Doesn't banish the really nasty stains at the first attempt
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
When it comes to buying laundry aids, I have been using Washing Liquid instead of powder or tablets since my washing machine went bang last year.
The engineer told me that, living as I do in a "Hard Water" area of the country, powders and tablets were more likely to cause damage to machines as they would not dissolve properly and so liquid would be my best option. Now, I'm not usually one to listen to this sort of "patter", and given that I haven't seen any bottles of Evian kitted out in hoodies on the street corners trying to look hard, I thought perhaps that the engineer was being over dramatic. Then he showed me the powder / tablet residue in my poor old machine and I thought that the liquid did indeed sound the best option for me.
In my weekly hunt for Washing Liquid when I am shopping, I have tended to stick to the main brands such as Daz, Persil or Fairy opting for whichever one happened to be the best price on the day. I did once try a shop brand liquid - Sainsbury's - but it was not much cheaper than the branded ones and not much good at its job, so it had put me off trying them again ......... well that is until my weekly trip to Morrisons last weekend.
*** LOVE AT FIRST PRICE ***
Last week I had less pennies in my purse than usual due to my Dad's 60th birthday and so certain sacrifices had to be made - you'll understand how serious it was when I tell you that I did not even buy any Diet Coke!!! In previous weeks Persil's Liquid had been on offer and so was my liquid of choice, but not on this trip. What was a Teeny to do?
I was then drawn to the other "Offer" labels on the washing liquid shelf and saw that Morrison's were selling their own brand "Cyclon" for 50p less than the usual price, i.e. £2.30 down to £1.80. Considering that this was over £1 cheaper than the brand liquids I felt that it would certainly suit my purse, and if it wasn't any good I would only have to put up with it for the week.
*** NAME GAME ***
Some of you may well recognise the "Cyclon" name. This was originally one of Safeway's products, and then when Morrisons took over the supermarket chain in March 2004 they took over the Cyclon name under the Morrison brand name.
*** ORANGE JUICE A GO-GO ***
The Cyclon name is leant to a few different washing liquids and for the purpose of this review I will be telling all about the 2 in 1 "Summer Blossom" Liquid.
As you would expect, you will find the Cyclon Liquid in the "Laundry" aisle of your local Morrisons - where you will also find the powder, tablets, fabric softener and the like. Where you will then find the liquid once you get home is another question!! My husband had put ours in the fridge when unpacking the shopping as he thought that it was a big bottle of orange juice!! Allow me to explain: -
The liquid comes in an transparent bottle which is slightly smaller than the brand name bottles (even though it contains the same 1.5 litres of liquid) and the orange theme runs through it - it has an orange spout at the top (with a clear screw top lid), the label on the front is predominately orange with "Cyclon" at the top in dark orange under the Morrisons banner, a swirly orange pattern behind a picture of a young girl leaning on a neatly folded pile of laundry and the nature of the product written underneath, namely "brilliant cleaning and softening in one" plus the fact that the liquid will be enough for 17 standard washes. Under the Cyclon title we are told that this in the "2 in 1" liquid of the "Summer Blossom" variety.
And as you might have already guessed the liquid is bright orange - hence the reason for mine ending up in our fridge. I guess that this could have been a whole different sort of review had hubby actually tasted it!
*** USEFUL USAGE ***
The back of the bottle tell you that, using dosage guide, you can either fill the clear cap up (each capful being 30ml) and empty into the dispenser drawer of your machine, or you could use a ball type dispenser which you put straight into the drum of the machine. Handily the instructions on the bottle tell you that you can use any dosing ball, which is good as the bottle does not come with one but I have loads due to frequently using different brands which supply them with the bottle.
You can also pre-treat stains by pouring the liquid directly onto the dirty patch and washing the item immediately.
Plus you can hand wash and / or soak using the liquid, making sure that you use no more than 60ml of the liquid per 10 litres of water.
*** SO DOES IT DO THE DO? ***
As the product type "2 in 1" suggests, this liquid should be capable of both cleaning laundry items plus also softening too, therefore stopping the need for a separate fabric softener. So was this the case?
I chose to use the ball dispenser straight into the machine drum as I have found this to be the best cleaning method when using other liquids. I noticed that, compared with other liquids, this one was very runny and so you have to be careful not to over fill the ball when tipping up the bottle. Although that said, because of the good design of the bottle spout, it is easy to pour any extra liquid back to where it came from.
CLEANING >>>> I was very impressed with the cleaning power of this washing liquid. With a 3 year old son who is the original dirty magnet, I do tend to be washing very grubby garments and in the main this liquid certainly more than does the job. I even found that I did not need to use quite as much liquid as advised on the bottle which of course is good. My only grumble is that the deep deep deep stains (I won't go into detail incase you are having your breakfast / lunch / dinner / supper while you are reading this, but imagine the worse stains ever and you will have hit the nail on the head!) do not come out on the first wash - even when I have followed the pre-treat instructions. However, I will admit that this is a common fault with most of the liquids which I have used, so it does not really detract from how well this liquid performs in "normal" conditions.
SOFTENING >>>> This was the performance which I was most dubious about before use and then completely astounded by afterwards. The only other "2 in 1" liquid which I have used in the past is Bold, and I found that this did not soften items very well at all and I ended up using a separate fabric softener with it. As Cyclon is that much cheaper I certainly expected it to perform the same if not worse. Oh how wrong I was. The smell of the liquid in the bottle is very strong - I'm not very good at explaining what these type of things smell like, but it is very fresh and appealing smell, almost fruity, although I'm not convinced that its "blossom" as the product name would suggest. Once washed, the laundry still has a lovely fresh smell to it, even when washed at the higher temperatures and I usually find with using fabric softeners that this is a fairly good indicator as to whether it has done its job. And certainly once dry (having used the power of wind alone outside on my whirly-gig as I do not have a tumble dryer) the lovely fresh smell remain, but perhaps more importantly the items of laundry are really really soft to the touch. An A1 job in my humble opinion.
ITCHY SCRATCHY >>>> No one in my family of 3 has really sensitive skin and so I have yet to buy a washing product which causing us irritation. This is the case with Cyclon I am pleased to say.
*** A LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP? ***
Having used practically all of the liquids on offer from the main high-street brand names, I would say that this compares well and indeed performs better than most of them. At its current bargain price of £1.80 I am very tempted to stock up on this as I will definitely be using it again, but even at its usual £2.30 price you are on to a winner. When my Dad returns from his holiday I will be thanking him for making me broke enough to need to have to buy this in the first place :-)
For a complete breakdown of the liquid's ingredients - handy for those who know that they are allergic to a particular chemical or item used in the manufacturing of the liquid. You will need to the barcode from the bottle, so for those of you who would like to check before buying, the barcode number on my bottle is 5010251178255 : -
www.detergentinfo.com or 0161 6552196
To obtain a free dosing ball for use with Cyclon and other liquids: -
www.persil.co.uk/persil_products/d_free_bnc/
I hope that this helps and as always thank you for reading.
Tina xx
More details
Disinfecting capabilities?
No
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
