Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with detergent

so fresh and so clean

KateHasQuestions — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:30:05 -0800

Please recommend some body washes and laundry detergents with a lasting smell. I smell all nice in the morning when I leave the house, but less than an hour later the body wash smell wears off. This happens with any body wash or soap that I've used. I can use perfume of course, but don't like doing so for regular work days, so a nice lasting body wash smell would be perfect. Can you recommend a body wash or soap whose smell lasts a really long time? I prefer something that can be bought in a mall or chain store (NYC shops are OK, I'm in the area) and not online, since I absolutely must smell the stuff before buying it. Same with laundry detergent. I haven't found any whose smell stays on clothes for more than 15 minutes after I take them out of the dryer. So any recommendations for these products that have a pleasant lasting smell are welcome. Or are there tricks to make the smells last that I just don't know about?

Cat floor soap?

cgs — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:32:50 -0800

Cat-sensitive wood floor cleaner? I currently use Murphy's Oil Soap to wash my painted wood floor... do you think that is too strong of a scent for my cats? If so, do you know an alternative? I'm looking for something I can use to wash the entire floor, not spot-clean (like a special $$ enzyme cleaner). I'm hoping one of the major brands works...

Thanks for your help!

Why ya gotta (phosp)hate

tdischino — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:41:17 -0800

How to counter the effects of phosphate free dishwasher detergent when we have hard water? We recently tried a phosphate free automatic dishwasher detergent. The problem is that the effects of hard water (I'm pretty sure here in the SoCal, we have the hardest water in the nation) are fairly annoying (white-ish film/residue on plastics, spots on glass). We don't have a water softening system, and we don't have issues with the hard water otherwise. Using normal detergent doesn't have this effect. We also use a rinse agent, but it does not seem to help. Is this pointless (trying to be a little more green), or is there a solution?

Commiserations, or suggestions to counter this?

Cleaning cleaner

prefpara — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:52:16 -0800

How can I get CVS-brand liquid "high efficiency" detergent out of a nylon duffel bag? (asking for a friend)

What can I do about a stuck dishwasher main soap dispenser lid?

criticman — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:44:43 -0800

What can I do about a stuck dishwasher main soap dispenser lid? The main soap dispenser that you fill with your dish washing detergent of preference and close the lid on is stuck closed. I can manually open it, but it fails to open during any of the various wash cycle options. I have instead just been filling it and leaving it open but I know this likely loses the soap in the pre-clean phase (which the un-enclosed dish is intended to be used for). My dishes, however, come out fairly clean.

I was wondering if anyone knows the likely cause OR if any of the pre-packaged dish washer detergent balls/cubes can just be tossed in at the start and successfully make it past the initial pre-clean phase all the way to the primary wash cycle. They all say to put them in the main dispenser and close lid (yet they all say "contain pre-wash cycle cleansers") so I am hoping someone can speak from experience.

It is a Kenmore dishwasher if that matters. If no one has any input, I will just have to call the home warranty company and shell out $65 for them to come fix it (not so worried about the money but arranging to be home from work is an issue).

Fading Sheets

Lylo — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:05:51 -0800

why are my blue sheets fading to grey? I have very expensive Barbara Barry bed linnens. I wash the sheets and pillow cases weely in cold water with a mild detergent and fabric softener and dry in "medium" dryer. The blue color is getting lighter and lighter, greyer and greyer, no longer matching the blue on the duvet cover (which I wash less frequently) or on the matching silk throw. I have searached previous ask metfi's and no, I am not using any acne medicine. Is it the fabric softener? There is a sticker on my washer that claims "downy fabric softener preserves colors from fading". I was previously using "cold water tide" but have switched to "deft", if that's the cuprit, it's too late to tell, but please help me figure this out to save the next sheets I buy to replace these.

An itch to find a laundry solution

zadcat — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:44:25 -0800

Laundry hacking for someone whose skin is hypersensitive to detergent residue. My good friend B. has to spend an unconscionable amount of time doing his laundry because if there's any detergent residue at all in his clothes, it makes him itch horribly. He's tried unscented products – things like Ecover detergent – and it's made no appreciable difference so far.

He says: "Laundry takes forever. i think i ran my first load thru 4 soap cycles and 5 rinses plus a soak in hot water in the tub. In order to run hot rinses, for instance, i have to run a regular hot/cold wash (the only cycle with hot water) without soap, and cut it off after the hot wash cycle before it runs the cold rinse. So i have to program an alarm (my cel) and go and stop the machine manually."

The machine is a recent one and I suspect has been pre-programmed both to skimp on hot water and save on water generally. All very environmentally friendly I'm sure, but water isn't even metered here, and in any case what B. has to do probably uses more water than he strictly needs.

So two questions:

1. Are there any products that are sufficiently different from standard detergent, but get clothes reasonably clean, that he could try? I've just bought him some Himalayan soap nuts, so that's one thing he'll take for a spin. Anything else around?
2. I've googled for "washing machine hacking" but come up dry. Clearly somebody should know how to reprogram the machine's brain to allow for more hot water, longer rinse cycles, or some other combination that would get the detergent completely out of his clothes. Any leads on this (I know it's lame, but I can't tell you the brand or model) would be helpful.

Should I buy a front-loading washer if the only detergent I trust is Cheer Free?

amtho — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:34:50 -0800

Detergent for front-loading washing machine - is there some available that's as innocuous as Cheer Free? Even Tide Free or Arm & Hammer seems to make me sneeze & break out more. I like the idea of buying a front-loading washer, but I'd be sad if I did so and then couldn't find detergent that worked for my apparently-oh-so-sensitive skin.

A search found this interesting detergent, but it seems to work for front-loaders by simply adjusting the amount of detergent used. Is this a reasonable method? Wouldn't I really want a low-sudsing detergent, but still need about the same amount to get the clothes completely clean? Also, I realize that I'd want to try the detergent first to make sure I didn't react to it, but if anyone's actually tried "Country Save Laundry Powder" I'd love to hear about it.

OH NO! HER FAVORITE PANTS!

klangklangston — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:02:59 -0800

Khaki pants— $50 or less solution to fix girlfriend's khaki pants. Went through laundry with detergent on top; got orangish bleach stains. Dye? Some sort of hot soak with other khakis?

How can I get my white sheets white again?

autojack — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:10:09 -0800

How can I get my white sheets, er, white again? I've never owned white sheets until now; I have two different sets, both fairly pricey. One are Egyptian cotton, from Bed Bath and Beyond, and the other are regular cotton, made by Area. Both sets have yellowed very slightly since I bought them ten months ago, mainly on the pillow cases. Normally I wash the sheets by themselves, and just use regular Tide liquid detergent on them. Tonight I tried washing the Bed and Bath ones with Tide and a little bit of Clorox bleach, but it didn't seem to make any difference at all.

I'm a guy. I work better with things that plug in than with things that are woven. Can anyone suggest what I should do to re-whiten these sheets?

Why does washing my colored clothes make them blotchy so often?

cadge — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 07:12:30 -0800

What's causing my clothes to occasionally come out of the wash with blotchy spots where the dye has been lightened/removed? I've noticed that sometimes, my colored clothes come out of the wash with blotches where the dye has been lightened/removed somehow.

Somtimes it seems to happen in sweaty areas (like the neck fold on my turtleneck, turning from camel to a light orange, or the neckline on my summertime shirt), but sometimes it just happens randomly (streaks on the front of my blue t-shirt).

It seems to happen mostly when I use Tide liquid detergent in my parents' washer (not when I use Seventh Generation at the laundromat). If possible I'd like to find a way to work around this while not forcing my parents to purchase a different detergent and not having to lug a thing of Seventh Gen home myself.

Does anyone know why this might be happening? How can I avoid this? I'm losing more shirts than I'd like!

Soap that won't kill plants?

wanderingmind — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 20:48:05 -0800

I have a crazy idea involving my washing machine, its outflow, and my garden, but there's a little problem involving suds... I'm trying to conserve water, and I realized that the pipe connecting the outflow of my washing machine could be redirected to spill out over a patch of my (currently rather bare and boring) backyard. The problem, of course, is that washing machine wastewater still has the detergent in it, and I don't think that's very good for plants. What I'd like to know is if there's a way for this scheme to work - are there plant-safe detergents out there? Preferably ones that won't break my budget?