We use All and are very happy with the results! It's not as expensive as Tide and it does just as good of a job at cleaning our clothes!

Hi MWJ, nice to see you. Hope you are well and staying safe.

I too like the way Ariel (Mexican with phosphates) performs, but the scent. Not a fan of the scent. The rest of the family loves the way it smells but me, I'm secretly happy to be on the last bin of Ariel. Aww, shoot. Look at that, The last bin. Evil grin...

That's awesome! I primarily use Arm & Hammer liquid for my clothes and use Powder for my towels and sheets. All along with Gain are my other two favorite liquid detergents.

I also like Arm & Hammer and when it is on sale and cheaper than All, we use it (love the smell)!

SEA SEA, now that is hilarious!!! hahaha.

Bev, I wish All had the Fresh Rain scent they had years ago. I understand they have an "Odor Release" detergent that comes with teal cap but I haven't seen it in my local stores. I'm curious how that one smells.

I will have to look for that when we go grocery shopping (we will be going on Friday). I will let you know if I find it and how it smells. I do remember the Fresh Rain as well.

Thank you Bev. It's nice to meet you. I try to find new laundry related topics to post about. I also do polls where people can vote and discuss. So if there is any interesting polls you could think of, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Saw that Consumer Reports recently rated regular Gain liquid as dead last in their detergent ratings ! Rated lower than Sun liquid and X-tra liquid which had been the worst. What happened! Always liked Gain liquid and thought it was a decent detergent even though I haven't used it in a while.

tideman_59 I wonder if someone over at P&G made Consumer Reports upset or something hahahaha. Just kidding, but yeah that's very interesting indeed...I wonder what that's about? 🤔

I mean, lower than Sun and Xtra!?!?! NO WAY! There's something that's not right about that.

For people that have issues with powder detergent clumping. Just fill to lowest level, add detergent, agitate for a minute, and then finish by adding your water and clothes.

elbits, can't do that with very well with a frontloader. HE toploaders typically won't sense the fill level properly if started with no clothes and the load is added later. A possible workaround is dissolve the powder detergent in a container of warm water and pour it in ... and keep in mind that some machines run a brief drain period before the first fill.

dadoes, How I miss the days of lemon fresh laundry detergent, machines that lasted longer than the warranty, and didn't smell like something died inside. Oh and top loaders you could lift the lid up and watch it do its thing.

That's true ... but that also isn't where we are now ... so we have to work with what we have.

Tide man... that is bizarre I still use Gain and find it a fine working detergent. Although I do use stpp On a regular basis with all detergents I use. Might be a different story if I didn’t

MiMi, I'm definitely not buying that ranking. I mean he really got me when he said they rated Gain liquid BELOW Sun and Xtra... that's just nonsense. I don't believe it.

re: my original post for Gain Original Liquid.

Sorry guys, made a slight mistake with the CR ratings. Went back in and found the following rankings out of a possible 100:

Xtra Plus Oxiclean liquid = 37

Gain Original liquid = 36

Era 3x Oxi liquid = 34

Sun Triple Clean liquid = 31

Seems Gain is slightly better than I originally posted but still in the bottom 3.

tideman_59, do you think Church & Dwight improved the formula of Xtra? If that's the case, I could see that, but I still don't think Gain should be ranked as low as it is.

@SEA SEA, I don't care for the scent of the new Original Ariel anymore, either. I've been using Ariel + a Touch of Downy instead. It's much closer to the original scent of Ariel, and still has the Phosphates.

@tideman_59, those ratings are interesting.

Both ERA Liquid & Gain Original are both made by P&G, and both contain enzymes, and IRRC in the not-so-distant past (like 2-3 years ago) they had a very similar formula. It's interesting that both preformed so poorly, and it almost makes me wonder if it was not a fluke or one/off.

Thanks for writing in Mitch.

If I understand you correctly, Ariel, such as sold in Mexican markets, if the package does not say 'sin fosfatos', it has phosphates in it. Yes? I don't think I'd be able to tell if a package came from Columbia (no phosphates) or not. While I do not care for the scent of Ariel in any incarnation, the family does like it (Mexican or otherwise So. American version) very much.

It is nice to see you here again. Welcome back. :)

I was looking forward to not having to smell it anymore...sigh.

Btw, still liking the old friend Foca. I missed it and I'm glad I can use it again. I bought this bag from a North American retailer but the package is in Spanish. Not sure if we got phosphates in there or not. Either way, it's working nicely so far and my plumbing is handling the suds. Fingers crossed on that.

@Laundry Mich for a while I thought P&G was discontinuing Era, seeing that the past few times I browsed through the detergent aisle at Walmart I haven't seen it. In fact it's been at least a year or two since I've last seen Era anywhere...at least in my area. But maybe it just isn't in high enough demand here.

@SEA SEA, you'll be able to tell. These are pictures of the American Verison, which can now be found at stores like Wal-Mart, Publix, Wegmans, Target, Walgreens, and various other stores. They look a LOT alike, but there are subtle differences.

For one... the American Bags will almost always say a number of Loads that can be done with the Bag. Some of the bags (if they are from 2015-2016) will not have this, but all of the newer bags will.

You'll also notice that many details have been translated to English, as well as Native Spanish. The Mexico version of Ariel is entirely in Spanish.

You'll also notice a Caution Label (partially in English) which is on all the American boxes of Tide, Cheer, Gain, etc. It's not present on the Latin American, or Mexican Verisons.

And... but not least.

You'll notice that the dosing amounts are completely different, and the American version says "NO CONTINENE FOSFATO".

Now.... compare all of that, to the version intended for sale in Mexico. And it's completely different.

NOTICE -- No Loads Mentioned. Bag is entirely in Spanish.

Not only that, but the dosing directions are different. And the Ingredient listing is purposely hidden. There's also, no "No Continene Fosfato" to be seen.

@SEA SEA, You'll be able to tell the difference. The Columbian Verison (which I haven't run across in stores, here) --- has a measuring cup on the front with a big "0%" on it. Underneath, it says "No Fosfatos"... and the back will say something about P&G Columbia.

I'm with you, in saying, I don't love the present scent of Original Ariel. I really, do, think you should try and see if you can find the one with Downy in it. It smells worlds better.

As for the FOCA, look on the back, To the left of the barcode, it should say it's ingredients. If it says "Fosfato" than, there you go.

@MWJ '90, a few stores in my area, do carry it. Mostly independent supermarket chains, and CVS Pharmacy. It's dirt cheap, and is often a loss leader -- for $2.99 a bottle. I haven't tried it / used it in years though.

Last time I did, it was Sudsy.

@SEA SEA, at the very least, if I were in your shoes, I would keep two bags of Ariel in double or triple zip locked bags, sitting around for disaster laundry. Between the Phosphates & Enzymes, it's a miracle worker when left soaking, especially overnight. I've been shocked at what it can pull out, without even washing.

Gosh, thank you Laundry Mitch! Such great info! I have a lot of mull over here.

Sorry guys, but I'm only reporting the CR rankings as published. I know that P&G continually changes their laundry product line including adding and subtracting ingredients such as enzymes not to mentions fragrances. P&G might have recently removed even more cleaning ingredients from their non-Tide detergents to justify its higher price. I do remember Gain once being on par with Tide for cleaning ability especially Gain with Bleach, both liquid and powder. Unfortunately, Gain with Bleach is now long gone. Seems to have been a corporate decision-- why should people get the same cleaning power as Tide for a lower price with Gain.

I used up my last few loads of Gain original powder w/bleach a year ago. It didn't smell like the aroma original nowadays. It had more of an herbal scent which I liked better.

tideman_59, I'm sorry if I came off as attacking you. I promise that's not how I wanted to come off. I just found that Gain being ranked below Xtra as just very strange. I just can't fathom that. it really makes me concerned about what P&G is doing with Gain which is one of 3 of my favorite detergents :(

elbits, it's really unfortunate how P&G has tampered with such a good thing.

MWJ

I didn't feel attacked at all. I was just trying to clarify my post. Keep up the good work putting up fun and interesting posts !

tideman_59, did P&G ever have a powdered version of Era back in the day?

Apparently so.

Never seen that before. Wow the things we learn on this forum!

Tide Original for me, the one less likely to cause itchiness , I never use soap powders with perfume smells etc. as some of them cause allergies. Other like Tide, would be Persil.

Wow! Also didn't know that Era had a powdered detergent. I do know that Wisk had a powder detergent for a while. I used it and thought it was a good detergent until they stopped making it. Interestingly, I was in a close out store a few years ago and they had powdered Oxyclean detergent. Still kicking myself for not buying it!

momof5x, thank you for the comment. Thank you for sharing.

tideman_59, It's a shame that Henkel discontinued Wisk. But I guess it makes sense, since they have Persil. I know All and Wisk used to be owned by Unilever, then was sold to Sun and Henkel acquired all of Sun's products. But still, I wish Wisk would've been sold to either Church & Dwight or possibly SC Johnson for the North American market.

Just a update — apparently P&G has discontinued Era Detergent.

@User Post, where did you hear P&G discontinued Era? I loved unscented Era but that was discontinued a few years ago.

@littlegreeny, I spoke with a woman at P&G yesterday, on the phone. She told me that many of the SKU's for Era had been deactivated, and from what she could tell, the brand had been discontinued.

If you ask me -- I think P&G is trying to sell it, like they sold off Joy Dishwashing Liquid recently.

@User Post, I wouldn't be surprised with Era getting phased out now that Tide Simply took its place. Unfortunately, Cheer is next.

@Laundry Mich, if P&G were to sell Era, who do you think would be a viable potential owner? Church & Dwight, Colgate/Palmolive, Henkel, Unilever, etc.? I'm really curious.

by the way, thank you so much for always providing such extensive and extremely helpful information on here. It's always a joy reading your posts!

@MWJ '90 i honestly couldn’t tell you. Henkel isn’t brand shopping right now, and I’ve never seen Church & Dwight purchase anything.

With that said, I could certainly see Colgate attempting to purchase a brand, as they are apparently keen on launching some sort of laundry detergent in the crowded US market — where they have no detergent product. Just softener (Suavitel).

If some company were to purchase Era, I would imagine it would be some sort of private equity company, similar to the company who purchased Phoenix Brands or Joy.

@Laundry Mich, very interesting indeed. Also what do you think about the possibility of SC Johnson purchasing Wisk? Being that they are a marketing giant along with the likes of P&G, do you think SC J would be a good owner of Wisk? It's really fun to imagine.

Has anyone tried Ariel Alpine laundry detergent? I'm curious to try it...

Oh wow, Ariel has an Alpine scent now?? Is this available in the US? I never seen it.