hi, What temperature are you washing these items in?

I use Charlie's Soap too, and find that *hot* water really makes a difference.

Are you positive you have soft water? The best way to know for sure (unless you're on well water) is to contact your local water department.

For poop, I usually do a rinse in warm water and then wash in hot water with CS. (This works best to get out the stains). For my towels, I usually wash in warm. I might try hot and see if that makes a differnce.

Yes, I have a Culligan RO system. The water is soft.

If I has a problem like this I'd send a message to the Charlie's Soap people and ask them.

They're very good about responding to user questions.

send an email to taylor@charliesoap.com
or call Taylor at 800-854-3541.

NO. At least it didn't in our work clothes.
At first I thought I really liked CS but I had to use way more b/c we have hard water and work clothes were dirty. That caused my BF to itch really bad. Scaling to the recomended dose didn't clean clothes and left odors in.Our whites were dingy after two months. I went back to my trusted Persil, Roma. No smels, no guessing, just clean laundry. Whites were white again after couple of washes.

For me CS did an outstanding job removing visible stains and grime except for the ones that ~always~ require pre-treating to come out (ketchup and oil-on-cotton), and it was very gentle on the skin / rinsed well. However I did eventually come to the conclusion that it was not entirely effective at removing odors after we started nighttime potty training and had to wash sheets several times a week. That's when I noticed that the sheets would be visibly clean but still have an odor.

For a while I just added some Biokleen Bac-out to the wash cycle which really did the trick getting the odors out. However, a few months ago I switched over to Vaska detergent and it seems to both clean heavy soil and deodorize everything all by itself, the only exception being the occasional soured (w/ pee) item that got overlooked at the bottom of the hamper for several days (ick!!) For those, a squirt of Bac-out still does the trick.

This was my exact same problem with CS. I asked the same question a while back. My son's clothes always smell like his body wash/deodarant, and my daughters perfume, wow! Made me wonder if the clothes were actually clean then. It did get rid of the moldy musty smell in my towels though, was that just stopping Tide and using vinegar, or did CS really work that well? I question it now. I don't like the fact I can't buy it locally and can only order it and pay shipping either, so much for savings per load. Im going back to the retailers and trying other detergents and see what I can come up.

I have had horrible luck removing odors when using either Charlie's soap and/or homemade laundry soap. My gym clothing gets funky, and when they are washed in either Charlie's or homemade soap they still are funky. I notice the same thing when I wear perfume, and the scent still remains in my clothing. When I wash in any number of the regular commercial detergents on the market, the odors are removed from my clothing. I have a bag of Charlie's sitting down in the basement next to the washer. Now I only use it when I am washing bedding and other items that don't get funky until I use the bag all the way up. As much as I wanted to love Charlie's soap it just isn't cutting it when it comes to brightening my whites or removing odors from my laundry. Yes, I do the vinegar trick and with perfume it still remains in my clothing when I use Charlie's or homemade soap.

I live in a soft water area too! I actually have better luck using a cheap product like Sun detergent over Charlie's soap.

I'd bet Charlies soap is just washing powder and the ingredient that everyone talks about adding, is it tsp?

Thanks for all your replies. I am talking with Taylor to try to troubleshoot the issue. My experience has been like much of yours -- odors remaining for whatever reason, but clothes and stains seem to be clean? Just wierd. I used to use Purex -- super cheap -- but never had a problem with it removing odors and it cleaned well.

Charlie's Soap's first ingredient is washing soda, so draw your own conclusions...

sshrivastava, Actually what you said was incorrect: washing soda is the *second* ingredient in Charlie's soap. Its main ingredient is surfactants (detergents).

Charlie's Soap Powdered Laundry Detergent Ingredients:
 Coconut oil based surfactants
 Sodium carbonate
 Sodium metasilicate

Just for comparison purposes, the first four ingredients in Persil Color Powder are:
Ingredients declaration according to Detergent Regulation ((EC) No 648/2004)
 SODIUM SULFATE
 SODIUM CARBONATE (washing soda)
 SODIUM DODECYLBENZENESULFONATE
 SODIUM SILICATE

===
Excerpt from minerals.usgs.gov website:
===
"The powdered detergent market is the main use of sodium sulfate in the world. Sodium sulfate is a low-cost, inert,
white filler in home laundry detergents. Powdered home laundry detergents may contain as much as 50% sodium sulfate in their formulation."

===
So Persil's #1 ingredient is technically an inert filler.

And it's #2 ingredient is washing soda, same as Charlie's.

A lot of people get great results from both of these products. I find the rivalry among their users kind of funny.

Actually, cryptandrus, the ingredients you list are not correct. If you go to the Henkel web site, you can download a complete list of ingredients for any of their products.

First three ingredients in Megaperls:
 ZEOLITE
 SODIUM CARBONATE PEROXIDE
 SODIUM DODECYLBENZENESULFONATE

First three ingredients in Color Megaperls:
 ZEOLITE
 SODIUM DODECYLBENZENESULFONATE
 AQUA (WATER)

hi, sshrivastava,

Yes, the ingredients are for Persil Color Powder.

Downloaded from the Henkels site.

I happened to have them because I'm thinking about trying Persil.

I accidently left 2 fish oil capsules in my pocket and washed my pants with other clothes with Charlie's. They came out of the dryer smelling of fish. I have since rewashed them 3 times in Charlie's and they still smell like fish!

Lola, ewwwwwwww! That is the worst.

One tip I have for that is from when I was a kid, my older siblings all used to work in a fish cannery. They ended up covered in salmon and tuna guts on a daily basis. Mom used to use some lemon oil in the wash and it removed the fish funk.

If you don't have any lemon oil, I have heard washing your clothes with a bit of pinesol will remove anything like that too, and your clothing will not come out smelling like pinesol.

Good luck with that and sorry everyone for the slight hijack.

I wonder if soaking the offensive items in a bath of water and baking soda might help? With all of the cleaning and odor issues being reported with Charlie's Soap, I'm surprised the product is promoted and used for cleaning diapers. I sure hope those folks aren't washing in cold water! LOL

I really do like CS but, I too, have had a very hard time getting the odor out of DH's t-shirts -it's mainly the pit odor -and I'm not talking BO,I'm talking deoderant.
I also corresponded w/ Charlie and he gave this whole eighty two step (ok, maybe not that many but it was extensive)process. I tried it and I still smell the deoderant. I also add STPP to the wash and it doesn't help much either. I have several bags of it so I'll probably keep using it and then decide when I'm due for more -maybe change detergents. A lot of people seem to like Persil.

onlygirlsmom, I know what you mean about deodorant staying in fabric--it can leave a kind of waxy coating.

I've found only one thing that totally removes it: turn the shirt inside out, wet it, and actually scrub the problem areas a bit with detergent and a small brush.

Then wash as usual, with the hottest water the fabric can take.

An old toothbrush works great. I know this sounds kind of tedious, but it really only takes a minute to do, and it really does work. Even with Charlie's Soap ;-)

onlygirlsmom, have you dried the shirts in a dryer with the deodorant odor still in them? If so, the dryer heat may have 'baked' it in, making it very difficult to remove.

If a shirt comes out of the wash still odorous, I would recommend hanging it to dry on a plastic hanger. It could be even more effective to hang it to dry outside in the fresh air, weather permitting. Then you can attack the odor when it's washed again without the odor having been 'baked' in.

Heloise recommends pouring ammonia on the shirts' underarms, then letting them dry before washing.

The main thing that has helped me when I've washed stinky clothes for guys has been to soak them in the washer in the hottest water appropriate for the fabric, along with the regular dosage of detergent plus a heaping cup of baking soda (added to the washer drum before adding laundry).

I've ordinarily soaked them overnight by pausing the washer, then re-starting the washer to finish the wash cycle the next day. Using white vinegar for fabric softener seems to help, too.

I actually have opposite results. Charlie's always got my clothes smelling better than conventional detergents. It's something I forgot about until I had to switch back to conventional detergents on some items cause of taking care of my mom. Her obsession with uber liquid fabric softner soft clothes is amazing. Unfortunately, after a while things start to get smelly and then I have to strip everything and start from square one.

I wish I could go soley back to Charlie's. I hate using all this other stuff.

I discovered this by accident when my son came home from college with his laundry that he'd been "saving up". His shirts had deodorant caked in the underarms, plus he'd used Febreeze to "freshen" up. The combination was not pleasant. I have a Samsung FL which uses "Silvercare" a silver ion process to sanitize in cold water. I washed most of his shirts in warm water w/this process and Charlies, an improvement, but still slightly "scented". Two of the shirts I used cold water and the Silvercare since they were dark, the difference was so dramatic I rewashed the rest of the shirts in cold as well. There was absolutely no smell remaining in those washed in the cold water. Nothing else changed. I was surprised, especially after reading for the first time that water needs to be at least 60 degrees to break down the detergent. But the stains were gone, so was the smell...go figure. Perhaps it's just my washer (which I can't say enough good things about!)