Product Review: Purex Complete 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets

[Nada.Leona]

DH and I discovered these awesome little things when we were in Texas last November. Since then, they've come to Canada. Free samples are available in the US only (stupid Purex!) at Try a Free Sample Purex 3-in-1 Complete Laundry Sheets.

Or buy it on amazon or your local grocery store!
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Dispenser-Detergent-Softener-Anti-static/dp/B0028OSZC6/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1273588877&sr=1-7"]Amazon.com: Purex® Complete 3-in-1 Laundry Dispenser with 20 Sheets, Pure &Clean Scent, All in One Detergent and Softener and Anti-static Sheet: Health & Personal Care@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/213dLRIRgSL.@@AMEPARAM@@213dLRIRgSL[/ame]

Product Review

We used them while we were staying in hotels in Texas. Let me tell you, it was great to be able to grab this little package and toss it in our bags when we moved from hotel to hotel, rather than having to purchase giant bottles of liquid soap and then leave them somewhere, much less having to buy mini bottles of soap and spend a fortune.

The product contains the concentrated dry laundry soap, which takes up the majority of the sheet. After that, there is a small green strip of fabric softener and the sheet itself is anti-static. You simply toss the sheet in with the laundry when you load up the washer. When the water hits the sheet, it activates the detergent, which then cleans the clothes and leaves a nice smell.

When you unload the washer and add them to the dryer, you simply toss the sheet in with it. The heat from the dryer activates the fabric softener. When you're finished, you toss the sheet (we'll come up with some use for it later, I'm sure ). Voila! All in one product your laundry is complete. No spills, no measuring, no overuse of product by a well-meaning DH, mother-in-law or child.

Cost

At our local grocery store, we can get them for $6.99, which, using a full sheet, will come to 24 loads. Being frugal, we cut them in half and they were just as efficient, so we can use them for 48 loads.

At $6.99/48 loads, that's approximately $0.15/load. Being as they are the laundry soap, the fabric softener and the anti-static all in one, it's approximately $0.05 per product. Now, DH and I never use anti-static, but we do buy cheap-o fabric softener (liquid), and Purex laundry detergent (liquid). So omitting the cost associated with the anti-static, we are spending about $0.07 per product per load when using these sheets. So let's price comparison the liquid detergent and liquid fabric softener to the cost of the 3-in-1 sheets and see which comes out cheaper.

The cost of Purex liquid detergent by itself is $6.99. It allows us to wash 64 loads of laundry, using a full cap. Again, we only ever use half a cap of soap, so we'll average it and say we can wash 128 loads of laundry on one bottle. Our total cost, then, is $0.05/load for the soap.

We buy generic brand liquid fabric softener. At $3.99, it contains 3.6L of liquid. It doesn't specify how many loads of laundry that is, but I use 1 tbsp per load. So that's about 68 tbsp/litre, or about 245 tbsp/bottle. At $3.99, it's about $0.02/load.

So total cost of the liquid additions is approximately $0.07/load, with the cost of the sheets being $0.15/load. That doesn't count for any margin of error on our end, when you use a little more than 1 tbsp of fabric softener or when DH uses a full cap of soap.

Environmental Impact

The other thing I consider as well is the environmental impact. Here is what Purex says about the environmental impact of their 3-in-1 sheets:

Sustainability: Purex developed Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets with significant consideration to our environmental impact.

Less Water: As you may have noticed, liquid detergents have gone to smaller bottles and converted to a 2X Ultra Concentration. Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets take concentration to the next level! If everyone in the United States1 switched to buying Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets, 41 Olympic-sized pools worth of water would be saved each single refill purchase versus purchasing a standard 50oz bottle of liquid detergent!

Less Packaging: The Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets Refill has 43% less packaging than the products it replaces. If every American bought just one Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheet Refill instead of even one bottle of liquid detergent2, we could prevent the equivalent of 91 million detergent bottles (27 million lbs), originally destined for landfills, from being produced - keeping over eight football fields worth of packaging out of landfills.

Less Weight: With less water and packaging to transport, we are able to reduce C02 emissions from transportation by 67%. That's an equivalent savings of removing 3,143 cars from the road for a year versus the C02 that would be generated from the same people buying a bottle of detergent3!

1. Assumes US population of 113,567,967 based on US Census 2009 Projection
2. Detergent bottle assumption based on Purex Liquid detergent 50oz bottle
3. Removes 36,053,929 lbs. from the rood with assumed 11,470 lbs. of C02 generated from each car (Source: Walmart Sustainability Substantiation)

Now, far be it for me to say that a company is always honest. I am not going to just assume that what they say is true. But after having scoured the internet for an hour, I'm not seeing much further information on the environmental benefits of using this product. This review from CNET informed us the following:

"According to Purex, it developed the new product with an eye to sustainability. I'm hearing the argument on less packaging -- it cuts packaging by almost 50 percent. But the company also says that if everyone in the U.S. switched to the laundry sheets, "41 Olympic-sized pools worth of water would be saved each single refill purchase versus purchasing a standard 50oz bottle of liquid detergent!" I'm having trouble following the argument--are they saying liquid detergent is mostly water? Because I can't figure out how using these sheets would use less water in your machine.

Also, according to Purex, using the sheets reduces CO2 emissions from transportation by 67 percent. That may be true, but you're still using your dryer if you're using these sheets, rather than hanging your clothes on the line. Which is perhaps a realistic approach--as much as I love the idea of line-drying, I haven't yet made that leap, and I can't see it happening as long as I still have children of bed-wetting age."

Further down, a person commented the following:

You seem to be fuzzy on the water reduction issue. Most liquid products, be they cosmetic or cleaning have large amounts of water.
Also, the CO2 emissions refer to the actual shipping of the product; I'm sure that they can fit at least three times more units of this product in the same space that the older, liquid products used. Therefore, less trucks are needed for shipping.

Most of what is being discussed on the Internet is the convenience and the efficiency of the product itself. So for now, the information provided by Purex is pretty much all I have to go on.

When looking at the information regarding regular laundry soaps, Wikipedia.org tells us:

Environmental impact

The CO2 emissions from a liquid laundry detergent used to wash an average load of laundry is about 0.7 kilograms (1.5 lb).[1] The loss of natural habitat potential from a liquid laundry detergent used to wash an average load of laundry is about 0.5 square metres (5.4 sq ft) based on primary production correlations.[2]

In the 1960s, detergent manufacturers waged an advertising battle over who had the longest lasting suds, and detergent compounds quickly appeared in the waterways. Suds began to appear in streams, rivers, lakes, and at the foot of Niagara Falls, where piles of discolored detergent foam rose eight feet high.[3] As with dishwashing liquid, the suds are totally cosmetic and add no cleaning value, but are created by an additive surfactant.

Detergents also contain phosphate additives. "Barry Commoner ... noted that between 1940 and 1970 the amount of phosphates in city wastewater increased from 20,000 to 150,000 tons per year." [4] With the increase in phosphates, algal blooms grew splendidly on the excess phosphorus and consumed most of the oxygen in the waters, killing fish and plants.[5]

As part of the switch to "go green" and protect the environment, by 2009 almost all liquid laundry detergent sold in the US will be in small bottles and in concentrated form, which supposedly helps protect the environment by introducing less plastic into it.[citation needed] Using a more concentrated formulation increases the number of washes per bottle, reduces the amount of carbon dioxide produced by its transport and the transport of raw materials.

In hard water areas, a greater amount of detergent must be used to the same effect as for that in soft water areas. This could perhaps be better countered with a special additive instead of by simply using more detergent. While it is possible to formulate the detergents differently for different areas, this has proved difficult for reasons of logistics: not only must more varieties be produced, but areas of hard and soft water can be very localised, and people may take washing powder with them on trips and so forth, so efficient distribution can be problematic. Hard water can be overcome by adding sodium carbonate (washing soda) at significantly lower cost than using extra detergent.[citation needed]

The use of enzymes in biological detergents reduces the need for the chemical detergent, and also allows washing at lower water temperatures, thus reducing the energy needed to heat the water, compared to non-biological powders[6]. The enzymes pose no harm to the environment as they are broken down into harmless biomass either as part of the wash itself or at the sewage treatment plant.

The use of specialized Cold Water detergent (as opposed to regular detergent on the cold cycle) is also on rise, and such products are increasingly being offered by laundry detergent manufacturers. In supporting the use of cold water, environmental advocates point out that on average, at least 80% of the total energy used washing a load of clothes goes to heating up the water, so that the use of cold water detergent may result in reduced energy costs for the consumer [7]

So with the reduced carbon dioxide emissions, the reduction in packaging, the concentration of the cleaning agents (and thus reduction in water), and the convenience of the products, it is up to the individual if paying almost double the cost of the bottles is worth it to them. Personally, I think that the benefits outweigh the costs, as $0.15/load to have my laundry come out clean and environmentally friendly seems like a good bargain for me. On the other hand, I haven't factored in the cost of homemade laundry soap, powdered detergent vs liquid detergent, line-drying, or other money-saving and environment-saving laundry techniques. Therefore, my review and final judgement is not complete. I can only go with what I have. Anyone is welcome to add their own comparisons to this product.

Side-Note

I see no purposeful reason to buy the "Starter Kit" -- you get a little plastic box to hold the sheets in, and you get 4 less than when you buy the refills. Also, I don't know if you can cut them in half when you use them in the plastic box. We kept ours in the package. They come dry, not wet like a Swiffer Wet cloth, so there's no worry about them drying out. So I say skip the Starter Kit and go right to the refills.

[Lady_V]

Thank you for the review. I was looking at them for when we do laundry away from the house (ie: campgrounds). It's nice to know that they do work.

[TheRootedNomad]

I actually participated in a product test on them awhile back. A survey company gave me 24 to try over a two week period and then called and asked a barage of questions. I actually found cutting them in half just as effective as well. Also, once they were done in the dryer I continued reusing them as dust rags and scrubbies for things like my burner grills. I still have a few that I dust with. They are not cost efficient for me as I use the powder that I can get free with coupons, or the Surf or Gain in bulk from Sam's and rotate with the make my own. I also rarely use fabric softner. Environmentally, I figure the cardboard boxes are better than the plastic bottles. I'm afraid I'm not "green" enough to take it much further than that. I do think they are wonderful travel products and if I can find deals on them I wouldn't hesitate to buy them.

[ktsmama]

These sheets left "stains" on my clothes that looked like grease and have not come out after many washes.

[monkeywrangler71]

Thank you for the review, I'd never even heard of them.

These would be great for travelling. Normally I line dry, but if we end up in an apartment instead of a house, I guess that will probably stop. Definitely something to consider.

[AnW819]

I have been wanting to try these for SO long. Do they work in normal wash machines or just the new high tech ones?

[Nada.Leona]

We have used them in my mother's energy-efficient machine and our clunky ol' $30 secondhand apartment machine, with no complaints.

[AnW819]

Awesome! I can use them in my apartment machine then =] Yey! Now, if only I could stockpile these!

[lisaflex]

i got 2 free in the mail this past wknd

liked the scent

was unimpressed w/ the statit on fleece blankets though. didnt mid since they were free though!