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.

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