Products like Cheer powder come to mind for this sort of application. No optical brighteners, decent performance, and a little bit of Sodium Percarbonate to minimize chlorine damage. Tide Free and Gentle isn't the best performer, but the new Tide Free and Gentle with Downy adds another enzyme, so it might be a little better. Washing in warm for pastels should be a good idea to keep them clean without too much fading. Cold likely won't clean quite well enough over time.

Woolite is trash in my honest opinion. I have started using regular detergent on some delicate items at a much lower dose with no issues at all. The OxiClean White Revive isn't going to do much unless you are washing in hot, since the main ingredient needs to be activated and broken down in higher temperatures.

As always, I highly recommend Ammonia as a booster in the wash. 1 cup after the machine has filled really goes a long way. It should remove some residues and bring a little life back, but also preventing oily or sweat stains from building up. Let us know what you decide.

I used to be a Cheer liquid devotee but I can not find it consistently in stores and it's really pricey on Amazon. So I buy Woolite Dark instead. What does the Tide Free and Gentle with Downy do that the plain Tide Free and Gentle doesn't do? Thanks, DoreyCrouse!

...

Tide with Downy F/G has 4 enzymes and no obs. Just the liquid, pods have obs and maybe fewer enzymes.

I had a bottle of German Persil for colors that I have been using on my pastels. When that finishes I will just use Persil with stainfighters. I do use Cheer powder for darks but that has been harder to find. I did find some finally a couple of weeks ago. I use warm wash ~105°F with 2-3 rinses. I have allergies but the extra clear rinses pull dirt out that otherwise might get hung up in the fibers. There was an interesting study a few years ago that showed the rinse is effective in removing stains.

I think if you can cut down on dryer time, that cuts down on abrasion and wear.

I add sodium tripolyphosphate because I have hard water.

Color Catchers are basically sheets of cellulose like a paper towel. Color has to be dissolved in the water in order to be picked up by the color catcher and everything else that is cellulose based-cotton, linen and rayon. There are some detergents that have polymers that keep the dye in suspension but they don’t work all that well from what I have read.

thank you for your replies, so helpful! I found Cheer powder at Walmart. 80 loads for about $12. It is about 33% cheaper per load than Dark Woolite. I also reduced the size of the load to the “mini” level which is still half a tub of water. To this I added two tablespoons of powdered Cheer. And two Color Catcher. I’ve decide to reuse clean color catchers at least once by cutting each sheet in half for the second time usage. Color Cathxers are expensive to me. $9.94 on Amazon for a 72-count box.

Also I will use the delicates cycle going forward for all my clothing except athletic and gardening clothes. By the way, can I buy and add Sodium Percarbonate to my own laundry loads or is it only available in detergents? Thank you!

SORRY! I am just seeing this!

The Tide Free and Gentle plus Downy adds Cellulase which is designed to remove older damaged fibers or 'pills' on the surface of the clothes to help keep them looking brighter, newer, and feeling softer. Supposedly it helps to remove some dirt deep in the fibers of the clothes as well that may make clothes look dingy. That is a bit of a dispute, though. This version is also HE Turbo, and the regular form doesn't seem to be. This will help a lot with rinsing.

I have actually purchased raw sodium percarbonate online. It does work great, but you need to be using true hot washes of at least 140ºF or greater to make sure the sodium percarbonate is fully broken down.

As mentioned by wekick, extra rinses actually do help to remove stains because the act of pulling/extracting water from the fibers pulls some extra soil out.

As beaglenc mentioned, the Pods have less enzymes and contain OBs, which isn't good. Not to mention they suds like crazy and barely rinse out. The regular liquids almost all contain 4 enzymes now except for the Simply and plain Tide original variants.