I must admit that I am not a brand snob when it comes to laundry detergent. I do prefer liquid detergents and have been using a wool detergent from Lidl for years, with occasional purchases of whatever biological stuff is on offer for towels and bedlinen.
I also do most of my laundry at 30 degrees - I got into this habit several years ago and find that my Lidl detergent works very well at this temperature.
When I lived in London I had a really good Bosch tumble dryer which had a large drum and dried clothes brilliantly. Sadly, since moving to Edinburgh I have had to deal with washer/dryers and I find the small drum in these machines less than useless for drying - items come out badly creased and the drying time is much increased on what I was used to in the past.
As a result I now air dry everything. I don't have a garden but I do have a large home so luckily I have space to do this. And it works fine with everything I wash except for towels.
You shouldn't use fabric conditioner on towels - it badly affects the absorbency of them - so without a tumble dryer,
you run the risk of towels feeling like cardboard and lacking that lovely scent you get from a softener.
Over the years I have mastered how to soften them a little - do not overdose detergent and shake them before and after airing. However the scent issue has bugged me for some time...until I saw Ariel Excel Gel with Febreze effect in the supermarket.
The Product
I had been aware of the Ariel Excel Gel range for a while - it was heavily advertised when launched - and the main premise of this product is that it will give you "outstanding cleaning" with low temperatures - temperatures as low as 15 degrees Celsius.
Usually priced at around £4 for the 666 ml bottle, which promises to give 18 washes, I saw it on offer in Somerfield for just under £2.50, so I decided to pick it up and give it a go.
To use, you simply squeeze the required amount of gel into the dosing device. You use 37 ml for a normal load - this would be in soft and medium water and for normal soiling. If you live in a hard water area or are washing heavily soiled items, you should fill the dosing device up to the top, using 46 ml.
You put the dosing device in the machine with your laundry and select whichever temperature you wish to wash at. This stuff claims to work at all temperatures, not just the low ones. It is worth noting, however, that you cannot use this detergent for hand washing.
My Thoughts
I first used this on towels from my daughter's bathroom. My daughter is very messy and her hand towel is always filthy even after just a day or two's use so I was worried if this would work or not, but I was delighted when I took the towel out to see nearly all the stains gone. Given she had been messing about with red lip gloss before the towels were washed, I wasn't too bothered by a tiny stain that remained on the edge of the towel.
The scent was also very strong, and I was delighted to finally have fresh smelling towels without having to use fabric softener.
I decided to use the detergent on clothing as well and this is where Ariel Excel came undone for me.
The main problem seems to be with stains. My daughter had managed to get a tomato ketchup stain on her bra (I told you she is very messy!) and a top she was wearing. I have a stain removing spray I picked up in Poundland which has always worked very well for me, so I treated the bra and top before putting in the wash.
I was careful to ensure I didn't put any woollens or silk items in as you cannot wash these with Ariel Excel Gel, and dosed at 37 ml, turned my machine on at 30 degrees and went off to do other things while the machine did its work.
When I went to take the clothes out of the machine I was surprised to see blue marks on my daughter's pink bra! Clearly there had been a chemical reaction with the stain remover (which is a leave-in one) and the detergent.
I rinsed the bra and most of the blue marks came out and the top she had also stained was fine, but I was disappointed.
However after repeated uses of this detergent I also find the smell to be too pungent, almost eye watering in its power. I actually can feel a headache coming on when I am near the room where laundry washed with Ariel Excel Gel is hanging to dry and wonder what sort of chemicals are included to give off the supposedly "fresh" aroma. Even when the smell fades a little the aroma is more akin to stale cigarette smoke than anything fresh and outdoorsy.
I also find when I wear clothes washed using this detergent that the aroma is irritating and I don't consider myself to be the sensitive sort when it comes to laundry detergents or air fresheners for that matter - I only use gentle detergents in a bid to make my clothes last a little longer.
I think the idea for this product is a noble one, but the smell and effectiveness were huge drawbacks for me. I had planned to stick to using this until it was finished but I found the smell so bad I had to discard it and I replaced it with a sweet smelling Surf Small & Mighty, which has done the job far better ever since.
What really put me off however was the way it didn't remove the stain on my daughter's bra - it actually made the problem worse, and for that reason alone, I won't be buying this brand again, in any variety, which is a shame for such an eco-friendly product.
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Sep 24th, 2009
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