@larsi - How awful for you! Coming from a true detergent guru like you, I am taking this seriously and will avoid. I can't remember you ever having such a disaster. Perhaps your comments on their site crashed due to high volume traffic of other unhappy users. Thank you for the warning.

Church & Dwight Co. who own OxiClean are monsters!!
They had me on the phone today for almost 15!!! minutes, asking me every question about the ruined items, my washing machine, my washing methods, etc, etc

In the end, the Rep. said the damage was due to user error. What?? User error? Have you seen the movie The Help, where she says "Minnie don't burn no chicken"?! Well....Larsi don't ruin no laundry!! :)

OxiClean has lost a customer. Horrible customer service!!

I had a problem with their dishwasher pacs. I used one pac and the entire load was covered in hard crusty white stuff that turned into a weird gummy substance when I tried to rewash them by hand. Nothing I tried would get that stuff off. Had to get rid of a ton of fiestaware. They told me I must have loaded the pac wrong... yeah ok.

No chance of me using them. Washers are so different today that I read the manual and said to use liquid or powered soap, no paks.

@ andi 2928...AWFUL!! This company is awful. They should have just stopped at OxiClean powder, and not have tried to gain more market share with inferior products. I cannot believe they said it was my fault & blamed you for loading the dishwasher pak "wrong"....I mean come on. I took the time to explain that I have washed these exact items many, many times with Tide, Gain, Persil, Method, Wisk, Cheer, etc, etc...and never had a problem. Disgusting company.

@ EmmaR.....YES!!! Avoid these. I can honestly say that I have used the Tide and Gain paks many times in my "high end" front loader, and have never had a problem with the laundry or machine.

This post was edited by larsi on Wed, Jul 2, 14 at 11:03

People have also had LOTS of problems with the Tide Pods staining fabrics,pack not dissolving and finding it stuck to clothes when they come out of the dryer. Then it has to be worked with to get the dried on pack off the fabric--so they all have problems. I did try the ALL ones, but it's not something I would use all the time.(pacs)

My washer is a top loader.

I have Speed Queen tl and have used arm & hammer pods and Wisk pods. But I always make sure they have dissolved before I add the clothes. Too many horror stories to load clothes on top. I did have one wisk pod not dissolve all the way and fished it out with a wooden spoon.
@larsi, I would be very upset too and then for the co. to say it's your fault, that you don't know how to use them!! It seems to be a real problem today for anyone to accept responsibility for anything.

I never really thought about those pods, and exactly how they are supposed to dissolve and disperse detergent, in a FL washer.

I don't use them because it's too strong a dose for us, but now I'm curious. Sounds like @larsi's OxiClean pod did not dissolve correctly.

Just how are those pods dissolved in a FL 'he' washer?

Are they put in the soap dispenser?

Pods should not be placed in frontloader dispenser drawers. They should be placed directly into the drum first, then load the clothing.

Thanks for the heads up. I've had good results with their new liquid detergent, but you won't catch me using these new "pacs" or "pods" or whatever they're called by OxiClean or anyone else for that matter (Tide, Gain, etc,) Way to gimmicky and not a great $ value per load when you do the math.

Thanks @dadoes. It seems that the detergent would be quite concentrated on a lot of laundry, before finally dissolving . . . which is most likely what happened to @larsi. I'm so glad I never used them. The pods are very popular and successful, so they apparently aren't damaging the laundry in 'he' machines.

Are you using Oxiclean powder or the spray stain treater?

As for clothing turning stiff...Oxiclean contains a lot of sodium carbonate which can be a real pain to remove from fibers. Add it to powdered detergent which already has a lot of sodium carbonate and its a real pain. Do you use powdered detergent? My advice for stiff clothing...rinse and rinse again. Get that residue out. Use a hot or warm rinse to open the fibers so the carbonate can be released...cold water constricts fibers not allowing everything to be released.

As for your wall. All detergents/boosters/stain treatments can and will damage other surfaces including the washers exterior.

We use pods as an emergency supply (because it’s easy for everyone in the house to understand ‘if I try to do laundry and need to use a pod, I need to make sure laundry detergent gets on the shopping list’) and for travel (3-4 pods can be packed into luggage so if you need to do emergency laundry you don’t have to use something people are allergic to) but everyday we prefer liquid. The pods can just get too finicky.

Labseak. LOL. No way Oxiclean is going to suggest that by using their product with powdered detergent that several warm rinses will be required. Haha.

I have the same problem with the oxy packs! Very frustrating! I even tried putting them in the detergent drawer and it still turned my clothes blotchy in spots! My machine is 1yr old he top loader and when I don't use the oxy packs, I don't ever get the blotches! HORRIBLE product. I have used oxy boost liquid detergent and it works great! Guess I'll stick to that!

Never place pods or pacs into a washer's detergent dispenser. The amount of flow-through water may not be enough to fully dissolve it and the residue will accumulate and clog the dispenser's discharge hose.

Oxiclean cannot bleach your clothes. it's more likely that you set the garments on a bleachy spot in your laundry room, or a cloth with bleach was washed in the same load, or you had some bleach on your hands from handling a bottle of bleach. and if your walls have streaks from splashing oxiclean on it, the wall covering may have natural dyes; oxiclean reacts with organic stains, which includes organic dyes in clothing, carpets and walls. the active cleaning mechanism in oxiclean is completely different from bleach. the label indicates that it should not be used on silk or leather, but you should not be putting silk or leather in a washing machine anyway. i've used the packs in top-loading, front-loading and He machines for 15 years and never had a single issue with stains or streaks. And that may mean nothing to you, and you'd be right, because I'm using a personal experience or an isolated example instead of a sound argument or compelling evidence.

Just like you are.

[except my argument is actually backed up by compelling evidence; the scientific facts of the product]

Actually they can and have. I used the powder and followed the directions to the T Cleaning a tough stain on a pair of royal blue shorts for my dad and at the zipper, it is now a orange pink shade that resembles a bleach stain. It was left in a bucket (from a fabric cooler) that had no cleaner of any sort ever touching that surface. Waited exactly24 hrs per directions on container and there is now a bleached stripe where the zipper lays. I even ran it through the rinse cycle before treating the stain to ensure there wouldn't be a chemical reaction from the laundry detergent. So yes Oxiclean can and will bleach

This is an old topic but one worth revisiting. I completely ruined an expensive Treasure Garden patio umbrella – – Sunbrella fabric, no less – – with a pre-wash 30-minute soak in Oxyclean. This was a huge loss for me. My elderly mother had sewn for me a dozen custom patio cushions out of the same Sunbrella ($$$) fabric, so the fading was obvious. At least 75% of the color had washed out of the umbrella canopy when I removed it from the washer. I have rarely used the product since. Tide with bleach takes care of my whites.

Oxygen bleach laundry products are typically formulated with hydrogen peroxide, or a chemical such as sodium percarbonate that produces hydrogen peroxide when disssolved in water. Hydrogen peroxide is or can be used as a hair bleach ... so why would anyone think it won't bleach fabrics?