I’ve never bought brand name laundry detergent. Didn’t see the point in spending extra money where I didn’t have to. However, we are soon to be much more solvent than we’ve been in recent years, and I have some friends who swear that detergents like Tide and Whisk give them better results than the generic brands.
What say the Dopers? Have you used both name-brand and generic? Which were you happier with? If you like the name-brand better, is the difference remarkable enough to make them worth the extra money?
I remember reading a report that asked this question, it may have been Consumer Reports but I am not sure. Anyway, they compared different brands and concluded that the name brands did indeed do a better job. I find it to be true, after using cheap powdered whatever in my college years I now splurge on All or Wisk or Tide and find they do seem to do a better job for me. My husband works Tool and Die and can get pretty grungy, and we have a dog and a baby so we have some serious laundry, so maybe I can tell a difference when others don’t care.
My experience with both kinds of laundry detergent has led be to believe that brand names are better than no-name brands or cheaper store brands.
When I give in to the urge and buy a store brand on sale, I always regret it. I hate using bleach, and a good brand like Tide Cold Water does a great job without it.
If you’re into using Chlorox and such, I don’t think the detergent brand matters.
Soaps of all kinds work better in Name Brand than Generic, if you ask me. I hate no-name dish detergent. You get like six bubbles and they’re gone in 5 minutes. I like Dawn for dishes and the one in the orange bottle that smells to strong to a lot of people (Gain?) for clothes. I will, however, use generic softener sheets. I don’t detect a difference there.
This brings me to a related subject: I’ve found that when using bleach, brand definitely matters! Clorox is miles better than the cheaper stuff. But I only bleach dingy whites, and the bed linens. Nothing else gets bleached, unless I’ve reason to believe it’s got some kind of nasties on it.
Totally agreed on the dish soap! The generic does okay, if you’re willing to use four times as much, which of course overshadows any savings you might get. I never really thought about the connection between dish soap and laundry detergent. I must be pretty dense.
I like Cheer, it gets out the stains I can’t get out with Tide, plus it smells really nice. Just buy a small box of each detergent and see which is right for you.
There are a few things that I absolutely will not pinch pennies on. Laundry detergent is one of them. (Man, how I miss Tide.) General stain removal, dinginess prevention and even just the smell of the clothes was noticeably better using better brands than the cheap stuff.
Dishwashing detergent was another. I accidentally bought a bottle of generic dish soap not too long ago, because it looked nearly identical to the “leading brand”. The first time I did dishes I couldn’t figure out why I was resoaping every five forks… Looked at the bottle to see if I had bought some weird formulation or something, and realized that I’d picked up the no name brand. Never again.
Okay, so I’m going to go against the grain here. I think the cheaper brands can be fine. You just need to find one that works for you. I use an inexpensive brand that costs me $2.99 for a big bottle. This particular brand also makes a perfume-free version, which is why I have stuck with it. I often have a difficult time finding any unscented detergent. We can’t use scented detergents in our house, or my husband and I will both be itching like mad. Anyway, it works well for our needs. Then again, neither of us works in a profession where we get really dirty everyday. Though it does seem to work fine on my husband’s hunting clothes.
Really? I find that more brands are offering scent and dye free versions now, including All, Wisk, and Tide. Our regular grocery store stocks them, and that is what I always use for our son’s laundry. I think some of the scents are really overdone and can irritate a baby’s skin.
Another thing that helps is to start the water going and add the detergent first, before you add the clothes. That is how the instructions say to do it on the bottle but I never paid attention until someone pointed out to me that it works better. You can use less detergent this way.
I think Consumer Reports looked at this. IIRC they found brand name detergents did a slightly better job than generics (not much difference), that using NO detergent did a fairly good job, and that the biggest difference was that detergents that contained “enzymatic cleaners” did a much better job than detergents that did not – regardless of the whether brand name or generic (although findind generics with enzymes might be hard).
Some people are sensitive to detegents, the enzymes themselves don’t seem to make a big difference for most people with allergies.
Maybe it’s just my store, which is possible. I live in a very small town with a small grocery store. Or maybe I just refuse to look at the brands that cost me $8 a bottle. For the most part, it seems like detergent companies are obsessed with putting out new scents that will be attractive to people, so the shelves are stocked with Mountain Fresh scents and such, which irritate my skin and likely your son’s too.
I only recently noticed that you’re supposed to turn on the water, add the detergent, and then the clothes as well. I think some even say you’re supposed to let it fill all the way before you add the clothes, but I’ve been wrong before.
I’ve done the Name Brand Stuff ( Tide) and I’ve done cheapie.
I will tell you whut.
I prefer the cheapie. (Ok, Cheaper. Arm and Hammer, ALL and a few other ones that I forget, but offer the stink & color free choices.)
Yanno why?
It isn’t the goo that you put in your machine that cleans it.
It is the aggitation of the machine that does. I use to wash my clothes without any soap at all and did not notice any discernable difference except it didn’t take the smells out.
I had the near bargin basement washing machine & dryer ( paid possibly $400 for the set years ago.) no matter what kind of stuff I put in there, stains were there for good. (Unless I bleached, and with a septic feild, I am not big on bleach. It’s bad for SF’s.)
All our whites looked dingy or yellowy, due to hard water. (again, I have bleach issues.) but still. Nothing took out the stains.
The dryer dies. We replace both of them and find out the Washer has been in a near persistant vegatative state for years ( yellow liquid coming out from under it is not a leakage of the excess detergents/softeners that spin off and change colors somehow It’s magic… It’s transmission fluid. The life blood of the machine.)
We bought the top of the line front load washer and dryer and I swear to Og, the stuff came out cleaner than it ever has. ( Old stains are set permamently, but it tackles the new stuff like a prize fighter.)
I also use the el cheapo fabric softener, Swuivatel, which I’m sure I’ve spelled wrong and I am nearly mostly positive that it is just a watered down version of some of the Downey products. Except they have one nice smell (pink one) that I can’t find anywhere.) I don’t want myself or my family to be a walking room deoderizer, capiche.
Personally, I think paying $11-16 bucks for one those hugenormous thingies of Tide is insanity. And it’s a bitch to lift them into the cart, out of the cart into the car and back into the house and onto a counter. and who has the counter space for something the size of a pig roasting oven that kids could have fun with the little spigot thingie and create an afternoon’s headache just for me?
If you use Tide and you aren’t a super dirty person, you can use one third of the recommended amount and your clothes will be just as clean. I’ve experimented and found the full amount left soap residue on my black jeans and in washcloths.
I’m pretty sure the hardness/softness of your water may be a factor in how the detergent works also, I’m just not sure how. It seems to work in my favor at this time.
Disclaimer: I work for the company that makes Cheer and Tide.
Back in leaner days, I bought one of the lesser brands because I thought Tide was ridiculously overpriced. I soon went back to Tide. I’ll pinch my pennies elsewhere, thankyouverymuch.
Now that I get it free in the bonus store, I have switched to Tide liquid, which is even more overpriced than the powder. I prefer it to the powder, but wouldn’t pay retail for it. I do, however, use about 2/3 of what they recommend using. My kids aren’t rolling around in the mud or anything so I don’t really need extra strength laundry detergent. It’s the smell I’m after anyway.
I’m also addicted to Downy Simple Pleasures, Lavendar and vanilla. It’s a little girly for Mr. Pundit but when he does the laundry he can choose a he-man scent.
