I just started using Charlies Soap. I have been using the Persil Megapearls for a couple of years now. I was just going to reorder my Persil when I found Charlies in a store when hubby and I were in Asheville for the weekend.
I have been wanting to try it, but never ordered it. Wish I had done it long ago. I love Charlies. More than I ever loved Persil.
Cleans beautifully, leaves things so soft and fresh.
But what sold me, and hubby, was how it got the pinesap out of his clothes this weekend.
He went out with a group to do yardwork for a friend who has cancer. They had to cut down a line of pine trees and he came home covered with sap. A simple soak overnight and it was gone. No rubbing or scrubbing. No high dose, only a tablespoon. I have placed an order for more, and moved out the old laundry products to give to my Brother.
I have the powder. Of course I prefer that to liquids anyway.
I love the all purpose cleanser too. It is strong smelling . Reminds me of Greased Lightening. But boy, it cuts grease and soapscum great.
You need to order a bag of Charlies. Free shipping, can't go wrong with that either.

I have used PERSIL and am going to start trying Charlies Sunday. From what I've read you need to use it for a while to see how it works so I guess it will take a few weeks for that.

I am going to use it the same way I use PERSIL and everything else I've examined:
Temperatures of 105F or 120F
No additional additives
I will pre-treat any heavy stains on whites with Shout because this is what I do with PERSIL and others.
I will examine the water from each rinse as it empties into the laundry sink to determine how clear it is rinsing in my water conditions.

Folks say you don't need any FS so I will use Charlies without it.

Persil is no better than Tide HE, confirmed by the tests I conducted a couple of years ago -- I even posted before/after photos. From what I've read on this forum, Charlie's Soap is at least as good as Tide, so it must follow that it's at least as good as Persil.

My Charlie's is arriving on Monday (tomorrow). I can't wait to try it after having used Bi-O-Kleen for the past year. I'm happy with the Bi-O-Kleen, but still have to use fabric softener... I'm intrigued by the CS claim that FS is not required. We'll see... :)

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I am going to consider CS for my next purchase.

Jerrod6, please let us know how you like Charlie's after you've had a chance to use it. I understand it takes a bit for the other detergent's residue to wash away before one can realize the cleaning power of CS.

I've read a bit about some children developing rashes from washing diapers in CS. Anyone have children and wash their diapers with CS?

I love charlies best stuff i have ever used

Apparently they found the rash thing is from bacterial build up on the diapers washed in Charlie's. Charlie's removes the dirt and smell, but it is not a disenfectant. The makers of Charlies recommended putting a little bleach in the rinse water every now and then to remove any bacterial build up.

I have read on other websites that some mom's do an occasional hot wash with the Charlies and oxi clean to get rid of the bacterial build up.

My two little ones aren't in diapers anymore so I do not know for sure if either will work, but I figured I would put it here just in case it helps.

We use both Persil and Charlie's, as well as Tide HE and Ariel and Foca (neither of these are HE though, so only a small amount is used, usually in conjunction with a little Charlie's).

Persil is my wife's favorite. My wife loves the smell of Ariel even more than Persil, but we just don't have the HE version of Ariel but are continuing to look for it. My wife doesn't particularly care for Charlie's because it doesn't have a smell (so she puts a small amount of the Ariel with it). Both Persil and Charlie's do a great job of cleaning from our experience. Charlie's is far less expensive, I get an 80 use bag for $6.99 (so far anyway unless its gone up recently). Persil is way overpriced in my opinion, but we do keep it around because we like it for some things, and it does do an excellent job.

Good luck.

I've never gotten any smell from PERSIL so I am curious about this. It has a odor in the box, an acrid type of smell when mixed with Hot water and it is draining into the sink, butm y nose can't smell anything at the end. Can you describe the fragrance? Is this German PERSIL or UK PERSIL?

I am surprised at the posts about Charlies leaving bacteria. I didn't think any detergent was antibacterial. I mean if it was why are people using the sanitize cycle so much. Maybe it is not even needed.

The European Persil IS made for front loaders and H-axis TLs, so it should be considered HE. All European washers are HE washers, so they just don't make or sell any detergents for water hogs.

I am not surprised that Charlie's leaves germs behind if you use it in cold or warm water. No detergent without bleach would sanitize anything at low temperatures. I guess the people who tried Charlie's were very critical and tried to blame the detergent for their babies' rashes.
Well, all babies get diaper rashes at least ocasionally no matter if you use disposable or washable diapers. I would use a sanitary cycle for cloth diapers since bleach is not really a good idea for babies skins.

I agree that Persil is overpriced, especially here in the US. It is already one of the most expensive brands in Germany and then you have to add all the shipping costs. IMO it is not necessary to have detergents shipped to the US from Europe and it can't really be environmentally friendly to waste fuel on shipping detergents.

Bewtween Charlie's and Persil, I'd go for the Charlie's.

I tried my new bag of Charlie's last night... I was glued to the washer window!

My first observation, and please don't think I'm crazy... the clothes appeared "wetter" in the machine. They seemed to soak up more water. The washer seemed to be filling a lot more and there was more water sloshing around in the machine. It was unusual enough that I noticed, but then again I could just be insane.

I didn't notice any suds during my 140° wash. The clothes felt squeaky clean when I pulled them out of the machine. They came out of the dryer light and fluffy without needing any fabric softener -- just as promised! I did a load of towels at 160° and noticed only a few bubbles at the bottom of the porthole, enough to count on one hand. The towels, unfortunately, did not come out light and fluffy. The towels weren't stiff or scratchy, but just didn't feel soft and fluffy. I suspect that the towels may require additional washes in Charlie's.

FYI, I am on a whole-house softener so my water hardness is ZERO. However, to achieve that zero hardness the softener must replace the CaCO3 in the water (calcium carbonate) with Na2CO3 (sodium carbonate). This sodium carbonate, or washing soda, is still present in the rinse water. It stands to reason that some sodium carbonate remains in the clothing after drying, which can cause a certain amount of roughness that no detergent can adequately remove because it is coming from the RINSE water. Perhaps vinegar in the rinse can address this issue?

So far so good! I'll report back as I have more experiences.

sshrivastava

You mentioned more water in the machine. Was the water and any suds hitting the window and running down?

Can you tell us the make up of the first load you mentioned? Also did you clean your washer first by using 2 tablespoons of CS? Did you use Pine Sol?

What brand FS do you usually use?

I'm not a big believer in washing machine build-up, especially in my case since I've always been conservative about dosing detergents. My outer tub is also stainless steel and unlikely hold much, if any, build-up. I frequently wash at temps above 140°F, which should help prevent any long term build-up.

My first load was rather conventional. The clothing was primarily dark colors -- blacks, browns, hunter greens, etc. There was plenty of water hitting the window, but as I said before, not a single bubble appeared under 160°F. At 160°F I counted maybe 5 or 6 tiny bubbles at the bottom of the window where the water tended to collect.

I did not clean the washer first, it seemed kind of silly given that I've been using low doses of detergent for years now. I also routinely clean the washer with a combination of Lemi Shine and Cascade every couple of months.

I did not use any Pine Sol, I wanted nothing else in the wash except clothing, water, and Charlie's Soap. I also did not use any FS, but I normally I would have used Downey Free & Sensitive.

Thanks
What color were the towels you washed?

The towels are either white or light khaki in color.

sshrivastava

I know you said you did dark colors and white or light khaki color towels but have you washed a really bright white load yet? I don't think darks and towels get all that dirty unless you drag them through a dirt mound or something, or they have specific stains, so I am interested in your experience cleaning bright white items. How about ring around the collar - stuff like that.

I haven't done a load of whites yet, but I will let you know when I do! :)

I do cloth diaper and have not had any problems with rash at all using Charlie's Soap. I do know that a lot of people who cloth diaper do use it. I do routinely use Oxy Clean however so that may be the difference. Honestly you never know what your kids are going to react to. Neither of my kids can wear Huggies, both can wear pampers. I know of one lady who can only use disposables because cloth causes her kid to break out in a rash. But I can say, this is the first time I have ever seen someone say Charlie's caused them to break out.

I think part of the problem is that many people wash their whites (incl. diapers) on "Hot" thinking that is adequate, but all they are getting is 120°F water pulled from their water heater that becomes 110°F by the time it has hit the machine and lost heat to the inside of the drum. That is just not hot enough to properly clean and disinfect using a natural product like CS. But that's just my opinion.

If I am washing non-elastic whites, I crank the heater up to 160°F. If I were washing germy diapers, I would wash them at 205°F and not a degree less to ensure that ever living thing on that diaper was wiped out. There's a reason they used to boil diapers!

Perhaps, in warm water washes, off-the-shelf detergents contain harsh chemicals that kill some bacteria which CS doesn't contain. That's plausible. So the way to compensate for that is with heat or by adding a disinfecting compound.

Having done some measurements, 120F DHW becoming 110F by the time it gets in the machine is a best case scenario. Many typical setups will be somewhat cooler.

I've measured 122F water becoming about 106F with a highly insulated PEX line directly from the water tank to the machine (the near machine hose fittings start feeling hot within about 5 or 6 seconds of the start of water flowing). The cold drum and clothing soak up a bunch of energy.

Cleo26:

I am in the middle of trying out Charlies so will be making some comments regarding my experience in a few more weeks.

Thanks, Jerrod6! I am looking forward to reading your comments.

Charlie's Soap is wonderful!

As time goes on, and as we use various different products, I think it's easy to lose sight of what it feels like to have truly clean clothing against your skin. I hesitated to try Charlie's Soap initially because it lacked enzymes, but I don't know how that translates into real results.

I must say that my clothing feels much better against my skin, I haven't had a single bout of itching, and I'm amazed at how long my kitchen towels last between washings. My towels would smell bad pretty quickly before, but after washing them in Charlie's I find that they are more absorbent and resist smelling "foul" for a longer period of time.

For those who want enzymes, Shaklee makes a product called Nature Bright Laundry Booster and Stain Remover. It contains oxygen bleach and enzymes. I haven't used it, perhaps someone else has? Does anyone know if it works, and if it rinses as cleanly as the CS?

At this point, I think I'm a CS convert. It took a couple of washes to completely eliminate the tomato stains on my partner's shirt (he had a pasta explosion in the kitchen haha), but I think that's a small price to pay for a totally natural product that makes my clothes and skin happy. Had I pre-treated the tomato stain, it probably would have disappeared in the first wash, but I'm lazy.

Jerrod, I hope your CS experience is as good as mine. Let us know!

I use and like Shaklee's Nature Bright alot. It is clear rinsing. OK, after all these postson CS lately I've gotten my stock back out and am giving it another chance. LOL

CS seems to really shine with softer water. If you have harder water, CS may not yield the same results.

ss,
If you were dealing with hard well water, what would you recommend adding? I have STTP, washing soda, Borax and oxy bleach from the Chemistry Store. I do have an HE machine so can you suggest an approx. dosage?
I STILL like the Bio-Kleen as it has enzymes and the GSE.
Willing to give the C.S. a try and convert my TIDE using family members. I'm stingy with my Bio-Kleen for some reason, maybe I'll have to break down and share that too! =) Does your ASKO run on 220V? We didn't add 220v to our home and I'm regretting it now that propane prices have skyrocketed!! Oh well, what to do......

bookert,

Those are difficult questions to answer since I don't know your water chemistry. However, for hard water I think STPP (sodium tripolyphosphate) should yield good results. I've heard 1 TBL should work, along with the same amount of laundry detergent. I would suggest dissolving the STPP in your washing machine first, to get the water soft, then dissolve 1 TBL of Charlie's Soap into a cup of warm water and pour that into the wash after the STPP has thoroughly mixed.

The only thing I don't like about STPP is that it is a phosphate, and washing phosphates into the environment is not a good thing. Sodium hexametaphosphate (Calgon) works well as a water softener as well.

A good non-phosphate water softener is sodium citrate. I've never tried it, since I now use a whole house softener, but that could be the best solution to soften without putting undue stress on the environment. You can purchase a 9 lb. pail at The Chemistry Store for $27. Sodium citrate is also the water softening agent in most laundry detergents.

I have a 220v hookup in my laundry -- it was standard from the builder when I bought my new home. You couldn't pry my cute little 220v Asko washer from my cold, dead hands! :)