FELS-NAPTHA!

I cheated and found this head to head comparison.

Fels Naptha vs Zote

Thank you Georgect! I will check it out.

rrah, thank you for your input. I really appreciate it. Have you ever used Zote?

Fels is slso very effective on grass stains.

We were given a bar of pink Zote at the beginning of the year. It just sat in its package in the LR until the beginning of this week when I had run out of detergent and wanted to do a load of clothes. Got on the internet to read about it. Some folks said it is NOT for a washer. Most others discussed how they used it in their washers, so I got a grater and grated some and did a load. Certainly did not ruin the machine, made some observable lather. It is supposed to be good with stains, but I did not find that to be necessarily true. The laundry seemed sufficiently clean, but I would not go through all of that trouble of grating a bar of soap on a routine basis.

Armjim, good to hear from you again. I trust all is well. So would you say that these products are equivalent to using a lower or mid-tier detergent alone?

Soap formulas nowdays may be different but soaps traditionally don't handle water hardness without addition of a chemical water softener and need hot water to melt/dissolve. That was the huge advantage of synthetic detergents when they were introduced. No curd/soap scum. Consumers switching from soap to detergent back in the day were advised to run a treatment process on their laundry to clear accumulated residue ... soak overnight in the hottest water possible and a large dose (two cups) of a non-precipitating water softener such as Calgon (STPP), then wash the load in a normal dose of detergent.

Happy 4th MWJ. I just did not have a wow moment when my load was completed after using the Zote. It was touted as a good stain remover and to be honest I did not apply some directly to the spots so I can't say I gave it a good chance. Still, having to use a grater to get the proper amount seems like a lot of effort when there are so many good products ready to go. It was fun for that first time but it would become a chore later I reasoned.

Dadoes and Armjim, what do you guys think about the flakes? Would this be the better option to go with as opposed to the bar version for dissolving and convenience purposes?

I picked up a bar of Vanish (White stain remover bar) when I was in MX to compare it to Fels Naptha. I only use for treating stains. Have not tried Zote. Anyway, IME, Fels Naptha seems to do a better job than the Vanish. Treading a bit off topic...

As cupb scouts, my sons learned to whittle using a bar of Zote rather than wood, so we had a lot of Zote shavings around back in the day. It was unimpressive as a laundry soap but the boys had a great time carving it!

MWJ-I can't comment about flakes as I don't have experience with them. I don't experiment the way dadoes does with all of these things. I like the idea of whittling the Zote bar and using the discarded bits for the laundry-it makes it entertaining versus grating a bar of soap before starting the washer which is a mundane activity.

Fels-Naptha works well, cheaper than sprays like Oxyclean, but takes more effort.

I am LOL over the typo (or poor translation into Spanish) of "lavenderia" on that FELS naptha bar image.

The correct word is lavanderia" and probably every native Spanish speaker is rolling their eyes. :-)

Cavimum, I just asked my Spanish speaking partner about lavenderia who assumed it was spelled lavanderia. I then googled it. Apparently it is commonly used in certain areas, including in Dallas, TX (go figure).

I've never used soap, bars or flakes, for laundry and have no plans to try. Bars as pictured in the OP should be whittled into flakes for use in a washing machine so the difference between bar and flake products is the convenience of the flakes.

My thought is, if bar soap causes scum in the shower why use it to wash your clothes?