Help homemade he laundry detergent

**schellie69** · 09-26-2005, 12:54 PM

Hello
I just bought a new he washer and dryer I have found recipes for homemade laundry detergent the problem is I can only use he laundry detergent in my washer has any one found a receipe for this and if so where Any help would be greatly appricated.

Thank You
Pam

**mom22grls** · 09-26-2005, 02:12 PM

Pam, I have a front-loader, too. I use Tide HE. It's like, $5 or so. I also have a water softener. I only need to use 1/2 inch or less in the cap to do a whole load of normally dirty clothes. I've used 1/2 the recommended amount for a very large load of my dh's work clothes. I'm getting about a month out of a 100 oz pkg. I do 3-4 loads a day....every day. So, I usually spend about 3 to 5 cents a load. I don't think that's too bad.

My whites have never been whiter....every load I do gets cleaner & cleaner.

When you wet a wash cloth & wring it out, there's no residue.

Just clean.

Most of the other detergent brands now have HE, too, and they're even cheaper.

I've noticed that the frontloaders are really good at getting the clothes clean & you need *very* little soap.

So, I know you were looking for HM laundry soap for HE, but I thought I'd just butt in & give you my 2 cents.

 

 

eta...that free sample they gave you with your new machine......I got 3 loads out of it. 

**zakity** · 09-26-2005, 03:33 PM

I have a front loader and I make my own laundry soap and I only use a tablespoon. I use the dry laundry soap recipe (2/3 cup shredded soap bar, 1/3 cup borax, 1/3 cup washing soda). I have been using baking soda instead of the washing soda (found a huge bag at a cheapo grocery store for massively cheap) and I haven't noticed any difference. Our clothes come out just fine and the machine seems fine also.

**forestdale** · 09-26-2005, 03:49 PM

Yep, I also use HM laundry detergent in my front loader. I have clean clothes, no problem with my machine (which is now 8 years old) and I like using products that I know all the ingredients of.

**Valerie in WA** · 09-26-2005, 04:51 PM

Is there a difference between my six-year-old front loader and an HE? I don't get it....

And I'm wondering if it's a scam to put yet another product on the shelves.

ETA: I always use regular commercial detergent in my machine, but I use 1/4 the amt recommended by the package.

**forestdale** · 09-26-2005, 05:05 PM

I think you hit the nail on the head, Valerie. Maybe a new HE washer would be bigger but most front loaders save water and electricity and give you very clean clothes.

It's that old marketing ploy of changing the colour of an appliance when people are tired of white. In this case they changed the name.

**mom22grls** · 09-26-2005, 06:37 PM

The HE soap either has anti-sudsing agents or uses a detergent that does not contain additives to make it suds.

With mine, too many suds actually stop the machine.

You don't want too many suds because it only uses 5 gals of water to rinse & that won't get all the soap out....as opposed to a regular machine that uses 15 gals or more of water....which still doesn't get all the soap out with one rinse.....or at least mine didn't.

I read somewhere that they actually made detergent *to* suds alot so that there was the impression that it was working better. The new HE soaps don't have that.

Could be a ploy......I just like the way my clothes look with the tide. For years I used the cheapo bucket of stuff from Sams & always thought it was good enough, but now, I see a huge difference......Could be the machine, though.

**forestdale** · 09-26-2005, 06:46 PM

you're right, Jamee, they include sodium laurel sulphate in most detergents to make the suds. Here's some information about it:

http://www.greenpeople.co.uk/Organics_Features_SLS.htm

**schellie69** · 09-27-2005, 11:06 AM

Thank you all for you imput, I just bought a bucket of detergent from sears 275 loads for 24.00 dollars i figured it up to be about 6 cents a load so that is not bad and I think I am going to only use half of what it says to use and see how that goes. I can already see a difference in the cloths being cleaning and I have been using less deteregent so we shall see. I have just started to find ways to cut out expense I have always been frugal but now I really need to tighten the belt so I love these boards so many great ideas I never thought off thank you all for all the wonderfull information

Pam

**joyofsix** · 09-27-2005, 11:26 AM

Great info guys. I've hesitated to use homemade detergent in my front loader. It is about 5years old and I didn't want to muck up the works. My question is, I use Arm&Hammer regular detergent. I only use about a fourth of a cup (or less) and it's only $3.99/100 oz so it's about 50 washes. Would homemade save money? I haven't priced the ingredients.

**Valerie in WA** · 09-27-2005, 12:28 PM

...so, I got out my owner's manual....

The cover says "Tumble Action Washer." We bought it 6yrs & 3 months ago. There is very little information regarding detergent. Here's what it says:
1. ...where to put the detergent...
2. ...that detergent is released at the begining of the cycle...
3. "Low sudsing detergent is recommended for this washer. Use the manufacturer's recommended amount."
4. "If low sudsing detergent is not available, a reduced amount of regular deterent may be used. Because reducing the amount of detergent may reduce cleaning, it is important to pretreat stains, sort carefully by color and soil level, and avoid overloading."
5. "Detergent usage may need to be adjusted for water temperature, water hardness, size and soil level of the load."
6. "For best results, avoid oversudsing."

Like I said before, I use about 1/4 the recommended amount of powdered laundry detergent (from costco-our big warehouse store). I do NOT sort-undies, towels, sheets...they all mingle.

I wash everything in cold. If the dc have a mess on a shirt, I DO pretreat the stain with spray-n-wash or some such. My laundry looks great.

As for homemade detergent...I don't have any experience with it, but I'm wondering: Does homemade detergent tend to suds less than commercial? If so, I would happily use it my machine. OTOH, my $10 box of costco detergent lasts a year, so I'm content with that.

**PrairieRose** · 09-27-2005, 01:43 PM

My homemade liquid sudses MUCH less than a store bought. In fact if you didn't know better and know why, you'd wonder if it were gonna work since there are NO suds at all.

**Missy** · 09-27-2005, 01:59 PM

What is "HE" ? Am I the only one without a clue?

**zakity** · 09-27-2005, 02:02 PM

I only use a tablespoon of the homemade (recommended by a RL friend that has a front loader who uses homemade also) and it works fine.

I occasionally get a "sud" message, but that is either when the batch is first made and I didn't mix it well enough or one of the last scoops in the bucket and I need to make more.