Laundry care
Heavy duty detergents in the product test – cheap powders are the best way to clean
Only powder detergents make really clean.
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Powder detergent beats liquids, because only the classic powders can cope with stubborn stains and prevent graying. Expensive innovations such as gel cushions or the well-known mega-pearls are particularly bad.
It’s actually a truism, but many customers still don’t know: Liquid detergents are not good for heavily soiled or white laundry. And the new product test clearly proves this. White powders triumph among the heavy-duty detergents. They achieve a “good” eleven times. None of the liquid detergents came out above “satisfactory”.
Powder against the gray haze
This is hardly surprising, because certain active ingredients, for example against graying, cannot be dissolved in liquids. The good powders are close together with grades between 1.8 and 2.0. Good and very cheap are Tandil Ultra Plus from Aldi Nord und Süd, dm Denkmit, Penny Shetlan Supercompact and Rossmann Domol. Here a wash cycle costs only 13 cents. The known Persil powder also washes well (1.9), but costs more than double at 31 cents per wash. The cheap liquid detergents are hardly more expensive than the cheap powders, but wash worse. It is astonishing that particularly expensive means, which are offered to the customer as innovations, such as gel cushions or megaperls, are particularly poor in cleaning.
Classic with bleach
The testers write that the success of the powder is based on the fact that, in addition to the powerful enzymes against protein, fat and starch soiling, they also contain bleach. “This is particularly noticeable with colored stains like blueberries and tea.” The test is of course tough; dried-on tea stains cannot be removed without a trace without bleach. The testers also checked the color stability. In order to do well, a heavy-duty detergent must be gentle on color and fabric. With good means you don’t have to worry that the bleach will suck the color out of the laundry. This is where a heavy-duty detergent differs from the rarer pure white detergents. They bleach the laundry more strongly and lighten it. Colored shirts don’t do that well in the long run.
Warmer washes better
As you would expect, the temperature also has an effect on the cleaning effect. With a detergent solution with only 20 degrees, the means are more difficult than with 40 degrees or if you set 60 degrees. It is important to know that the temperature information on the device cannot be relied on. The temperature on the device only means “washes as good as 40 degrees” – but in fact the lye can only be 25 degrees warm instead of 40. If you want to be safe, you have to avoid the eco washes and choose a different mode. The “correct” temperature can usually be recognized by the fact that the wash cycle is noticeably shorter.
It is important, however, to dose the detergent exactly. Too little detergent does not produce any lye that dissolves the laundry soiling. If you regularly underdose, your laundry will turn gray with dirt residues. However, too much detergent does not wash better and it places a greater burden on sewage treatment plants.
You can take the whole test for a fee here see.
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