So I ran a load of laundry but forgot to push the detergent tray in - but I see now that the detergent I poured in is disappeared from the tray. Where does the stuff go?
What kind of washer do you have?
Our washer – a Samsung – has the tray designed such that the water that enters it will always end up in the drum. The tray is open at the back and any water that enters flows out and down a chute that presumably goes straight into the drum (or the area immediately around the drum.
Have you never pulled out the detergent tray and cleaned it? If you do you can usually clean out the small funnel-shaped chute the tray slides into. This may make it apparent how the water enters.
As to why the soap is gone, my assumption is that the water that sprayed in flowed forward enough to wash the soap out of the tray.
I never use the tray, as I believe it is designed only for powdered soap . . . ?
I use liquid and I just squirt it on top of the clothes. The water comes on top of it, mixes in, and all is well.
A hint for any cheapskates: Regular laundry detergent seems pretty expensive to me, so I use “Ajax” dish detergent, available at Dollar General, Walmart’s, and probably elsewhere. It’s pretty cheap and is apparently more concentrated than laundry detergent, because you don’t need much to make good suds.
It also works quite well for greasy hands, which I have every day.
Oh, and it works well for dishes too. :eek:
I think it’s expensive as well.
I do this as well, but to use it as an extender for something that has a better (matter of personal preference) fragrance.
I put liquid laundry detergent in the detergent tray. Works fine.
Yeah, liquid works fine in the tray. I have found, at least in the past, that sometimes the powder will cake in the tray. Snack pods just get popped into the drum.
Heh, I always thought the trey was used to gradually introduce bleach into the wash cycle.
Ah, the fragrance!
I hate my clothes smelling like “something” that is supposed to smell good. I hate all the detergent fragrances. Just clean, fresh, no odors for me, thanks. 
When I was still buying it I would always buy the “Fragrance Free.”
But before I started using Ajax dish detergent I tried making my own laundry soap – there are numerous recipes online. But it was messy and a lot of work (I’m lazy by nature) and it didn’t work all that well.
So it’s Ajax for my clothes, dishes, and hands. It’s a win-win because I only have to keep one type of soap around instead of three. 
Laundry detergent should not make suds at all. It is formulated not to do this, because suds don’t rinse out of clothes well, and tend to clog up the machine. This is especially important with high-efficiency washers, which require special low-sudsing detergents.
You’ll run into similar problems if you use dish soap/detergent designed for hand washing in an automatic dishwasher. Someone once did this at a place where I worked, and they had to run the dishwasher empty many times to get the suds out.
It’s best to use soaps and detergents for the purposes they were designed for.
I was this “Someone” once at work. Having no prior experience with dishwashers, I loaded up the little reservoir right to the top with regular dish soap. I also had to run the mop several times to wrangle the suds off the kitchen floor… Suds even managed to get up on the counter somehow :smack: On the plus side, I wasn’t allowed to use the dishwasher anymore.
It’s worked fine for me for years in my washing machines. I bought a new washer less than a year ago, works good in that too.
Suds, yay or nay: When I made my own laundry detergent, they said don’t worry that it won’t make a lot of suds, which it didn’t. The amount of suds doesn’t correlate with cleaning ability. So it isn’t something I worry about either way; I’ve never noticed suds still in my clothes when using Ajax.
I don’t have a dishwasher, so that’s not a concern.
More ideas for cheapskates: 1) At some point in my life I realized that all bodily fluids are water-soluble. So why waste hot water to wash clothes? I don’t – I use only cold water.
- I’ve never had a dryer and have no intentions of buying one. It’s amazing the amount of (clueless) people who ask me, “How do you dry your clothes?”
I hang them up and let them air-dry! I know that’s cutting edge technology, but somebody’s gotta take the arrows. Actually, my mother never had one til I was in my teens, probably sometime in the mid '60s.
Air-drying: If you are terribly unorganized and cannot think a day ahead of time then this is not for you – stick with your expensive dryer and the boost it gives to your utility bill every month.
For air-drying, you have to think a day or two ahead of time if you want to wear a particular item of clothing for some reason. I heat with wood/coal and in the winter and nearly everything dries overnight or thereabouts – except jeans, etc. Summer time, of course, it takes longer.
- Another idea, that I stole from the Eskimos: I hang sheets, blankets outside in the winter and the colder the better. Some things start to stiffen up by the time I get them hung. The point is: Ice evaporates just like water, and the colder (drier) the air is the faster they dry.
Those are my stories and I’m sticking to them! Too late to change now. 
I believe those trays are designed to get the detergent behind the drum, not on the clothes side. The idea is to dilute (and in the case of powders, dissolve) in the water before coming in contact with clothes. The tray should work with either liquid or powder, though not tablets (however there is a type where the water flows through the tray, I’ve seen that in front loading models which may work with tablets IDK).
The reason is that sometimes concentrated detergents may discolor the fabric of some clothes, or sometimes powder residue remain, ifjust dumped on the clothes.
Cheapskate tip #4: I always use the gentle cycle for two reasons. First, I don’t want the washing machine to wear my clothes out – I’d rather do myself by wearing them. Second reason, the gently cycle has to be easier on the washer mechanicals so it should last longer.
There seem to be folks here discussing top loaders and front loaders without saying which they have. Sudsy Ajax in a top loader will work pretty well, but it can severely shorten the life of a front loader, since the suds can cause the drum’s rear bearings to fail.
I shoot a bit of Dawn dish detergent on Mr.Wrekkers working clothes. It helps get the grease out.
Yes, I should have mentioned what I have.
I’ve always had portables. Two Sears models lasted me from 1977 to 2017. Last fall I bought a Magic Chef portable top loader.
Although it works quite well, it was relatively cheap so I’m not expecting it to last 20 years like the Sears models did. But I’ll be either dead or too senile to live alone within 10-15 years so maybe this will all work out. One can only hope! :dubious: