Talk to me about Soap Nuts.

[Beauchamp]

Country Save and Charlie's are turning my colored clothes white, leaving the white ones dingy, and making everything feel stiff and weird. What are soap nuts? We have hard water. Will they work? Are they the best thing since sliced bread?

[kittywitty]

I hated them. Have a huge sack I want to get rid of, too. They didn't do a thing in our hard water either washing by hand or in the machine. WAY overrated, IMO.

[linguistmama]

I wasn't impressed either. I really wanted them to work since they can be composted after use or you can make handsoap when you're done with them in the laundry.

[Pogonia]

We like them but we don't have hard water here. They are very economical and don't leave the clothes with as much static since I don't use dryer sheets. But you do need to use a bleach. I use a non-chlorine one but they say can use anything.

Our first box was Maggies but have ordered from someone else online. But I can't remember what company.

[Gingercat]

I like them too but we do not have hard water either.
I even wash my son's cloth diapers with them and they never smell even though they are very filthy before washing!

I use a non-bleach whitener from time to time.

[Beauchamp]

Great. I ordered a smallish size box to try. But we have really hard water. Maybe I should just use them for hand soap or something.

[emski4379]

I wasn't a big fan of them either.

[cristeen]

I loved them and we do have hard water. I just can't find them locally anymore and I'm stubborn about paying for shipping. And I never used bleach with them.

I would really question though the Country Save - I use CS on everything and I haven't had any problem with color leaching. Have you ruled out other issues?

As for the "crunchiness" of your laundry, hard water does that, it's not the detergent's fault (other than the fact that it doesn't have softener in it). Try adding a vinegar rinse. I pour white vinegar into the fabric softener cup on my machine, and that dealt with the crunchiness (it took a little while though to clear out the buildup).

[FloridaBorn]

I didn't like them... the clothes smelled just as dirty coming out of the washer as they did going in.

[justmama]

yeah, really didn't like them. they didn't seem to do a darn thing on our clothing. i really wanted them to work and i did try several times thinking maybe i was just using them incorrectly or something. nope. they really did nothing on our laundry and we have normal water and i tried them on normally soiled clothing, not like diapers or anything.

[Pogonia]

Sometimes we have a habit of stuffing our washing machines. I wonder if your clothes didn't smell clean because the soap nuts couldn't move freely? And did you use hot or warm water in the wash? It's the warmth that releases the saponins. Our socks and underwear always smell clean.