I have been using Ariel color for a couple or years now, and have found it a very satisfactory product. Don’t you just hate it when you have just paid out for a new outfit, some new clothes, you wear them a couple of times, and they all turn a pastel shade of white. That’s because you’re using the wrong washing powder. I used to just bung everything in the same powder, the cheapest I could get from the pound shops, or those places that sell everything in a barrel, Superscoopers or something. you get a scoop, and you shovel as much as you want in to a plastic sack and get it for half the price as a branded box (there’s a review in there somewhere).
Anyway this cheap stuff just ruins your clothes. Its ok for whites because it contains a lot of bleach, although bleaching is often mistaken for cleaning which it isn’t. Your expensive new clothes are ruined after a couple of washes, bleached out and spoiled. You’ve all seen the guy who doesn’t know how to wash his coloureds properly, walking down the street with
his dayglow aura and his bleached out couture. It looks dreadful, and it really makes me laugh.
I just object to paying a small fortune for clothes which are a shadow of their former selves after a couple of washes. I am no Beau Brummel, or Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, but I like my clothes to last. This when I discovered that there is a different type of powder for coloureds than there is for whites, it does not contain any bleach and is specially formulated to wash coloureds without bleaching them. Hurrahh!.
There are many brands on the market, Ariel is just the first one I started using, and it worked for me and I suppose it is a case brand loyalty. I had a particularly expensive set of clothes at the time and I really wanted them to last. They were the best clothes I had bought for a while, and I did not want to spoil them by incompetent laundering. You know how it is when your favourite shirt gets destroyed in the wash a couple of hours before you wanted it. There was a noticeable improvement on the fading issue when I started using Ariel colour, and the colours retain their intensity for longer Also when you hang clothes out on the line, if you hang them inside out and peg them at the seams this will also prevent fading.
It is not the cheapest on the market, but I think you get what you pay for and you do not need a lot. In fact if you use too much wash powder it is the predominant reason, and cause of washing machinesbreaking down. A washing machine repair man once told me this when he came round to fix mine. He said it keeps him in business, people just shovel it in, the more the better, thinking that more means cleaner, when it does not in fact it stops the machine operating at its optimum efficiency and your clothes are not even as clean as they would have been if you had put less in. The excess powder eventually clogs the mechanism and the machine ceases to function, and then it costs you £60 for the repair man to come out.
There are two types of Ariel color, Ariel color powder, and Ariel color liquid. I have used them both. The advantage of the liquid is that it does not cause the clogging I mentioned above, because for one it passes through the mechanism more smoothly and secondly you can use it in a ball which you put in the drum of your machine as opposed to filling the little drawer at the top. This means it does not even pass through the mechanism which is prone to clogging, and goes straight to the heart of the wash, as it says in the advert, hence better results. I think it is also available in tablet form, but I won’t comment on them, as I have never used them.
All the washing instructions are on the box as to how much you need to use, for those of you who are used to having you mother do your washing for you or the Laundromat, and if you need a ball for the liquid I think you can send away for one free of charge.
I could not find any information on wether this product is biodegradable or not, I have a feeling that it is let down in this respect. If you want to be environmentally friendly with your washing there are several tips at the www.washright.com website, which I found on the box. This is a European wide initiative by detergent manufacturers to tackle the question of the environmental impact of washing powder.
They list several key areas
Do not under fill the machine, this helps unnecessary washes and there fore pollution.
Use the minium amount of detergent according to water hardness preventing unnecessary pollution
use the lowest recommended temperature , there fore using less electricity, todays powders do not need high temperatures for good results.
Buy refill packs where applicable, preventing unwanted packaging waste.
For more information about ariel products you can visit www. ariel-info.com, though there is not a great deal of information available. They have a stain wizard, which is a kind of stain removal troubleshooting guide, and also a an email link and telephonecontact details.
Pictures of Ariel Washing Powder
Ariel Packshot (refil)
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Didn't know washing powder could be so interesting!!! Great op. marc
Kukana 05.04.2004 18:45
This is what I use, too! I've had no problems with it, and find the largest packs to be pretty good value on the whole as you don't need much for a good wash. Sue
Advantages: Fresh smell , clothes exceptionally clean , goes a long way ,better for my machine Disadvantages: More expensive than some , may be harsh on some fabrics
grafter123 17.12.2006 (17.12.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Ariel Washing Powder
Advantages: Fresh smell , clothes exceptionally clean , goes a long way ,better for my machine Disadvantages: More expensive than some , may be harsh on some fabrics
grafter123 17.12.2006 (17.12.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Ariel Washing Powder
Apr 4th, 2004
exceptional by (14%):
very helpful by (82%):
helpful by (5%):
