How many laundry detergents are there

In This Article Expand. How Much Detergent? High-Efficiency Washers. Standard Top Loaders. What Labels Tell Us. Featured Video. Related Topics. Laundry Appliances. Read More. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for TheSpruce. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.

These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Are you really dirty? This month, she'll be enrolling you in Laundry School. Each week, instead of doing a deep dive into one single query, Jolie will provide shorter answers to your most burning laundry questions. Got questions? Most of the time, when we talk about laundry, we focus on whatever it is that we're laundering, whether it's our clothes, or our sheets and towels, or even our shoes.

But it's almost as important to talk about the products we use to wash all those items, so in this week's installment of Laundry School we'll go through a whole bunch of different wash day products, what they do, when to use them, and when to skip 'em entirely.

Let's do this thing. In the first week of Laundry School , we talked about the difference between liquid, powder, and pod-style detergents, and why you might want to choose one formula over another. Short answer: They all work. But the method of delivery is only one differentiator when it comes to types of laundry detergent.

Now that we're deeper into our Laundry School coursework, it's time to talk about specialty detergents, what they do, and the circumstances under which you might want to use one.

First things first: Do you need a specialty detergent? Regular old laundry detergent is just fine to use, and can be used in most of the scenarios that call for the use of a specialty formula. Might you want a specialty detergent? Sure thing! Are you a big denim guy or seriously into your goth look? Allow me to introduce you to dark formula detergent , which will help to preserve dark indigo dye in jeans and prevent fading in blacks, navys, browns, etc.

Need to show your sweaters some love? A detergent designed for wool and cashmere like Woolite Delicates or Eucalan will work, regardless of whether you choose to hand or machine wash woolens. Le Blanc is another brand that offers a series of specialty detergents for everything from silk to linen.

Are you a gym rat? Laundry detergents based on synthetic ingredients are a relatively recent innovation. For centuries until World War I, people washed their clothes with soaps that were made by saponifying fats and oils into fatty acid salts.

German chemical companies developed an alkyl sulfate surfactant, a synthetic version of the fatty acid salts, during the war when Germany was unable to obtain the fats and oils needed for soap. No doubt the firm also considered the premium it could charge. In part because of this difference in emphasis, liquids and powders have significantly different formulas today, explains Shoaib Arif, manager of applications and technical service at Pilot Chemical, a surfactant maker. You need more chemistry knowledge.

In powdered detergents, the main surfactant is linear alkylbenzene sulfonate. In contrast, most liquids also contain alcohol ethoxylates, which are effective on challenging oily stains, she says. Moreover, Arif says, liquids tend to include a broad range of surfactants, including LAS, alcohol ethoxylates, ether sulfates, and amine oxides.

Other ingredients present their own challenges in liquids. For enzymes to be stable, liquids must contain an additive like borax or calcium formate. Liquids rely instead on expensive complexing polymers like polyethyleneimine ethoxylate.

Finally, powders contain copious amounts of cheap builder. Phosphates were long ago removed from laundry detergents because they can promote excessive plant and algae growth in lakes and rivers, but powders still bristle with sodium carbonate and zeolites that tie up hard water ions like calcium and magnesium.

To build liquid detergents, especially for hard water, formulators must turn to alternative builders, such as sodium citrate, and pump up surfactant levels. The result, Arif says, is that liquids are quite effective but typically more expensive than powders. An analysis of US laundry detergents published last year by the Wirecutter, a consumer product testing service owned by the New York Times, chose Tide Ultra Stain Release liquid as the best product overall.

The Tide variety was also among the most expensive detergents the service tested. Related: Already dominant in making ethoxylates in Brazil, Oxiteno takes on the U. The situation is different in Germany, where a leading testing service, Stiftung Warentest, consistently ranks powders above liquids for heavy-duty cleaning of whites.

In October the firm published a test of 18 powdered detergents and 5 liquid-containing pods. Its conclusion: bleach-based powders are markedly better than the pods, which occupied the last five places in the test. The different conclusions of the US and German tests highlight differing wash conditions in the US and Europe as well as a key advantage of powders over liquids: the ability to add a bleaching agent.

Most premium powdered laundry detergents contain the oxygen-based bleach sodium percarbonate plus a chemical, usually tetraacetylethylenediamine TAED , that activates the bleach at low temperatures. Thus, unlike in the US, where powders have all but disappeared, powders continue to command sizable market share in Germany and other European countries. Even in Europe, though, the market share of powders is falling.

In eastern Europe, where powders are still in the majority, liquids are catching on as well, he notes. During that period, Solvay closed two percarbonate plants in Europe, and other firms closed at least three others. He sees potential for growth in the e-commerce market, where powdered detergents promise less risk of messy leaks during shipping.

Paul Baxter, global business development manager for home care and new markets at Lubrizol, is bullish on powders for a different reason. Related: Cleaning product makers clean up on growth. Baxter, a longtime Warwick executive, is realistic about global trends. The selling point of bleach varies by region, Baxter notes.

In the Middle East and North Africa, where white garments are popular, bleach can help detergent makers make whitening claims. Moreover, Lubrizol sees an opportunity to spread the sanitizing message, particularly in regions where front-loading washing machines are popular.

The problem is mostly eliminated by using a machine-cleaning product containing percarbonate and TAED and then washing clothes with a bleach-containing powdered detergent, according to tests summarized in the video. Baxter is enthusiastic, but executives at Desmet Ballestra, which claims to have built two-thirds of the powdered laundry detergent plants around the world, are more measured in their view.

They have been watching the detergent business for decades and are resigned about the slow shift to liquids. Still, Desmet Ballestra continues to build two or three powdered detergent plants a year. In October, for example, it announced plans to build one for the cleaning product maker Aspira in the Kano region of Nigeria.

And even in the most modern US cities, powders have their niches, particularly in neighborhoods where people may have grown up elsewhere. Thus in the big Target store in downtown Brooklyn, New York, liquid detergents line the cleaning product aisle. Contact the reporter. Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication. Engage with us on Twitter. The power is now in your nitrile gloved hands Sign up for a free account to increase your articles.