I noticed some stickers placed on my 50 load box so I proceed to peel them back.

Seems the weight went from 2.1 LB to 1 LB 5 OZ and the load size from 60 he load to 50.

Strange...

On Ebay he wants $12 for the 50 load and $19 for the 80 load, with $11.70 in shipping for the 50 and $18 in shipping for the 80 load. Ridiculous.

The price is why I can't justify buying it. The price compared to the amount of detergent. One day maybe I'll get to buy this, but since I really don't have suds or rinsing problems ( I LOVE my Duet) I don't have a burning desire. My burning desire is for more STPP which hopefully I can buy next month. HAHA

Jeff...what did you think of the cleaning with this detergent? Did you feel the water to see if it was slippery?

Mama,

Came Home from my two Son's Dek Hockey games tonite and between the rain and the sweat it would be a good test for Rosalie's.

I did the same 2 tablespoon measured amount with their shorts/t-shirts as well as several bath towels as well as Dads khakis.

Here is the pic of the suds after mixing for exactly 35 seconds at the start of the wash.

After the washer stopped I gave it the smell test and it passed just fine, no smell remained on the Hockey clothes.

Jeff

That's good. I'm glad its working for you. Thanks Jeff

Not for me. Makes me feel secure to see a little suds.

I wish someone would do a load of really dirty clothes with this stuff and see how it cleans. I have heard people talk about washing towels with it, but not anything that has ground in dirt, food stains, etc.

For that amount of money, I would expect it to clean out any kind of a stain or mess really well.

Jody,

Challenge accepted!

My kids have three Dek Hockey games this coming Wednesday. My 6 year old loves to play in the dirt/mud while we're down the rinks and with the constant rain here in New England it should be a mud-fest down there.

I'll keep you informed.

Jeff

Roc, I understand that feeling. I recently had to buy a new box of Tide with Bleach powder. ..in went a load of white bath towels along with 3 heaping Tablespoons of the Tide, long extra hot wash and not a sud in sight, I kid you not. I shined a flashlight in and nothing. I couldn't open the door on the Allergen cycle to feel the water as this cycle uses too much water so the entire time I was thinking no way these are going to be clean and have that fresh just washed scent. I usually use FS on towels but I didn't because I wanted to judge the scent...they were clean...I've done other loads since with the new box of Tide with Bleach and not a sud to be seen....its disturbing. Lol.

I am also interested in the cleaning results. I've used this on some loads with good results when there are no visible stains, but with less performance on loads that tend to be heavily soiled such as white shirts and white underwear. I don't use detergent additives so the detergent I use has to be able to remove soils on its own.

Please let us know the results.

Thanks much

It just seems like everyone over at AW avoids the subject of heavy duty cleaning with this stuff. That is what makes me think it doesn't do so well.

We went down the rinks Wednesday night and after my 6 year old Son got done his game I said "Kris, You can get as dirty as you want to tonight, as a matter of fact get extra dirty". He looked at me with a rather puzzled look on his face but for the next two hours while his older Brother had two games he played in the dirt, grass, and several large puddles. He also had gatorade, popsicles, and popcorn, I figured what the heck right? It's all in the name of Science.

I snapped these picture when we got Home-

Several of the stains don't show up really well in these pics but the clothes definitely were dirty and had some BO as well.

Jeff

I washed the clothes in warm water with exactly 2 tablespoons of Rosalie's. I ran the Bosch purposely without the extra rinse function to see if any smells/residues remained.

This is what came out-

Clothes were clean and no smell remained.

Jeff

Glad to see it. For the price, it had better get out stains.

So based on my little experiment I'd say Rosalie's has no problem with the really dirty stuff.

It took out all the stains without pretreating including what I think was a mustard stain on the #3 portion on the back of his shirt...a little girl was playing tag with him with a hot dog in hand...what can I say, the kid is a "Playa" ;)

Jeff

EXCELLENT, thanks so much Jeffrey!!

Comment removed

Jerrod,

I received your post in my e-mail about using it on Whites. I will be back down the rinks this weekend and I'll make sure to dress my little one in something light/white and let him "have at it" for round 2 of this test.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff. I removed the comment because I don't want to make demands of people.

No biggie, I like to do these comparison test.

Jeff

I too would like to see how it does on whites, with no bleach added.

Mama/Jody,

My middle Son had Hockey practice tonite down the rinks so I took my 6 year old with a nice clean White shirt and had he do one of favorite activities...roll down the hill in the grass. He proceeded to get pretty grungy but that might not be up to Mama's level of dirtness so I proceeded to drag him by his arms on his back through the grass- don't worry, he loved every second of it.

This was the damage:

Jeff

Same wash as done before, 2 tablespoons of Rosalie's, warm wash cycle. No bleach or pretreatment.

This is the results:

Rosalie's got out the dirt/grass on the front of the shirt as well as the shoulder area.

On the back it removed about half of the stain. Remember, this is without any pretreatment whatsoever.

Jeff

For darks and colours, Rosalie's is fantastic on it's own and with sheets and towels...my FAV!

For whites, I add a scoop of Vanish Gold whitener or a Tide booster pod.....flawless whites. I also use Grab Green powder pods for whites too, and this requires no booster.

Jeff.....try using HOT water for your whites. It will work better than warm. I use warm on everything, HOT on whites.

Jeff...your not using hot for whites?. Yes you need hot for whites..but shirts with the fabric stickers as above can't tolorate boosted hot..I'd keep it at 130 for things like that. Thank You for sharing Jeff.

Well, I'll say again, for the price he charges for that detergent and the equally high shipping, that detergent should be expected to clean anything without any additives needed.

I was doing the kids colored Hockey shorts and shirts at the same time so I opted for warm as I wanted to keep the test with the same parameters as before but yes, hot is the ticket for whites. Besides, my old Bosch's warm is probably hotter than most newer machines on hot :)

Jeff

Jody I agree. I rarely pretreat unless its oil. And grass or clay type soils as above I never pretreat and its always removed. I would not pay that kind of money for a detergent that isnt removing clay which my boys have an abundance of ground into their clothes at the end of a summer day.

Yeah mama, I remember when my husband was getting so dirty working in the refineries. It took everything I had to get his clothes clean, including soaking them overnight. Now that was a laundry chore I did not enjoy. LOL

I washed a HUGE load of white hand towels, kitchen towels and automotive glass towels yesterday using one tiny (provided) scoop of Rosalie's Zero Suds and one scoop (provided) of Vanish Gold powder. 140F (cold fill, heated to 140), Cottons Universal cycle, 3 rinses, 1400rpm spin.

Flawless, perfect results. Little sudsing during the wash and 3 perfect rinses. Everything felt smooth and "almost" soft. I am using Rosalie's more and more. I never have to worry about over sudsing, and I could easily get away with 1 or 2 rinses, even though I have my Miele programmed to do 3 rinses.

With Rosalie's I save so much time, money and water not having to do additional rinses and worry about suds!! Love it!!

For daily clothes, I add some Mrs. Meyer's or Purex scented crystals to the Rosalie's for a little scent. Rosalie's leaves ZERO scent after rinsing and drying, and I like to have some scent, as long as it is soft and not projected.

I think it's a fine detergent but with my Family of five I'd go broke with the 2-3 loads we do a day. The suds are really not that much less that my #1 choice Sears Ultra Plus.

Rosalie's for $19.99 VS Sears for $17.99.

Jeff

Sears Ultra Plus left ALL my clothes and fabrics DRY and dehydrated, rough and not smelling great. It was pretty bad for me!

Sears works great for me...I'm a fan.

Larsi,

Wondering if you got an old box of Ultra Plus. A couple of my Family members have sensitive skin and my Wife was buying Free and Clear detergent for this very reason and not one has had any issues using Sears Ultra Plus.

Jeff

Ultra Plus seems totally gone now. No longer available at Sears or Kmart. Sad that no one else picked it up, as I know many of you really like this. This is what my Mom, Grandma and both Aunts used for decades!!!

OMG, I've never seen one of those Rosalie's boxes next to another powder detergent. Big difference. I'm with you Jeff.

I wonder why the load amount and weight was changed?

Same reason cake mixes shrunk and price went up...to make more $$$ for less product.

"to make more $$$"

Well mama, I kind of thought that was the reasoning behind the ridiculous shipping cost too.

I never bought his explanation of having to charge that much because of the weight of the box. I know that isn't true. I have seen other individual sellers charging much less for the same weight in Molly's detergent.

I have bought Yankee Candle Boney Bunch figurines on ebay that weigh more than 2 lb and have paid less in shipping.

I have shipped items for less as well.

He charges that much because he wants to.

Sorry, but sellers like that just burn me up. I know anyone can sell something for whatever price they want, and buyer has the choice, but exorbitant shipping fees like that just makes the seller look like a greedy jerk.

FYI if you like Rosalie's on facebook you will be able to see their most current promotions. I bought my box during a "free shipping on any order" promo.

Also, calling a small business owner who I'm sure doesn't do this full time and is probably losing money off of the venture a "greedy jerk" is a bit much I think.

Jody I was excited about this detergent while it was in the making, but once it hit the market my excitement fizzled. I have no desire anymore to buy this, sad, but true. I wanted a box for my collection, but not gonna happen. So big deal if its suds free, I don't mind a few suds I prefer some. The price alone is too high and than add in the HIGH shipping fee's and IMO its for people that have everything..kinda like the gifts in Spencers..I know I'm sounding harsh, but come on its laundry detergent and not even a miricle detetgent judging from the clay soil above that wasn't removed..a easily removable soil. I'm with you here Jody...I'm still trying to figure out why the cost is so high..zero suds but doesn't remove plain ole dirt.

Many of us call P&G much worse...I'm not name calling but I am saying price for product and shipping is ridiculous.

It's not exclusive to him, IMO anyone who charges exorbitant shipping fees is greedy. Especially when Ebay gives the seller a discount when they use ebay shipping labels.

And, sorry I know I am harping on this subject, but why charge different product and shipping amounts for the detergent on different sites? 80 Load on Ebay $19, same load amount on Rosalie's website $21. Shipping is better on Rosalie's....but why raise the product price....why not charge the lower shipping price on Ebay?

Several people on AW have questioned the shipping and product price difference as well.

I personally know the developer and maker of this detergent. I can assure you that he went to great lengths to make a good detergent made for any machine, any temperature, any soil. It took him years, literally, in his own spare time, in his own basement. He spent a great deal of his own money buying ingredients, experimenting, and creating it all through trial and error. I do not know how the shipping deal works, but I do not think the maker of this detergent makes those rules. He is a member AW.org and I am sure that he would explain it to the best of his ability. Yes, it is expensive. However, people pay for "boutique" detergents that clean as well as plain water every day. This at least cleans acceptably. I am not trying to be an ass here, but I did want to try to shed a little light on the subject. I am a total tight wad, and I will not even buy it. lol.

Joel, to most of us the creator of Rosalies is just that the creator..he's not our friend nor our neighbor..ect....hes no different to us than the creator of Tide...I also know how long and hard Jon worked in creating Zero Suds, but none of that helps to sell this detergent and in fact the price and the high shipping fee's have impacted sales, not in a good way. I have a great deal of respect for Rosalies creator, but it irritates me that the price is not more reasonable...no it should not be priced such as open market detergents as its not a standard detergent. ..but the shipping is painful.

I hear you about the boutique detergent. .but try telling the fans this Hahaha.

Well, I'd like to start with the disclaimers.

I live a few miles away from Jon's home, he and I belong to AW.org.

Like Joel said above, yes, it's all true, he has spent quite a lot of time and money developing Rosalie's Zero Suds. It does not take much to make him talk about a lot of stuff he tried etc.

With that out of the way, here's what I've heard from people I know and trust who actually tried the detergent: some did not like it because the scent was too faint, some did not like it because the scent was not faint enough, some did not like it because it wasn't unscented. I've heard people claiming that they could NOT deal with a detergent that basically made no suds, they are too used to seeing suds. Some couldn't deal with the detergent being so concentrated that just a tiny scoop would do. Most agreed that it was a competent detergent and that it cleaned well or really well. A lot of the "problems" expressed above could easily be solved by a large corporation just by offering the same product with different scents, concentrations and suds suppression, but this is not the case here, there is one formula, not everyone will be pleased.

I have been using this Rosalie's since it was released -- Jon gave me a free box, and I already bought another two from Gray's Appliance since. When it was released it was *clearly* the best American detergent for sale, after that, Henkel released Persil ProClean which forced P&G to release Tide HE Turbo, which have similar performances, but produce more suds than Rosalie's. I would have probably bought more boxes, except that, I don't know if y'all have ever heard of this condition, I find it very hard not to test any laundry detergent I see at the supermarket that have wordings to the tune of "New" or "Improved", so I have a stash of Tide HE Turbo, Persil ProClean etc competing for attention with Rosalie's.

I find it funny to see people talking about the price not because they shouldn't but because *I* have succumbed to the temptation to buy *imported* German Persil *multiple* times. I find Rosalie's and German Persil to be mostly tied for performance, one cleans some stains better but change stains and you might need the other detergent.

Here's the thing: the "use one scoop" direction is for High Efficiency washers with about 8 pounds of regular soiled clothes. This is not that different from what many of us here have been using when we use German Persil. If you have more than 8 pounds, or the clothes are very dirty, or your water is very hard etc, you will need more. If you are using a deep fill toploader with the traditional agitator, the box directs you to start with 2 or 3 scoops and increase from there.

Here's what I like about Persil and Rosalie's -- with the water I have available to me (0-4 grains most of the year, thus "soft"), I can use enough to clean most things. I have had one of my frontloaders washing about 16 pounds of *heavily* soiled clothes and I used, if I remember right, 3 scoops in the pre-wash and 6 scoops in the main (hot) wash, everything came out clean, the washer did not suds lock in the interim spins and the last rinse was clear water. The clothes were clean with a very mild scent that reminds me of old-time detergents, not the sweet cloying stuff on the shelves today. The dosage I used of Rosalie's is very close to the dosage of Persil Megaperls that I got from Germany when you use the Persil scoop provided.

I don't know much about business, so take the following with a grain of salt: I've heard that when All was released in the 40's or so, they released a small box to emphasize how concentrated the product was and it did not start selling well until they started selling it in a large box and people who failed to read the directions (we don't know anybody like that, right?) started using a heaping measuring cup of All instead of the intended dosage (I forgot if it was 1/2 or 3/4 cup), which of course made it clean and rinse better than other detergents of the time.

I think that might be the case here -- if Rosalie's came up with a box 4 times the current size and an oversized scoop directing people to use the same quantity they tell us now, a lot of people will use the full scoop (or about 4-10 times as needed) and the thing might start flying off the shelves, because it will rinse well and clean well. I am sure there will be some absurd dosage that will make it oversuds or even sudslock, but I have not found it yet. Maybe people with different water quality will experience differently than me.

The other thing I want to say is that if you look at the ad in the webpage, the two women are holding a box that appears to be twice as tall as the current box, but with the same number of loads, I think. So, I commented in person to Jon that I was surprised the box was shorter (changing box sizes and having to print a new different run is expensive) and he told me that one of the problems he found out a bit too late was that he had to experiment with the formula and make it more concentrated because shipping depends on the volume of the box and also the weight. At that time, boxes were about 2 pounds, if I remember right, and his goal was to make it under one pound because anything above one pound gets *much* more expensive to ship. This is not a huge company that can tell FedEx or UPS that they'll go with a competitor and get a much lower rate. Someday, if the shipping company starts parking several trucks at their docks everyday, shipping might go for peanuts, right now I think the company is paying about as much as I would if I shipped it.

Anyway, I believe he was offering free samples. I would suggest people take him up on it and make up their minds. I like the product, most people I know liked it too, a lot of them find it too expensive, but such is life until production can ramp up significantly.

I would like to add here that the opinions I've expressed above are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of anyone at the firm that researches, develops and/or manufactures Rosalie's Zero Suds -- I have no connection (financial or otherwise) with that company except for knowing the inventor of Rosalie's.

Cheers,

-- Paulo.

Mamapinky,

I was typing when you were posting, so I figured I might add a few things.

Yes, you are right, it's expensive and that's a shame.

That being said, he is buying stuff at a much higher price than P&G or Unilever, who buy the ingredients by millions of tons, and even those two giants have been having trouble staying in the market -- Henkel just entered our markets with a big bang thinking they knew what they were doing (and they do when it comes to chemistry, but they don't know our market well enough) and last I heard, had to drop the Megaperls version of their Persil *despite* the fact it's a very good detergent, because it did not sell as well as they need to keep in business.

The laundry detergent market in US really is the kind of market that if you can't make it by making just a few cents per package, you won't last long.

So, yes, I agree with you, I am lucky that I can walk in a store local-ish to me and not pay the shipping costs.

But I'm not sure he is charging any more than he has to if he doesn't want to give stuff away and/or lose money on it. Maybe if people start convincing local supermarkets and/or appliance dealers near them to carry the stuff, then shipping can get super cheap because then one can then just send pallets of the stuff to the store by trucking companies already doing that route instead of much faster things like the Post Office, FedEx or UPS, for example.

Cheers,

-- Paulo.

Paulo,

Thanks for posting the info about Jon and his detergent. Living close to Boston MA I would love to stop by when he has his "open house" and check out those Vintage washing machines in person.

Jeff

Jeffrey,

Next time I see/talk to him I might ask if he's interested in hosting a gathering for the GW/Houzz crowd -- I, for one, would love to meet the Boston Area crowd of folks who post here.

Well, to be honest, I'd love to meet the folks who post in the Appliances/Kitchens/Laundry forums, which are the ones I visit the most, but unless folks would love to travel to Boston, it won't happen soon.

Cheers,

-- Paulo.