Remember when you could go to the store, roll down the laundry detergent aisle, grab one of three different brands of soap, and then go home confident that your clothes would get squeaky clean?
These days, some stores have multiple aisles devoted to laundry detergent because a single aisle cannot possibly accommodate all of the different varieties. There was a time when I could pull a container of Tide off the shelf with my eyes closed and know I was getting the right soap, but now the brand has no less than a dozen different varieties, including: Original Tide, Tide Free for Coldwater, Tide Plus Bleach Alternative, Tide Pure Essentials Baking Soda, Tide TotalCare, Tide HE, and the list goes on and on… and on.
The main difference between laundry detergents used to be their form: powder or liquid. However, the major difference these days is make-up: traditional or high efficiency. The latter is formulated to produce fewer suds, which is essential if you are using it in a front-loading high efficiency machine. Fancy front loaders don’t use enough water rinse out all of the suds created by conventional detergent. To optimize cleaning, manufacturers of front-loading washers recommend that you use only high efficiency detergent.
Given the popularity of front-loading washers, nearly all major laundry detergent manufacturers now offer high efficiency soaps, including: Arm & Hammer, Cheer, Fab, Gain, Mountain Green, Purex, Sunlight, Tide, Wisk, and Woolite. Still, consumers are left testing out detergent after detergent in the search of the perfect laundry soap.
To help sort through the maze of high efficiency detergents ConsumerSearch.com recently published a report outlining the best and worst HE detergents. According to the website, Tide HE with Bleach Alternative Liquid Laundry Detergent was rated best for stain removal. While Gain HE Original Fresh performed poorly when stacked up against the likes of Tide and Wisk.
What brand of HE laundry detergent works best for you?