What are your issues?

Everyone has different; water, clothes, detergents, additives.

For my water, Costco powdered detergent, powdered oxi clean, downy and vinegar in the bleach dispenser. My issue was; white cotton undershirts were not white.

Borax and STPP provide different benefits. They can be used together.

I really don’t notice any issues with clothes getting clean or with buildup I am pretty vigilant about treating each load though.

I too have moderately hard water. Borax and Tide or Persil detergents with an occasional addition of OxyClean works fine for me. Why bother with STPP?

STPP conditions the water, hard or not, further than borax alone.

Ongoing Borax user and occasional STPP user here.

I find if I don't use Borax, our soils and odors can remain within the fabrics. Borax helps our laundry very much for this issue.

STPP, for our laundry softens the water and helps the laundry products, no matter what they are to work better. I find that when I use STPP our fleece and towels rinse better and are softer (We don't use liquid fabric softener).

I use both of them separately and together. When I use just one of them, I get very good results. When I use both, I get better results. Admittedly though, I usually tend to forget to add STPP...for some odd reason. Never forget the Borax...for some odd reason ;)

Hope that helps.

Would you increase Borax to 1 cup if you had an older Top Load "water hog," or still only use 1/2 cup, please?

SEA SEA, got it. Thank you.

In my 2010 Duet, I generally use 1 Tablespoon of STPP per load of clothes, and 2 Tablespoons with towels and whites. Our water hardness is about 10 gpg. For TL, I would recommend the 1/4 cup (4T) to start. Our clothes and towels are noticeably softer when using STPP. I would imagine the Borax would potentially make the clothes feel slightly harsh in comparison to STPP, but will still have all the other benefits to it. We use Tide USR or OXI, and we have great results. I will still add ammonia for deodorant removal and sebum stains though. Every few months I will strip our towels using double the STPP and very little detergent. The towels are much fluffier and feel younger!

Side note, our Duet is still quite clean with very little deposits anywhere. I would love to see the heating element. We have only used STPP for about the last 3-4 years. Our newer Bosch dishwasher is dosed with 1 TSP of STPP in each load and there is no hard mineral build up to speak of. The stainless steel shines like new. Our dishes are considerably shinier and softer to the touch in comparison to others in the area (family and friends). Only a few plastic bowls have tiny specs of mineral deposits.