homemade soap or some of the "clean soaps like arm&hamer - can you use them in an HE

[abunchofus]

hey ladies - we have an HE washer which everyone tells me HAS to use HE detergent.

well the walmart only carries a few HE detergents and none are eco friendly.

we're just now learning more about soaps and detergents.

I was reading the thread about the arm & hammer and that sounded promising until the end -

I have made some homemade laundry soap before but I haven't lately because we have this new washer.

Does anyone know if you can use homemade laundry soap in an HE washing machine?

[amcal]

Oooh - ignore what I said. You can not use a smaller amount of non HE detergent.

I did a search and you really don't want to use anything other than an HE specific detergent. It can cause all sorts of build up problems if you use anything else.

I think I read that Charlie's soap is HE compatible. But, I would not use homemade laundry soap.

[Redifer]

You can use anything low-to-non-sudsing. That's all HE detergent is: regular detergent that is concentrated and with a non-sudsing agent in it.

We've had ours for a year now, and we use Ecos laundry detergent (so far, the only thing that doesn't irritate mine or DD's skin). Most kinds of 'crunchy' detergents are low-to-no-sudsing, so it isn't an issue.

Coming from my husband, who works for GE.

[abunchofus]

thank you thank you thank you Redifer!

[stretch358]

You can also check your local outdoors store for "Sports Wash" it is HE compatible and from what I have researched Enviromentally friendly. It has a bright orange label with all kinds of outdoor gear on it. I use it for everything.

[Past_VNE]

As said above, Charlie's is HE friendly and they deliver it to your door for free!

www.charliesoap.com We LOVE it. Their powder is all we use for our wash.

[Abarat]

We don't have an HE washer, so I'm not speaking from experience, but this woman: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm states on her site that she's had several people with HE washers say it's just fine to use homemade laundry soap.
I'd say go for it!