Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company has agreed to pay $1.55 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit that accused the brand of using sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) in its products — an organic chemical derived from coconut oil and found in common items like laundry detergent and toothpaste — despite the fact that the company had pledged not to include that ingredient. [More]
detergent
Why Does The Same Size Tide Bottle Say That It Washes 20% More Loads?
By 4.27.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Reader Kelly found herself in a common consumer dilemma: She was confused about the marketing language on some detergent labels. Why did some bottles of Tide that were the exact same size as others on the shelf proclaim that they will wash “20% more loads”? [More]
Keep Your Dark-Colored Clothes Looking Fresh And New For Longer
By 2.16.16
Black clothes are a core part of most of our wardrobes, but they’re hard to keep looking fresh and new. What should we do: use detergents specifically marketed for dark clothing? Adjust our washing machine settings? There are steps that you can take to reduce the damage that washing does to your dark-colored clothes, which includes deep colors fading, running, or other disasters. How can you keep clothes looking new the longest? [More]
Tide Makes Powder Detergent Scoop Bigger For No Clear Reason
By 12.29.15
Reader N. has some laundry that’s pretty dirty. She has a toddler, who uses cloth diapers. Yet she’s never used more than one scoop of her preferred detergent, Tide powder. She was surprised recently to open up the box and find a bigger scoop inside the box. Who needs this much detergent? Is Procter & Gamble trying to get customers to overdose on suds? [More]
Tide Detergent Pod Containers Make Easy Trick-Or-Treat Baskets, But Is It A Good Idea?
By 9.10.15
Back in 2012, Procter & Gamble changed the packaging of Tide Pods to look less like candy in a jar after children showed an affinity for putting the colorful, shiny, toxic detergent packets in their mouths. While the move – and constant reminders to keep the detergent far, far away from kids – was meant to deter children from snacking on the poisonous packets, consumers are apparently finding a new use for the bright orange opaque container, a use that some say might not dissuade youngsters from thinking the contents are edible: Halloween candy buckets. [More]
Dawn Shrinks Dish Soap 2 Ounces, Plasters Bottle With ‘2X More’
By 5.28.15
Jill noticed that there were two different designs of Dawn dish detergent on the shelf. As a savvy consumer, she knew that sometimes a redesign can mask a strike from the Grocery Shrink Ray. Indeed, the new bottles contained two fewer ounces of detergent, yet advertise that they contain “2X More.” Wait…two times more of what? [More]
Legislation Aims To Make It Harder For Kids To Snack On Yummy-Looking Detergent Pods
By 2.26.15
Federal safety agencies and poison control centers have continuously expressed concern that the ever-popular, and convenient detergent pods are extremely dangerous to children, with more than 17,000 kids being poisoned by ingesting the detergent since they came on the scene three years ago. Today, the House and Senate took steps to ensure the single-serve detergent packs no long threaten childrens’ safety by introducing legislation that would enact stricter packaging standards for liquid detergent. [More]
Detergent Companies Are Unhappy With Our Efficient Washing Machines
By 10.24.14
High-efficiency washing machines, which use less water to clean your clothes, are an advance that most customers seem to like. Do you know who doesn’t like them, though? Detergent manufacturers. With traditional machines, consumers can dump any old amount of detergent in with our clothes, and it doesn’t matter. With a high efficiency machine, using too much detergent causes problems, so consumers are finally using the correct amount of detergent. [More]
Is Tide Oxi Really The Super Cleaning Agent That The Blonde Property Brother Says It Is?
By 7.2.14
For me, “deep-cleaning the house” has a place on the same list where you’ll find “getting a root canal.” But sometimes you have to, even it it means pulling out five different cleaners to get the job done. Tide claims its new product can clean more than 225 household items. Sounds too good to be true, right? It might be or it might not be – it just depends on your belongings. [More]
Target Promotion: $2 Gift Card When You Buy 5 Or $5 When You Buy 2
By 5.12.14
It’s not that we want to make fun of Target and their shelf tags stuffed with fuzzy math. We can’t help it. If only Target would try applying some logic to the signs it posts in its stores, we would stop posting those signs here on the site. [More]
Walmart Wants To Cut 25% More Water From Laundry Detergents
By 4.30.14
While incorrect or misleading directions really don’t help, studies and real-life experience show that people tend to pour laundry detergent with a heavy hand. That’s why a new eco-friendly initiative from Walmart seems like a good thing, but will be really beneficial to detergent-makers. [More]
Kids Worldwide Still Snarfing Detergent Pods Like Candy
By 9.6.12 — Updated: 4.3.13
In hindsight, maybe brightly-colored, individually wrapped dollops of laundry detergent weren’t such a great idea from a safety point of view. Sure, they’re popular: pre-measured soap is handy, and they keep people who use laundromats or apartment building machines from hauling giant bottles around. The disadvantage is that even with warnings to keep the products on a high shelf and promises to change the packaging to make it more childproof, kids everywhere seem to find the pods irresistible. [More]
Some Fancy New Laundry Products Are Utterly Pointless
By 8.19.10
Our colleagues at Consumer Reports test all sorts of products to determine which are worth buying, and which aren’t. This month, they rounded up some laundry products currently on the market that aren’t worth picking up in the store: including a detergent blessed by Martha Stewart herself that wasn’t any more effective than plain water. [More]
Sorority Sisters Suffer Ironic Laundry Detergent Injuries
By 5.2.09
A fraternity fundraiser for the D.C. Firefighter’s Burn Association at George Washington University included a super-fun Slip ‘n’ Slide lubricated with laundry detergent. Detergent isn’t supposed to be slathered all over the body, though, and can lead to severe skin irritation and chemical…um….burns.
By 3.21.08
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Laundry detergent is expensive. One “debt free” blogger has taken the time to mark up a detergent cap to show you how much product you’re probably wasting with every load. [No Credit Needed] (Thanks to J.C.!)
These Tide Bottles Are Not At All Confusing
By 1.28.08
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.”
Walmart To Save Planet With Concentrated Laundry Detergents
By 9.29.07
Walmart says it’s going to save “one of our most precious natural resources”, water, by offering only concentrated laundry detergents from now on.
Tide Downsizes, Charges Same Price
By 7.28.06
New boxes of Tide have 17 oz less than before, yet consumers are asked to pay the same amount. But is it really an outrage?
