Kim, I, too, find CS less than satisfactory for cleaning my laundry, but I've learned that there's not much point in reporting that here on the forum since it's like sticking a stick in a hornet's nest. ::shrug:: Taylor does have a sort of point that each individual water supply has its own chemistry and products will vary greatly in how well they work from one water source to another. Increasing the dosage may make a difference for you, and you've nothing to lose by trying. I have naturally soft water and am a long-time FL user with no detergent "build up" in my clothes to remove, but CS at every dosing level I tried still didn't get my clothes as clean as other products. So I moved on. BTW, you don't have to stick with "official" HE detergents if you find another product that works well in your machine. The key is a product that can clean efficiently at a dosing level that's correct for your machine. It's the oversudsing, and consequent poor rinsing that creates the build-up/mildew problem associated with non-HE soaps. For example when I got my first FL I was an ERA liquid user, and no matter how I tried I could not get to the sweet spot with that product where it cleaned well enough without oversudsing so I had to give up my then-fave detergent. However, since I started using Fl's many years before there were such things as HE detergents I just cast about until I found a low-sudsing mainstream powder detergent that worked splendidly in my machine and wash water and I've stayed with it ever since. I only make forays into other products to test new things like CS - and for special washing projects like down, wool, silk, etc., which demand special detergents. If you're not happy with CS, I'd just return it for a refund (which apparently is offered cheerfully) or use it up as a general household cleaner for scrubbing out things like trash barrels or litter boxes. That's where all my trial detergents wind up and many do a very good job at that, too. I've used some of fanciest (and priciest)detergents in the world to spiff up my garbage pails. Molly~

In an effort to try to find things I could use on my ailing mom's clothes and on ours, my list is huge. I have just about every low sudsing or HE detergent you can readily buy in the US. Hold on to your hats...this may take a while. Powders: Tide HE Tide HE w/ downy Charlie's Soap Country Save Biokleen All Tempurature Sears Ultra Plus Stain Fighter Sears Ultra Plus w/Oxi Cheer Brightclean Cheer Brightclean free and sensitive Gain HE Fresh Start Liquids: Tide HE Original Scent Tide HE Coldwater Tide HE Coldwater Free and sensitive Tide HE/ downy Gain HE Original scent Gain HE Island Fresh Biokleen All tempurature Misc.: Soap Nuts Fabric Softeners: Downy April fresh Liquid and sheets Gain Island fresh Liquid and sheets Gain Original fresh liquid Purex lavendar and cotton liquid Final touch liquid Suavitel Field of Flowers liquid and sheets(aka Cuddly in some countries) Suavitel Morning sun liquid and sheets Suavitel Aroma sensations jasmine & stargazer lily Bounce outdoor fresh sheets Bounce fresh linen sheets bounce unscented sheets Store brand Unscented sheets Additives: Borax Washing Soda Baking Soda Tide stain release granuals Store brand & Sun Oxi bleach powders Cholorine bleach Most items were bought in the last month and a half. Some items purchased are not listed as they were given away to others cause they made all of us break out including mom and not too mention I didn't need all the things I had tried. Some of you may remember me telling you about the laundry issues I was having while taking care of my mom. I ended up going back to Charlie's and using Sears and some fab softeners depending on what was needed. She declined shortly there afeter. Her decline caused serious odor issues and Charlie's was not cutting it even with three washes, and that included using additives and chlorine bleach. The sears didn't make a dent in it either. I was gonna try some Henkel Persil, but didn't want to spend that much just to try it. Ironically, I ended up spending even more just trying to find something locally that would work, and washing a load of laundry 4 times was unacceptable. It was really that bad. I ended up buying whatever I could find on sale that I had not tried already to counteract the odor while hoping we wouldn't itch like crazy. Mind you I already had a stash of things I had tried prior. With everything I bought the only thing that ended up working to get rid of the odor in one wash was the friggin soap nuts. However,although soap nuts rocked at getting out the odors it did nothing for my kids stained clothes. Mom passed on the 7th of May, another irony. Now I have all these laundry products I have to use up. I have already donated all that others would take and I refuse to waste money. My sister said to hold on to the Gain as she would take it when she ran out, but that still leaves everything else. I've been slowly experimenting with amounts and combinations to see what I can get away with. I figured some of them out so they are slowly getting used up. One surprising developement was so far no one has had a problem with the Suavitel even though it is pretty strong smelling, it was the one fabric softener my mom could not stand, but doesn't bother the rest of us. Another of Life's irony. Go figure. I will still try to give away as much as I can until I get back to my favorite. Anyway, that is my list and my tail of laundry and Life's irony. I'll be happy when I'm back to just Charlie's again. I'm the type who likes to keep things simple.

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My grandmother used salt in another way. She was the dutiful wife of a sweet minister who, without consulting her, purchased and planted many various fruit trees in their back yard. Two were in the way of the wash line, or maybe the story was they were berry trees and the birds would stain the wash. Anyhow, she wanted them gone but did not have the heart to point out to her sweet husband the bad planning. So every time she went into the back yard, she put several handfuls of salt into her apron pocket and liberally sprinkeled the root zone of these two trees with salt. Before long, they died of some unexplainable blight, and grandma had her wash line to her liking.