If you have hard water use liquid detergent.

https://www.joe.org/joe/2011august/rb6.php#:~:text=Powdered detergents outperform liquid detergents,detergents decreases in hard water.

This article completely agrees with that. Thanks for the comment Kathy :-)

If you use liquid detergent be sure to do at least one hot wash per week. Cold washes only can be disastrous.

I've been using All for several years, mostly because it seems to be the best bang for the buck. I wasn't particularly impressed with Arm&Hammer the last time I tried it but it has been some time ago. IIRC Gain performed well. I don't often have very soiled items to wash, though; sometimes after big garden chores they are pretty dirty ( ie mud/dirt dirty) and the All seems to handle it fine.

SEA SEA, it's really unfortunate that All discontinued their original formula. I understand why most brands here in the US have cut back on the powdered options they offer due to decreasing sells to liquid and pods, but I believe that it's good to have options for those who prefer to use powder.

Agreed MWJ 90.

I agree ^^^^^. I think many of us fear or dread the day we can’t find any powdered detergent in the stores as we are seeing less and less of it. Target has none at all now, my target anyway. Walmart still has a pretty good selection including Cheer which smells very nice and is a good all around detergent even for dark colors and it dissolves very well and the price isn’t bad at all for a large box.

MiMi, I totally agree. No matter the market, choice is always good to have. At least Walmart is still selling them...for now at least. let's hope it continues.

Still have a few years worth of Sears Ultra Plus left. Dont have any clue what I will use when its all gone.

We should doomsday-prep for the end of powder detergents. I try to keep three boxes in stock, but that won't last long in the big picture of washing life. It's probably coming though. I've read on this board that it costs the manufacturers more $ to make powdered than liquid. They probably love that pods are as popular as they are since they get to make less detergent while charging more for it. It will be a sad day when powders are no more.

I completely agree. I honestly don't think manufacturers will completely get rid of powders since there will always be a market for it. But yeah I can definitely see your point as well. It is something to be on the look out for.

SEA SEA... how long do you think they would keep? They would definitely require some type of air tight storage. The giant zip loc bags would work good I’d imagine.

Remember MaMaPinky telling about her stash... she cleaned out her husbands closet one day when he was at work and filled it with detergent. Lol. I don’t remember her saying anything about how it was stored.

Sea Sea/ fordtech,

I hear ya'

[img]https://i.imgur.com/rBVMHRR.jpg[/img]

Jeff

Oh Jeffrey! I think I remember seeing your photo of all those buckets of Sears detergent from a few years ago! You might be set for a lifetime there, if you kept it all. :-)

Mimi,

I'm not sure exactly how long it would last, but an example here was that I had bought several pouches of Mexican Ariel, hmm, maybe 3ish years ago for the purpose of having it with phosphates for the future. I use it on family's laundry and it works well for them. I had to open a fresh pouch recently and it is working well, so as long as we keep the powder dry, it probably has a long shelf life.

I think MamaP kept her stash for years and IIRC, she had good results with her older powders. She was good about properly packing them up for storage, then she worked out of a glass dispenser jar for immediate use--like a cookie jar. There's a photo of it somewhere on this forum.

Temperature extremes might be an issue. I don't have a garage so all my stock is kept indoors and pretty well climate controlled. That probably helps.

Dollar General had the 30 load boxes of Gain original for $1.95. You had to download the app and 'clip' the coupon. I stock up by using all the phone numbers in my family.

Mimi mentioned getting Cheer powder at Walmart and I'm happy to hear that. I don't see it on any shelves around here anymore. My Walmart is a bit of a drive away. Speaking of WM, I remember they used to have Great Value powdered detergent. This is getting to be many years ago though, and honestly, that stuff worked as well, if not better than Tide powder at the time. Then it disappeared. Haven't seen it since. I considered that to be a loss.

Sooo... this thread is reminding to hoard powder detergent! I promise I will. I just stopped in at Smart and Final for something else, but noticed they didn't have any powder. In the past they have been my go to for powdered detergent.

I just got my stash when Sears abandoned us in Lawton Oklahoma. I got 8 big boxes but I left some for others. Im actually glad I didnt get more because I dont think the shelf life would be much longer than the 3 or 4 years supply I got.

I would think if the boxes of Sears were kept dry, they would be good for many years. I have an unopened box from 2013. That detergent rinsed good. Now a liquid detergent, that would be nasty. I have a two year old bottle of liquid fabric softener that has thickened with chunks.

I've been using 7th Generation powder. It's ok but nothing to write home about. It doesn't have optical brighteners and there is no fragrance, which are huge pluses in my book, but it does seem to fade things a bit. I use it on towels and sheets where that's not such a big deal.

Why are powder detergents being discontinued? I use Tide and Tide w/ Bleach. Most of my washes are in hot water. I keep my TL lid whenever it's not in use. Don't use fabric softener. Washer is in tip top shape and smells fresh as a daisy :) I do NOT want to have to go back to liquid. The laundry god here on this forum showed proof of what liquid detergent does to a washer's innards over time. Not pretty :( Do I need to start hoarding Tide powder???

I don't get it either, especially in light of all the plastic packaging waste that comes along with liquids.

mmk3,

I missed your post above about 7th Gen powder earlier. I had not ever used it that I recall, but had to buy a huge pail of it during pandemic shortages time. I needed a fragrance free powder and could not get my hands on any, except for 7th Gen Professional powder in the giant pail. I bought it. I'm sure the mail carrier is still angry at us for that heavy delivery.

I find it to be quite fickle. Sometimes it does a nice job of cleaning and other times, it's as you said, not anything to write home about if I'm being generous. I'm not able to figure out why it's rather inconsistent. However, I will say that this version of it does do a good job of keeping whites bright, without optical brighteners. I just never know if stains and odors will be gone at the end of washing! It's a strange one. I am undecided whether I will purchase again when this supply runs out. It's nice to not have to add oxygen bleach to whites loads-that's a plus. But it's a roll of the dice whether the laundry will actually get clean enough to meet standards. I would not use this on anything other than whites or lights.

I was in Target yesterday and they had moved some displays....low and behold they had powdered detergent! They had Tide original, Mountain Breeze and Tide w/bleach, Tide with a touch of Downey Arm and Hammer w/oxi and Gain. It was a nice size display too, I was pleasantly surprised.

So MiMi, maybe there is hope after all. I honestly believe that Powder detergents will be around for awhile. I think there will always be a market for them.

Wow MIMI! Target has been liquid-only for some time now, with small exceptions online, sometimes. That's great news!

Next time I go back I will take a picture to show you guys. It’s right next to the shelves that are totally empty of cleaning supplies like Mr Clean, Pinesol etc... they did have a really nice supply of Scrubbing Bubbles disinfectant spray. It is 3..97 a can and smells really nice , just a fresh clean scent, for those of you who might be interested. We haven’t had spray lysol anywhere here since March. I think this is a new product for Scrubbing Bubbles.

They need to keep powdered detergents! I have shirts that say to only use powders as the liquid builds up on the fabric. The shirts are what are considered coolmax fabric or similar

dakota01 - I can't speak for the "now", but 20+ years ago, garments made of polar fleece type material had instructions to use powder detergents.

dakota01, I'm confident that powders will be around for the foreseeable future. All though they aren't sold in the numbers they used to be, there is still nonetheless a market for them. In fact, I'm actually seeing newer lesser known detergent brands offering a powder version on Amazon. So with that being said, I don't think powders are going anywhere soon.