What is your favorite detergent?

   I for one, use Tide Free, and I love the way it works,

54 responses total.

I guess I would vote for Tide because "way back when" I was working with
detergents, Tide was the benchmark product, against which others measured
themselves.

and to think that now there are only about 10,000 products out there that claim
to be the best...

True, but at least in past years, Tide was measureably better than anything
on the market.  We used a "Launder-o-Meter" which gave a standard wash cycle
carefully controlled.  The results were measured several ways, but whiteness
was measured on a Reflect-o-meter using standard reflectance methods.  Part
of the success of a product is its proprietary "Whiteners, or Brightners" 
and another part is its "suspending agents."  The whiteners tend to be UV
fluorescing agents and mask (hide) yellowing.  The suspending angents are
a hodgepodge of polymers and they tend to have more affinity for suspended
soils than does the fabric.

I believe that the makers of Tide put heavy duty $$$$ into R & D.

 Just out of curiousity, where did you work, Marc?

I did an early stint at J.B. Ford Division of Wyandotte Chemicals Co.
(That was before it was BASF Wyandotte)

Consumer Reports rated Tide with bleach alternative best this month.
The other "flavors" of Tide rated in the top 5 or 10 also.

Must be Tide really *is* better.  ;)

It was the best in the past, & I'd bet it is among the best now.

 As f-w of this conf, I hereby declare Tide to be the official detergent
of the Laundry conference. Any objections?

Yes. We must argue about it for a long time first. Besides, we don't
use Tide, and I would not feel welcome here if the Tide runs against
me.

 Fair enough, debate shall continue.

Well, you had just better change your ways, Rane, or you will never come
clean.

I'll come clean: I have the book _Synthetic Detergents_ (Davidson and
Milwidsky), and it doesn't even mention Tide. Would you be interested
in TAED instead?

Debate it is!  (BTW we use Cheer Free)

re 12- I'd like to read that someday. I'm still interested in the 
chemistry of laundry stuff.

3 Cheers for free and clear.  Perfumes/dyes make me itch.  %0-##<

personally I use what[D[Dever is on sale!!!!

This response has been erased.

See, I told you!

Which was the one that was "brighter than bright" (or "whiter than white").
One of my chem profs told me they spiked that one with stuff that absorbed
ultraviolet and emitted in the visible spectrum (so their claim was indeed
true).

All (to my knowledge) detergent products include "whiteners", which
flouresce. (Visit a flourescent mineral exhibit some time, and check your
white clothes). I would also say, that detergent products consist of
nothing but "spikes": they are mixtures of many chemicals each of which
serves a particular function (in conjunction with the others). 

It is common to add fluorescing agents to detergents.  These agents 
give off a bluish-white to greenish-white light when exposed to UV.  I remember
the advertising slogan "whiter than white" but can not recall the product.

This response has been erased.

That's OK: I bake my cakes with fluor.

I was at the top of the park last night (taking photos by the way) and I saw
a guy with a jacket with a full size Tide logo.  The whole jacket made him
look like a box of Tide with legs, arms, and a head.  

This response has been erased.

Good Stuff!

ref #24: didja get a good shot of him?
OK, you all have convinced me. I am going to try Tide Free, but if I get a
rash on my delicate parts you are all taking a dip in an icy river,
compliments of the Itchy Otter.

No, for some reason it never occured to me to take his picture.  Lost
opportunity.

Wow...this conference really _is_ about laundry, isn't it?!
Amazing...

And, what were you expecting, dirty secrets maybe?

That's what I'd assumed from the description - a place to come clean... :)

Well, gee, orin, you should've said something. I knew that for a long time!
(Dan's the ditz! Dan's the ditz! Teehee! Snowth isn't clueless for once!)

Hi....my name is Dan, and I've got a problem.  I....I...I'm a...ditz!  <sob>

How's that for dirty secrets?

Wash cold with plenty of Tide and a *very* small amount of Chlorox
(about 2 oz for a full-size washer).  Drip dry, do not wring, and
you should be okay.  Try gentle cycle on the wash at first.

I confess.  I'm a Tide user, too.  I realy love clothes and I discovered a
long time ago that of all the detergents I tried (and I tried a lot of them)
Tide made the biggest difference in how clean my clothes seems at folding
time.

That was enough for me.

We bought a 50 gallon drum of the powder (sodium alpha olefin sulfonate) that
is the basic ingredient of most detergents, and use it together with a water
softener (ours has phosphate, but you can use washing soda - sodium
carbonate).  We figure a gallon of the liquid, mixed to the same concentration
as commercial detergents, cost us 50 cents.  We have been selling it to
friends for a dollar (to account for inflation since we bought it tenn years
ago).  It also works fine on dishes.  No bluing agents,
anti-deposition-agents, bleaches, enzymes or anything else in it.  Our white
shirts are gradually getting grayer, but we don't care.  We wash clothing when
it looks or smells dirty, and this stuff gets out what we care about.  (The
grey may be because we wash in cold water and the calcium and magnesium
combine with the detergent and precipitate out on the clothing.  A hot water
wash with softener removes a lot of this grey).  If anyone is interested, I
can pass on a sample and look up the address of the Detroit distributor.  A
major advantage is the complete lack of added fragrance, and you can't smell
the active ingredient.  It also has no peanut shells added for bulk, or
coloring agents.  We have a different product for shampoo/soap (actually I
think the formula above was the shampoo, the detergent has a benzene ring in
it.)  Biodegradable, made in Chicago.

        Is anyone familiar with laundry discs? They're 3/ $50.00, replace
detergent completely and last something like 1000 washes? I've read they
work but hate to spend $50.00 to experiment.

They don't work. Try washing without detergents at all. You will get the
same effect for much less money.

Is this from experience or reason, Rane?  ;)

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss