I have 4 different varieties of the Sears...someone stop by with a truck and you can tak99% of it. I can't use all of this. I have never had a problem with this stuff disolving in my TL'ers. But I generally use hot water. I've heard complaints of it not disolving in cold and dubbed down warm. I've only used it 4 times in my Duet (I love saying my duet) all with hot water and again no disolving issues. I would just pre disolve it before adding it to the machine if its giving you problems, seems like a pain but it will only take a minute. Jody I think you need to stop by and grab a few hundred pounds of mine to add to your stash. LOL. I do plan to sell the vast majoriy of mine But will keep maybe 5 pounds of each. I really like it used with Wisk, STPP & Pure sodium percarbonate, Sins recipe..it does a fantastic job on whites and bedding. Have you tried that yet? Ajaynes2...I must have missed it..what machine do you have?

Getting a good normal wash in "warm" water is a bread and butter kind of cycle. Being a traditionalist, I define a "warm" wash as being 104F give or take. Being curious what a HE5t normal-warm would be (knowing it doesn't use the heater) I measured a couple of these cycles 8 to 10 minute after starting the machine. At this point in the cycle all the water that's going to enter the machine for the wash portion of the cycle has been added. Temperatures were measured in the 82F to 84F range. It is a major disappointment that ATC can't or wasn't programmed to get the fill temp at a real "warm" level. A previous test showed that choosing a "hot" normal wash actually gives you fill temp of 105F in one of my tests, so atleast in the winter you have another way of getting there. Here is some more data. Tried a cycle today that has some promise. It's a normal warm wash with steam treat. It fills with 92F water (somewhat higher than the normal cycle without steam treat) and heats the water to 103F and the heater is only on for about 15 minutes. Now that's starting to feel like a normal-warm wash. The cycle took a bit over an hour and a half (including the extra rinse) so that isn't too bad either. It also seems like the temperature of the fill water is about the same whether you choose steam treat-warm or hot (low to mid 90s F). It seems like the ability to choose steam treat with a target temp of warm in addition to hot or sanitary is a new capability. Now getting a real "hot" wash is another matter. A normal-steam treat-hot certainly get you there with maximum temps approaching 130F but it ends up being almost 2 hours in length with over an hour in the wash cycle alone. The heavy duty hot also kicked on the heater with a cycle length of a bit over 1.5 hours, but it only reached 110F which is a very coolish hot. Have to give Whitest-Whites hot a try. Based on previous data showing how long the heater was on in W-W, that may give the desired result.

3 children - I bet you do a lot of laundry! I would want to keep it simple, too. Better be careful on this forum or the laundrymaniacs will have you using 7 different detegents with 9 additives :) Seriously, I used the Sears Free and Clear powder for about a year and liked it very much. I think the Stain Fighting version may have another additive but it smells bad. I got tired of dealing with my big tub of Sears soap so I recently switched to the new Method pump in Free and Clear and it is better than anything else I have used. It has enzymes in it and also makes a great stain pre-treater. You will get many different opinions here on whether powders are better then liquids. I don't think it matters much - I have used both in my FL with no problems. IMHO liquids are less messy and take up less space, but I have a small laundry area. Best of luck with the baby and the laundry!

Please allow me to post my opinion and experience on this stinky issue. I am the owner of a HE3T washer, and I am really unhappy with it, mainly because of the smelly and moldy issue, that crept up on us unexpectedly. My wife and I have 4 kids, so doing laundry is a daily affair, and not to be underestimated or procrastinated either... I am on the verge of throwing that ugly beast out of the laundry room for good. It is unbearably revolting to pick up an (alleged) clean towel to dry one's face just out of the shower, and "smear" moldy smell all over you. The vomit factor is very high on this one.... :-( However, I want to highlight a point, and that this issue is NOT an issue with ALL the FL (front loader) washing machines in general. Maybe just US made ones... Overseas, ( Italy ) where I grew up, FL are 99.999999% of laundry machines available on the market and this issue is completely unknown. To put it simply, I am now 45 years of age, I have lived in Italy 28 of those years, and I have never, ever, seen or heard of moldy smell on clean laundry out of the washer. Never. If you knew my mother (she redefines the word "neat freak") you would understand. Just the hint of a remote possibility of having mold in the washer and/or laundry, would bring that washer in the front yard in flames... Seriously, I believe US manufacturers have gone wrong somewhere in the making of this machines. They either cut one too may corners ( quality of rubber, maybe ?) or are attempting to reduce the amount of water in the cycle at the point where the quality of the rinse cycle is not an issue with them, and us as consumers are not part of the equation. I just came back from a one year of living in Italy with wife and kids, and the FIRST thing we notice, ever single time we go over there, is how much fresher and overall incredibly better smell of "clean laundry" they have from their washers. I know, we are weird... and on the contrary, as soon as we are back to the US, and to our $#@! HE3T, we pick up the moldy smell again. The customer/user/consumer SHOULD NOT have to do any gimmicks or use any "special" tablets, in order to operate these washers, or any washer, for that matter, NOT A SINGLE ONE. This washers are NOT cheap and they should just... well, work. Living in Italy for the last 12 months, we used two washers, one that came with the apartment we rented, and besides a slower spin cycle, it worked as expected (put dirty clothes in, put detergent, push the button, wait, get wet CLEAN laundry out, END OF THE story. Then the landlord needed his washer back, and for a "rent discount" he took that one back, and I got my old 12 years old Miele washer out of storage. This Miele has a somewhat smaller load capacity than most, and it worked for a family of 6 for a long time. Same for my mother's Candy ( Italian brand), and my sister's old Italian washer (San Giorgio). That one lasted 16 years of day in and day out operation for a family of six. It is just so frustrating, since I know that as a concept, FL do work very well, I have seen it work for decades... and one more time, we should NOT need to use "tablets" or do complicated procedures to have clean and good smelling laundry. As I said before, millions of people overseas use FL day in and day out, without doing anything else other than 1) put dirty laundry in 2) select cycle 3) put detergent in 4) push button 5( get clean clothes out. End of the story. Kenmore, Sears, whatever, get your acts together !!