Home & leisure

Laundry detergents

Updated: 29 Jul 2011
Laundry-detergents-hero

Introduction

Two brands clean up in our test of laundry detergents.

We tested 21 laundry detergents: 8 for front loaders and 13 for top loaders, testing for general cleaning performance and their ability to remove grass and tomato stains. Two brands stood out for both top- and front-loading machines.

We also look at how suitable washing machine wastewater is for recycling on the garden, and provide tips for getting a cleaner wash.

Products we tested

This report contains test results for the following laundry detergents (listed alphabetically within groups):

For front loaders

  • Drive Front Loader
  • Ecostore Original Lemon Front Loader
  • Persil Small & Mighty 2X Front Loader
  • Persil Small & Mighty 3X Front Loader
  • Persil Small & Mighty 3X Sensitive Front Loader
  • Persil Ultimate Front Loader
  • Surf 2X Front Loader Tropical Flowers
  • Surf 3X Front Loader Tropical Flowers

For top loaders

  • B_E_E Triple Concentrate Laundry Liquid
  • B_E_E Triple Concentrate Laundry Powder
  • Cold Power Advanced Aloe Vera
  • Drive Top Loader
  • Ecostore Original Lemon Laundry Powder
  • Fab New Formula Frangipani
  • Next Generation Lavender
  • Persil Small & Mighty 2X Top Loader
  • Persil Small & Mighty 3X Top Loader
  • Persil Ultimate Top Loader
  • Reflect Ultra Concentrate Aromatics
  • Surf 2X Top Loader Tropical Flowers
  • Surf 3X Top Loader Tropical Flowers

Fab, Dynamo and Cold Power liquids and Persil Sensitive powders were excluded because these have been reformulated since our test.  

About our tests

We measured out the recommended amount of detergent for a normally soiled load – or for a lightly soiled load if there was no “normally soiled” recommendation. We then used it to wash soiled swatches that we attached to laundry items. Our wash was done in cold water (20°C).

The swatches we use to measure general washing performance are stained with nut oil, milk and a colour pigment.

Other swatches are stained with grass (to test the detergents’ enzyme action and general stain removal) and tomato (to test enzyme action and bleaching effect).

We used a spectrophotometer to measure the amount of light reflected from the swatches before and after washing. This told us how much dirt was removed. Any effects from optical brighteners were filtered out by the spectrophotometer.

Dealing with dirt

If you're faced with a challenging wash – like a machine load of muddy football jerseys – try these tips:

  • Increasing the dose above the recommended level will get really dirty clothes cleaner but it won’t make much difference in a normal load. There’s a point at which adding more detergent produces no improvement: you’re simply discharging more chemicals into the environment and wasting your money. With concentrated 2X detergents, an extra teaspoon adds several cents to the cost of a wash. 
  • A warmer wash could help when something’s really grubby … but check the garment’s care label first. Higher temperatures soften dirt and oily stains, making it easier for the mechanical action of the washing machine to remove them. But cold washes are just fine for regular washing and they save on power bills.
  • You can improve the results of a normal wash by pre-soaking clothes. This helps loosen dirt so it can be removed more easily. Rubbing a little detergent into especially soiled spots will also help. Again, check the care label first.

Wash water on the garden

If your garden is suffering during a dry spell you might be tempted to use water from your washing machine.

But there are health issues in collecting and recycling grey water (that’s the wastewater from the sink, bath, shower and washing machine but not from the toilet or bidet). If you’re diverting the grey water to a tank you should ask your local council if you need a consent. You won’t need one if you’re simply collecting the water in containers to water the garden straightaway.

Chemicals are also an issue. The components of wash water most likely to cause problems are:

  • salinity/sodium (the sodium in salts harms plants and affects soil structure)
  • phosphorus (when this gets into waterways it can cause excessive algal growth)
  • high pH (laundry detergents that have a high pH can harm plants).

Our test

To test our grey water, a specialised lab analysed water containing the manufacturer’s recommended amount of detergent dissolved in the combined wash and rinse water that’s used in a standard cycle (120 litres for top-loaders; 60 litres for front-loaders).

We wanted to find which detergents had:

  • relatively low pH (less than 10.8)
  • less than 20g of sodium per wash
  • less than 1g of phosphorus (phosphates) per wash.

Products that met all these criteria have at least one tick in the “grey-water suitability” column of our test results table. (Those with less than 10g of sodium per wash have an extra tick – which gives them two ticks in total. Those with less than 5g of sodium per wash and a pH below 10 have an extra two ticks – three ticks in total.)

All detergents in this test contained less than 1g of phosphorus per wash.

Combined wash and rinse water from detergents with at least one tick in our table is suitable for intermittent use on a garden or lawn with an area greater than 150m². It’s safe to use the rinse water from any of these products on the garden (except on acid-loving plants such as azaleas and camellias).

Don’t use grey water on anything you may eat raw – such as lettuces.

More information


Report by Bev Frederikson.