Natural Laundry Detergent Poll

[Bleu]

Please weigh in with your opinion! Post more if a simple vote doesn't cover it.

Inspiration for this poll: I just realized I have all four of the options in my basement at the moment. Now, I've never tried Bio-Kleen before -- I just found it in a local health food store for the first time. I've been seeing it online, mostly at cloth diaper web sites, but I'm way too cheap to pay shipping on detergent. I also just tried Ecos for the first time (load #1 is running now) since it was on sale at Whole Foods. But honestly? I have no clue which is better.

For years I used to use All Free & Clear or Arm & Hammer (also no dyes/no perfumes) or Sun & Earth -- because they were available in the mainstream grocery store. When Bleuet was wee, though, I could NOT do both a regular grocery run -- it was Whole Foods *or* the regular one, not both. WF won the face-off for my total grocery business, and once I started using the environmentally sensitive kind, especially for clothes that go on Bleuet's skin, I was not going to go back. IOW, I'm interested in your responses if you like a non environmentally sensitive kind, too.

Also: I just bought Oxy Clean as a laundry additive/stain remover. Is it all that? Is it environmentally okay? What about Borax? I have that, too, but I can't tell if I'm really getting results from it.

[lilyka]

I do not use any of those. well right now we are finishing off our box of 7th generation but I hate it and will never buy another one of thier products. I have some ecos to try and saw that our grocery store carries method products. i got some of thier other stuff and have been realy impressed so far.

[Spock]

Right now we are using Mountain Green detergent and I'm pretty happy with it. I've also used Lifetree and liked that as well.

As for the Oxi-Clean, my understanding is that it's safe environmentally. As for how it works, I think it's a life-saver. I put about 3-4 scoops in a bucket and fill it with warm water and soak any clothes that have stains for at least an hour and then wash them. It seems to work particularly well on baby stains. If I have a really stubborn stain, I'll soak for a few hours and most things will come out.

I've never used Borax for laundry but I do use it to clean our toilets and it works great for that.

[Bleu]

Mountain Green? Lifetree? Wow, I've never heard of those! Have you noticed that Borax actually mentions cloth diapers on the box? What else do you all clean with Borax?

Why did you hate the Seventh Generation? Didn't your wash get clean with it?

[lilyka]

Oh hey I have life tree soap. do they make a specific laundry product or just the multi purpose soap?

i wanted to add I used Ecover stain remover and loved it. I don't know if they make a detergent but we also use thier fabric softener and love it.

[Spock]

The Lifetree is specifically for laundry. Whole Foods used to carry it but they stopped and I started buying it at greenhome.com. Whole Foods carries Mountain Green. I think a lot of whether these detergents work for you depends on the type of water you have. I know some people hate 7th Gen. dishwasher det. but we've had really good luck with it. I think our water is a little hard, but not terribly so. I'm not sure how they work with soft water.

[wendy1221]

I love Ecover detergent and Trader Joe's is really good too. Our water is too hard here, though, and I had to switch back to All Free and Clear.

I will never ever buy anything from 7th Gen again. I emailed them about the use of sodium polyacrylate in their diapers and they basically told me they didn't think it was that bad (it's a plastic salt that NEVER breaks down and it's WATER SOLUBLE! What do they mean it's not bad??? Sorry, but my dh and I are chemists, and we aren't easily fooled by their little spiel.) and had little environmental impact. And that what little impact it did have was outweighed by its usefulness in the diapers. I think they're all about money and appearances. They don't really care.

[wendy1221]

Oh, and Oxi-clean is just overpriced colorsafe bleach. They're all things that turn into peroxide when mixed w/ water, so there's really no reason why Oxi-Clean is any better than any of the others, including stuff that been around for ages. Oxi-clean is just better at marketing and making it sound like a great new thing.

[lilyka]

I thought our hard water was the problem with our 7th generation products. :LOL I assumed they must work better with soft water. Oh well I like the new stuff we have been using better anyway.

[Bleu]

Thank you for all this great information! Keep it cming!

* that response form 7G is annoying
* I don't know what kind of water we have, but now I must find out. Of course it must have something to do it! So glad you mentioned that!
* I can't remember if Ecover has detergent or not. I'll have to check next time I'm at the strore.
* Thanks for the source info.
* I really like Trader Joe's dishwasher detergent, but I've never tried their laundry detergent. Good idea.
* Oxy-clean revealed as peroxide! I am so happy I started this thread! I had no idea! What are other brands (less expensive ones) that are colorsafe bleach that turns into peroxide? Is it really safe to use on all your clothes?

[wendy1221]

Originally Posted by Bleu

Thank you for all this great information! Keep it cming!

* that response form 7G is annoying
* I don't know what kind of water we have, but now I must find out. Of course it must have something to do it! So glad you mentioned that!
* I can't remember if Ecover has detergent or not. I'll have to check next time I'm at the strore.
* Thanks for the source info.
* I really like Trader Joe's dishwasher detergent, but I've never tried their laundry detergent. Good idea.
* Oxy-clean revealed as peroxide! I am so happy I started this thread! I had no idea! What are other brands (less expensive ones) that are colorsafe bleach that turns into peroxide? Is it really safe to use on all your clothes?

Any "colorsafe bleach" like Clorox 2 or store brand. It will fade out colors eventually because it does oxidize, just like real bleach (but without the cholorine that's bad for the environment), but it's not as good at it as chlorine bleach, so it takes a while. So I wouldn't recommend using it w/ every load, but it's fine when you get stains.

[anniegirl]

I really like Bio-kleen powder, but I don't like the liquid. I've found that it works best if I disolve it first in warm water before I add the clothes. I like the premium powder for diapers too, especially for soaking; it does a good job of getting rid of stinkies.

[srain]

We use Biokleen powder because it goes on sale for $6/ box at the food co-op and we get 26% off that with our member discount. At that price, I'm not trying lots of other stuff.

[bobica]

i've tried most & biokleen is my favorite so far. 7th gen works ok in our soft water but i agree that response is icky. i got it b/c it was onsale at drugstore.com & i've been working my way through trying biodegradable laundry products. next on my list is definitely trader joe's. i also liked method (at target)

[ajsgirl]

I've tried so many kinds and have only kind of liked Sun & Earth and Method. I have a box of BioKleen, and I'll use it on laundry, but I don't feel like my diapers come out fresh after washing them in it - even after two cycles. Trader Joe's didn't get anything very clean. Same thing with 7th Generation. Sun & Earth was good on my clothes, but I still didn't feel like it got my diapers all that fresh smelling. Method did, and maybe that's because it's scented, but at least my diapers don't smell like poo coming out of the dryer anymore! The search may continue...

[PikkuMyy]

I've tried many brands, and IMO, Ecover is the best for everything. Their dish detergent, laundry detergent, stain remover, etc. are all wonderful, as are their cleaning products and their non-chlorine bleach.

That being said, they are more expensive than most of the other brands, so I'll be buying LifeTree dishsoap in bulk (can't do that with Ecover) which is great on my dishes, and BioKleen laundry detergent since we don't have kids and our dirty laundry is never really dirty anyway. I can't live without the stain remover, though, for food stains, and on my mama pads, or the non-chlorine bleach.

[phathui5]

We use the Trader Joe's brand.

[CrunchyMamaToBe]

We use Ecover powdered laundry detergent. We have really hard water, and have never had any problems with it. I combine it with their color-safe bleach (also powdered) when I am doing a light colors load.

Am psyched to hear that they make stain remover! (We've been using Shout : ) I will have to look harder for it next time I am out...

[BabyBumblebee]

We use Ecover laundry detergent, and fabric softener. If things are really stained (most of the time with dd!), I do a soak in whatever oxy-type presoak I have to hand; I have found it invaluable, especially for rejuvenating clothes that would otherwise have been 'ruined'

I used 7th Generation, and was not at all impressed with the results - I had put that down to our really iron-laden well water. Reading the responses here, I'm not so sure :LOL

[momto l&a]

Oxygen bleach is wonderful but you need to buy good quality for it to work well. Most stuff in the store has a lot of fillers to it takes more time and product.

I buy mine from Natural Choices and am think of buying from the Chemistry Store as I think it cheaper from them.

I also use Calgon which is a boxed water softner that holds dirt in the water and really lift the build up out of clothes. I want to try its main ingredient( which escapes me at the moment) from the chemistry store also. The box of calgon says you dont have to use bleach or other detergent boosters if you use it. Ah Calgon is sodium hexametaphosphate

I make laundry soap out of washing soda, borax and fells naptha.