Reader Garret wants to know how two bottles of Tide containing the exact same amount of liquid, with identical measuring caps, can contain two different numbers of “loads.”
The wife and I were at Sam’s Club the other day and needed to pick up some laundry detergent. We always buy the largest capacity they have and check the price accordingly. On this trip, Sam’s had 3 large capacity Tide containers; Regular Tide, Tide w/Frebreez and Tide w/ Downy. Each container was priced at $19.84.
Of course we wanted the one with the largest capacity. So we picked up the regular Tide that stated on the bottle “110 Loads”. As we started to look at the other choices, I noticed that the other two containers stated “81 Loads” but were also priced at the $19.84 price. This being the case I looked at the container capacity. All three were “170 FL OZ (1.32 GAL) 5.02 L” (pics attached).
Thinking that the additional additives to the Tide (Frebreez and Downy) might have diluted the strength of the detergent I pulled and compared the measuring caps of each bottle and they were identical. It appears price wise they were all the same. But, I could not figure out how there would be less loads with the same 170 FL OZ and identical measuring caps. Do the marketing folks at Procter & Gamble realize that the advertised load capacity of the detergents makes no sense?
So the question remains. Is it 110 loads or 81 loads?
If the measuring caps truly are exactly the same then… we don’t have the first damn clue. Maybe you’re supposed to wash fewer clothes.
Just a note that there really are real differences between the low mid and high grade stuff…
[pubs.acs.org]
And just because gain cleans as well as Tide did doesn’t mean it cleans as well as Tide does, as there is continual pressure downward.
That said the number of people who really notice must be pretty low, and the difference seems larger in dry then liquid.
Since I saw this posting I have since contacted the makers of Tide and once I get a response I will share.
@JackAshley: IAWTC
@MPHinPgh: And we have the right to be annoyed at stuff like this that has NOTHING to do with topic being discussed… if you don’t want to take the flak, don’t fly over the target.
Well, gee, no one’s mentioned this yet so I think I’ll throw this in – the less-loads one has less detergent! Gee! Wow! No one here has thought of that yet!
(geez people, don’t people bother to read past comments before they start typing? That’d take actual effort…)
What I’m curious about is why the coldwater tide has fewer loads per bottle than the regular tide.
I also get a chuckle out of the fact that if it were not for a single space, the bottle would be advertising that it was both MORE EFFECTIVE and USELESS.
I’ve lost precious minutes of my life in the detergent aisle calculating this very puzzling problem. In the end I buy the regular tide. But it still confuses me.
I would guess they add the fabric softener to the laundry detergent because like with all other convienence products the manufacturers figure we are now even too lazy to get up off the couch to add a cap of fabric softener to a load of laundry!
@mercurypdx: Great, I’ll have to look up to see if I can reverse this on my towels :-/
@GitEmSteveDave: It’s probably another ‘phantom asterisk’ where they include it, but nowhere is there an actual explanation of what it means (or it leads to ‘see store for details’ and no one at the store has any info).
Wow can you believe how many of us have the time & energy to write about various caps sizes, evil empires,utility values, more evil empires, flavouring it all with cursing, strange abbreviations, product insults, & scientific stats! Personally I buy both tide and Purex. I’ve read that Tide doesn’t necessarily clean better but helps preserve your clothing. I find my clothes just too expensive to take any chances but I do wash the towels, sheets, dog & hubbies stuff in good old Purex. But then I vote libertarian so what do I know!
Real simple: Find a scale. Weigh the caps before any liquids are in them. Find something to measure the detergent in and put equal volumes of detergent in each cap. Reweigh the caps+liquid. Put caps near a dehumidifier and allow them to “dry”. Reweigh caps. Remeasure volume of detergent in caps. Now you can compute the densities for each cap. By knowing the results from the “softenerless” cap you know the density of just the detergent. Back compute amount of fabric softener in the other cap. This will tell you what fraction of softener to detergent you have. Scale per load as required. Simple.
@Erskine: I understood the logic, but if the lines on the measuring cup are the same, well, you get the point. Apparently the directions specify to use different amounts, so that explains it.
@MBZ321: And I make my own detergent for roughly $0.50/5gal. It takes about 30 minutes of my time every few months. Humongous savings!
@Erskine: LOL! and i agree!
…come on, Consumerist, not all corporations are trying to screw the average Joe.
The wise consumer will test laundry detergent. When I switched to liquid from powder, I started with the recommended amount, then put in less and less, till I ended up with a dirty result that needed to be run again. Then, I went back up a little. For regular, no-additive Tide, that’s about 45% of the measuring cup. If you’ve got extra nasty items to wash, you might want to increase it to 60%. And results are going to vary depending on the hardness of your incoming water. In areas where the calcium hardness is very low, getting soap out is a real problem…
As far as big box stores, my choice to use Sam’s is based on convenience. Sam’s is 3 miles from my house, Costco is 20. And Tide is DEFINITELY better than most other brands. I cheap out on lots of stuff in my life, but wearing stinky, dirty clothes is NOT going to work!