Danny wrote:

On mine, if I happen to have an emergency and have to throw in say, a
couple of shirts that I might need to go somewhere, what seems to me to
be about like about 1/2 teaspoon might make it pretty sudsy and do ok,
or possibly foam over

The presence of suds in modern laundry detergent is a marketing device and not
an indication of how clean your clothes are getting. Putting a half teaspoon of
detergent in a washer is not doing much more than washing in plain water.

In fact, that was the basis of those magic "laundry balls" someone was selling a
few years ago. They were taking advantage of the residual detergent left in the
clothing after a standard washer cycle and made people believe they were getting
some magical cleaning action.