Note: $4.99 Canadian = $3.99 USD. If that makes any difference.

It's my favorite detergent for really stinky grungy clothes.

Not a bad deal I think. Very well liked for how it cleans but the scent is not for everyone. Take a wiff before you buy it to see if you like the smell. This is the perfect size to try, then if you like it you know it's safe to get the bigger size (and more$).

I didn't realize it was in Canada! Sorry! It does make it a better deal.

Consumer reports says persil 2 in 1 cleans better than tide. I’ve also read that regular persil (not 2 in 1) is their middle of the line detergent and not as strong as 2 in 1. For that price I would grab it. A small bottle at Walmart is 5.24 usd so that’s a good deal especially Canadian.

I have seen that size in the grocery store and it's $6.99.

holisticthug, interesting. I've line dried tons of laundry washed in Persil, and have never had that problem.

holistic, wow that residue is crazy! That shirt looks so sad and abused.

What detergents do you find to be the easiest to wash out?

Our water is pretty hard, so we use a whole house water softener. My machine is the whirlpool WFW85HEFW, and I've been very happy with both the washing and rinsing.

Well, looks like there is a $2 coupon that Persil Canada is throwing about recently. Unfortunately the liquidator does not take coupons, but a local grocery has it on sale for $5.97...so I picked up two bottles of the "Intense Fresh" for $3.97 each. So will be giving it a try!

I don't think I have smelled the intense version before. Was in Walmart yesterday and they had only a few bottles of Persil. Mostly empty shelves with a sticker above the price than said "Out of stock" .

Let us know how you like the Intense. I only tried the pearls original version, cleaned well but the smell killed my sinuses. Gave it away.

I love the Persil 2/1 and it has taken out many stains that had been washed/dried many times in various liquid Tide products. No need to spot white shirt collars and cuffs. I have used all of the other liquids and they are good too but maybe not quite as strong. This is very subjective though. We are very sensitive to soap residues and it rinses out very well(SQTL)

holisticthug, I wonder if your detergent is reacting to something in your water and making some sort of precipitate rather than not rinsing out, especially if you are having problems with so many detergents. Do you also have problems with shampoos or soaps which can share many of the same ingredients?

Holistic, when you hand wash, do your items rinse? Do you take the items from your wash and try rinsing in the sink? What results do you get. Sure sounds like a machine issue to me.

holisticthug,

I don't have anything of much use to add to the above, but did want to mention something about the pink soap scum you reference above and hardness of water...

We too live in a soft water area (top of the water chain so to speak). I'm originally from So Cal where the water is on the harder side (very bottom of same water chain). I never had negative laundry issues in LA and didn't have them here when we moved here 25+ years ago. When I did start having negative laundry issues (some similar to yours) is when phosphates were removed from cleaning products. We have battled detergent build up/residue and odors not removing from laundry since the removal of phosphates. It seems to me that a little bit of water hardness is not all that bad of a thing, all things considered.

What I did have issues with living in hard water area was keeping the tub/shower clean. An ongoing battle with scum and hard water deposits on tub surfaces and fixtures. That issue mysteriously disappeared upon moving to this soft water area. I didn't know why at the time though and frankly I was happy to not have to scrub the showers and tubs so often. What did become a problem was the pink scummy build up in the shower corners and shower door tracks. It is kind of slimy when wet and will become a dried up paste kind of substance if allowed to dry, such as when away from home for a week or so. Co-workers informed me it was because we had high iron levels in our water. That made sense given the color. If left long enough, the pink substance would take on a reddish hue.

I learned reading various threads in the archives in this forum that the pink substance in many cases is a mold or biofilm, if you will. I have noticed that it will give off an odor if not cleaned with bleach soon enough, so perhaps it is a mold/biofilm. I suspect in our case here, it's a combo of iron deposits and a weird mold. In my unscientific thoughts, I suppose (in our case at least), the lack of water hardness, while it has it's benefits, it has it's down side as well, i.e., the difficulty with rinsing hair, bodies, laundry, dishes, showers, etc...

I've, for the most part, overcome the laundry issues with the help of the members of this board either through direct advise or gleaning info from past posts when I have done a forum search on the topic.

Using powder detergent help greatly, as did using sodium percarbonate in hot water on white/lights loads. I also add STPP (phosphate) to some wash loads. On the dark loads, adding a little Borax helped with breaking down the biofilm build up and removing body oils and odors. Borax holds a caveat however, because it is a mild bleaching agent if used in high enough dose. I use Borax in the showers too in-between scrub outs--1/4 cup mixed in a water bottle and squirt it on the surfaces twice a week keeps that strange odor away. Lemishine powder laundry booster is magic in a bottle as far as I am concerned with our water issues. Hot water washes with powder detergent and the above additives does seem to greatly improve these issues for us. Also learning how much detergent is 'enough' for us. It's not as much as the label recommends. MamaP here tells us to feel the water for slipperiness once the detergent is mixed in the wash. If it feels slippery, you've added enough. That works here.

We used to have those 'board' laundry items if air dried until I made changes to how I do things. I air dried a full wash load indoors yesterday and everything was nice and soft and unboard-like. It took a while for the accumulation of detergent build to come out, but I think I'm there now and air drying the laundry is not such a 'rough' experience anymore. Towels I do always put in the dryer since I'm a mold-a-phobe having lived with musty towels for years and years before I learned this and that from this forum.

I hope Puracy works well for you!! Let us know how it's going when you have used it for a while. We all have to find that formula that works for us. Laundry used to be so easy! lol

The pink substance in showers is Serratia marcescens, a bacteria that is common and not harmful. It feeds on fat such as bar soap and skin. To minimize the pink slime use liquid soap and wipe dry your shower after use. Bleach will remove and kill it. Iron in water is not pink but orange or rust colored and bleach will not remove the stain but will usually set the stain. Use a rust remover on iron or rust stains such as Whink Rust Remover.

As I learned here from the resident experts if you have detergent build up use STPP (bought at a chemical supply house) and no detergent in hot water and run a load of laundry. If you have build up you will see cloudy filmy water and often suds. If the build up is very bad you may have to do this more than once.

To figure out how much to use requires starting with a few tablespoons then check the water to see if it feels slippery. If it doesn't add another spoonful till after mixing up it feels slippery. I hope someone else jumps in and explains it better than me, I hope what I am saying is making sense.

holisticthug,

You ask good questions. Answers I don't have. Maybe some of the other members have insight for you. That's a debate I'm not getting into. : )

We can only do what is best for each of us with the information and resources we have.

It's not easy. I get it. What to do? What's the best choice. That's something we have to make up our own minds about.

For what it's worth, there used to be a poster on this board who lived in Portland. I've seen his or her posts in the archives. This person was a big fan of Biokleen liquid and then liked Vaska liquid as well. He or she would use Borax with either of those two liquids and claimed to have good laundry results. So, maybe if the Puracy ends up needing to be alternated with another detergent, one of those might be beneficial for you.

Is Puracy a powder or liquid? I personally do not like using Borax with powders. ..powder already has a fair amount of Sodium Carbonate than add borax and you could be looking at more residue than acceptable. Borax isn't as hard to remove from textiles as carbonate but it can still cause residue. Borax is best as far as residue goes using with liquids.

As for phosphates and arsenic....what phosphate are you referring to? There are different types of phosphates. Interesting ...wonder how many people died of arsenic back when laundry detergent contained upwards of 50% phosphates. Not to mention the high amounts of phosphates in automatic dishwasher detergent up to the end of 2010. Hmm so all that arsenic was used on our dishes...

Holisticthug, can you please provide a link for your info about phosphates and arsenic?

I'm not trying to debate but trying to educate myself...in order to do that a link providing info is helpful.

I smelled this stuff in my local BJ's club the other day and it's way over the top. Very very strong.