On 8/5/2012 10:47 PM, Robert Neville wrote:
Art Todesco wrote:

Now, if you put
this small amount of detergent in a washer that uses, lets say 6 times
the amount of water (that's a guess), then the detergent will be 6 times
or more diluted. So, do you use 6 times as much? At 6 times the cost?


First off - HE is a marketing term for what used to be sold as low sudsing
detergent, which used to be the standard formula. IIRC Tide was one of the first
high sudsing detergents to come out, and a lot of people didn't like the
overflowing suds it created.The marketing types needed to draw a distinction
between the two - so you used to get a choice: high suds or low suds.

The suds have nothing to do with how good a detergent is, but calling it low
anything wouldn't sell nearly as well, so now we get "High Efficiency".

The new washers use far less water - and by law the new top loaders aren't
allowed to use any more water than front loaders, so best not be putting 6 times
the amount of detergent in them.

Actually, not exactly true. The new top load washers that don't have an
agitator are really just front loaders on its side. So yes on that
account. However, the ones with agitators use lots of water. Maybe not
like you mother's machine, but they to fill the tub and the clothes to
slosh around. In my case, if I let the machine weigh and fill, the tub
will not fill as much as if I manually select a setting, like small
load, medium, large, super, etc. In this case, it will fill to a
certain level regardless of what's in the tub. My understanding is
that, in the future (don't know when), they will only be the ones
without agitators and very low water.