of St. Clair Shores!

Yes, forgot: CAR CITY CLASSICS--the record store that closed, and just before I was just getting into my Pat Boone fix!

Wonder what I missed out on there--before the still-sealed copy of DEPARTURE that I could have bought there, but got used somewhere else & went from there (after Pat did "Never Goin' Back" at the end of the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES episode which got me hooked!)...

 

Wonder if in the Easy Listening & Country section that got reduced to $1 "throwaways" as the store was closing might'a been my SEARS SILVERTONE DEMONSTRATION RECORD (Dot Records DPR-3) that I'm currently looking for, to get the one or two Pat songs that are on it...

 

(Back to Topic: Now what were we discussing?!)

 

 

-- Dave

 

[mrsalvo]

I don't care for Snuggle fabric softner at all, the smell is way to strong and, to me, smells like something industrial. Gain laundry pods are another, they may clean well but just too strong in the smell. I also have to vote Trend laundry detergent as really bad too, it didn't remove grease stains on kitchen towels. The Safeway brand also was another bad performer. Was also not fond of Ajax liquid, didn't seem to cut getting out deep down stains. So I guess a person gets what they pay for in that it seems the ones that don't cut it are the bargain brands.

There are a number of laundry detergents that I haven't tried, that are marketed to the Hispanic population down here in south central Texas, that I've never seen while living north of the mason Dixon line. Roma comes to mind. Many of these detergents come in huge plastic bags. One bag would last me a year or more!!!

 

[liberatordeluxe]

I second Bold, Ariel and Fairy. All rubbish for rinsing and nowhere near as good as the 90's. I am using Almat still and rinses far better than the over priced branded stuff and cleans as good if not on par. What detergents do you use that you think rinses well @ Zanussilover? Ben

 

[zanussi_lover]

SURF tropical

I recommend surf tropical powder. Cleans well smells lovely (scent has changed smells like 2005 surf tropical) and rinses well without suds locking. My favourite powder at the moment. Only like the tropical one, the yellow one smells like cheap lemon washing up liquid and the lavender one smells disgusting too as they have changed the scent.

 

[mamapinky]

I don't suppose if the worst detergent is cut with STPP counts, lol I have found the bottom shelf detergents may be ok for freshening up seasonal clothing, but not for actual cleaning, but if cut with STPP its a different detergent altogether, but that's not the question here lol....Cheryl

 

[liberatordeluxe]

What about Daz detergents any good?

 

[liamy1]

@liberatordeluxe

I'm actually using Daz at the moment, now for some reason I have to work really hard to like Daz (along with Surf).

Out of all the detergents, I just don't seem to get on with these 2.

Just tonight oddly enough, I think I am staring to decide that Daz causes excessive pilling "bobbling" - My sister in law always uses Daz exclusively and I have always noticed her clothes are bobbly.

Folding a pile of laundry tonight, I saw a few items which seemed to be far more bobbly than I would see normally.

Also, as Laundress mentioned, "bluing" is a substitute for a poor detergent, Daz is absolutely racked with the stuff.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

Wisk tablets!

Wisk tablets were the worst! They didn't dissolve completely! I had to restart the washer over and over again! I would take Tide or Bravo over this!

 

[launderess]

Wisk Tablets

Never used them in the compact form. Always crumbled a few packets worth into a large Mason jar. Would then use the small scoop to dose properly for my Miele or other washers.

Stuff cleaned well enough for a detergent without enzymes or bleach.

 

[hoovermatic]

Daz and Surf

I also have to try hard to like Daz and Surf. The last time I used Daz powder I washed a load of formal shirts, mainly white with a very pale blue and pale pink one thrown in, both of which are well past bleeding colour. Regardless, I put a colour catcher in and when I unloaded, the colour catcher was bordering on lime green. I didn't think too much of it at the time until I did another very light coloured load with Daz and the colour catcher came out green again. I would have expected it to come out with a blue tinge but green?

If Surf went back to the old 'Square Deal' format I might use it again but I can't cope with all the flavours it now comes in.

I think original Daz powder was actually blue in colour as was one of the variants of Tide in the UK many years ago (and OMO and Co-op blue was, obviously blue!) Goodness knows how much bluing agent they contained!

 

[zanussi_lover]

Daz and Surf

I've not noticed any pilling on bobbling when using Daz, but then again I only use Daz or Surf Tropical Powder on whites, towels and colourfast washes including sheets and light laundry that needs oxygen bleach to get them white. I like Persil Bio Powder too but find it doesn't smell as nice as Surf Tropical as they have changed the powder scent back to the old tropical perfume they had from 2005-2010.

I agree with Square deal Surf, I wish they would bring back the Original Surf Fragrance, I enjoyed Surf Lemon Fresh, Sunfresh and Cotton Fresh of the early 2000's and Surf Breeze (Blue Box) was my favourite around 2004-2007, Surf Breeze with Comfort Blue Dilute, the original Comfort scent in the dilute bottles before they brought out the fresh release formula concentrates around 2007. I also loved in 2005, Surf Tropical with Comfort Lily and Rice Flower, that was a nice combo.

Surf have brought out a powder called Classic Fresh, Whether or not it smells like Original Surf I don't know, you can only buy it in Morrisons or Sainsburys. It has the herbal extracts in it. I've not seen it anywhere else.

As for Bold, I find Bold perfumes are disgusting. Nothing like Bold Ultra Spring Fresh and Summer Meadow Fresh in the 1990s. Bold Lavender and Camomile was quite pleasant when it first came out but when they started adding all this Fresh Microcapsule Perfume stuff, the perfumes became quite chemically pungent.

Nowadays all P&G powders apart from Daz and Fairy they all smell like sour sherbet, with a tangy sickly sweet sour stink which sticks to your clothes, the same with Ariel. Daz and Fairy have more pleasant perfumes. But Fairy is bad at rinsing and Daz suds locks on the main wash spin, where as Surf doesn't as it doesn't foam up as much as Daz.

 

[hoover8pulse]

zanussi_lover

I'm really liking Surf at the moment too. I loved the Herbal Extracts liquid and was pleased to buy the Classic Fresh powder at £4 in August. It smells lovely with just a clean smell that smells very akin to Surf Breeze which I adored. It pairs very nicely with the the blue Comfort Intense. I recommend it. I like the Sunshine powder too but I do love lemon smelling things. I'm loving Surf, it dies the job wonderfully and these new fragrances are gorgeous.

I don't like Bold anymore. I'd say it was the worst detergent. I've really gone off it as it's cleaning power is terrible and it stinks.

Daz I don't like either. I've really gone off that too. Don't even know why because it smells lovely but I find Ariel is a much better performer. Mum uses the Blossom Daz liquid and it doesn't remove smells from clothes, just covers them up.

I've only tested Fairy recently and am pleased to report it s wonderful. I love it. Cleans everything very well (shifted pasta sauce) and makes everything so soft. Had no problems rinsing either. Ariel I aso love, okay the smell is strong but it just works so well at cleaning its up there as one of my favourite brands.

 

[filterflo58]

Xtra is the worst, dont people see its mostly water?

 

[gelaundry4ever]

washday

According to my dad, the worst laundry detergent was washday. We had both the liquid and powder version of this detergent when we got our water softener. While it did smell good, it would suds up a whole lot despite using per directions and he'd find it didn't clean clothes well. It used pure coconut and advanced optical brighteners supposedly, and we had soft water. It didn't matter whether we used it in the filter-flo, post-filter-flo, or the acellawash pair. I will give it credit for leaving a fresh smell in the clothes in the filter-flo pair. Same for the post-filter-flo. That's what we finished the rest of it in.

 

[vacerator]

I still have an unopened

box of Sears detergent from the 80's my dad gave to me. I wonder who made it for them, and if it was like any name brand ones. You know, in some parts of the world, laundry is till cleaned in a stream on rocks sans any detergent other than nature.
Martha has dtergent with her name on it? News to me. She's Polish, and my mom was half, so she's ok by me. She paid her dues and did her time. I hope the southern district of NY has good evidence on someone else.

 

[dermacie]

I kind of wonder who someone else could be? My grandma always had the Sear's detergent and my mom too. I wish they still had it.

 

[circlew]

Sears detergent

was made by DeSoto Chemical Co., which also made their paint for many years. It was originally owned by Sears, but later spun off as United-DeSoto. They were also a manufacturer of wallcoverings.

 

[thomasortega]

Oxydol (nowadays)

It's basically a colored water.

Dose (to barely do something and of course not remove any stains) is probably 5 bottles.

A bottle costs 97 cents at Hell-Mart. Even the dollar store LA Awesome brand is way better than that thing.

 

[circlew]

Link to info about DeSoto Inc.

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/23/...to-chief-welcomes-a-looser-link-to-sears.html

 

[sudsmaster]

Clout!

I think it was Costco that used to sell a cheap powder in tubs called Clout!.

It was mostly sodium carbonate with a high sudsing surfactant, as I recall. I found it useful for cleaning oil off concrete floors... LOL...

I think Costco discontinued carrying it, and replaced it with tubs of a Kirkland branded version.

 

[sudsmaster]

And here's what I posted back in 2012 in another thread:

sudsmaster's profile picture
There is no nationwide ban on phosphates in residential laundry detergents.

There are local and state bans. The industry has generally responded by removing phosphates from all their laundry products, in order not to run afoul of selling phosphated products in areas where it isn't allowed, and to avoid having to sell and package different formulations (although as I recall products like White King Laundry booster was able to sell a variety of formulations in the same box with a simple letter code on the side of the boxes to indicate if they contained phosphates or zeolites).

In my part of California - where there is no state law banning phosphates in laundry or dw detergents - I recall that my usual laundry detergent - "Clout" - which I got from Costco, started giving really poor results in the 1990's. By careful reading of the label I traced the "good" Clout to the presence of phosphates, and the "bad" Clout to the absence of phosphates. It took me a while but with the help of the internet by the end of the 1990's I was able to learn that STPP was the key missing ingredient in most laundry detergents. So I bought some 50 lb sacks of the stuff from a local chemical supply warehouse and have been supplementing HE laundry powders with it ever since.

In most of California, phosphates are not regarded as an environmental concern as they are in "wet summer" states like in New England. In fact, nitrates are considered to be more of a problem here. But places like New York or Minnesota have statewide bans on phosphate home cleaning products like laundry detergents. And the Lake Tahoe basin region in California/Nevada also has a local ban for obvious reasons.

In California one can still find phosphated laundry detergent in products from Mexico, like Ariel or Roma laundry detergents. However it's very hard to find low sudsing versions of these products, which is why I supplement regular HE powders (like Sears Ultra Plus HE) with STPP.