You might look at a bottle of laundry detergent and idly wonder whether the bottle really contains 96 loads’ worth of soap. Then you probably keep on using the soap and forget that you ever questioned the wisdom of the label. Fortunately, our clean and fresh colleagues over at Consumer Reports have a calculator and a mission to save us all from inaccurate dosing caps.

Target’s house brand for household products, Up & Up, put out a nice, big 150-ounce bottle of their liquid detergent. The claim that this is enough detergent for 96 loads, and the instructions tell customers to fill it up to the clearly marked fourth line in the cap.

The problem is that the math is wrong, or at least a little bit misleading: filling the cap to that fourth mark gets you 70 capfuls of detergent total, not 96. It’s not news to Consumerist readers that Target has occasional problems with math, so Consumer Reports contacted the company to let them know about the discrepancy.

It turns out this wasn’t a math error, but a laundry error. See, you’re not supposed to fill the cap up all the way most of the time: a regular load of laundry goes up to maybe the second line on the cap. The fourth line, presumably, is for loads of extra-dirty clothing.

Target plans to “promptly” correct the instructions on bottles – whether this means they’ll put stickers on the bottles already on shelves will be interesting to see.

Target fixes dosing directions on Up & Up detergent [Consumer Reports]

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