We all need a good laundry soap to do our laundry. Laundry soaps emulsify oil so that it could be washed away with water. In addition to this, laundry soaps also work towards allowing insoluble particles to dissolve in water, in order for them to get carried away by water.
Whenever we see some laundry detergent bottles, we find a similarity in them. We do not dig deeper and see the qualities present in them which set them apart. Instead, we just take a quick glance at all the bottles, choose one and then buy it. You will be shocked to know that there is a great amount of differences in the cleaning capabilities of various detergents present in the market. At the same time, it also depends on how you wash your clothes after buying a suitable laundry detergent.
Here’s what you should keep in mind the next time you head out to the grocery store to buy a detergent, and also at the time when you wash your laundry:
There is another type of detergent present in the market i.e. a combination detergent. For instance, a detergent having colour-safe bleach or fabric softener or bleach alternative is a combination detergent. The presence of such features increases the detergent’s performance and sometimes can also be an unnecessary add-on in order to increase the total detergent cost.
Pricing does not speak much about the quality of the detergent used. What one can do is to have a close look at the ingredients to check the quality. Hence, an important thing to note is, the more the surfactants, the better the detergent. Surfactants are active ingredients that work towards taking out all the soil from the fabric and suspending it into water.
Also, the presence of enzymes in the detergent is a huge plus. This is because these enzymes work towards removing stains in the laundry. It is also true that the higher the concentration of surfactants and enzymes, the higher will be the price of detergent.
Expensive detergents in the market are generally heavy duty detergents that contain surfactants, enzymes and many other ingredients to remove heavy soils and a lot of stains. On the other hand, detergents that have medium level pricing have some enzymes which help in reducing some amount of staining.
BIS standards
BIS standards of laundry soaps powders are pretty straightforward, and something that’s very important for you to know before purchasing a powder detergent.
IS 2887:2017 Laundry soap powders/flakes of laundry soaps or detergents prescribe a laundry’s soap requirements that is used to wash up the laundry. It can comprise of clothing as well as different textiles.
It states that the laundry soaps or detergents are well-saponified detergents in flake or powder form which come with builders and without them too. If we talk of this standard, there are mentions of two laundry soap types i.e. Type 1 and Type 2.
Type 1 contains a pure form of laundry soap, and Type 2 contains built form of it. In Type 2, it is prescribed that non-soapy detergent should be used. In the same standard, a test is prescribed. This test is for sanitization potential and skin irritation. The test is provided to make sure that the users are dermatologically safe.
The laundry soap that is used for washing laundry and making it clean thereafter follows this standard, and also ensures that no harm is caused to the users ‘skin.
Point to Note
These standards by BIS are recently set after carrying out a revision. In these standards, every issued amendment is added. In addition to this, the referred standards have been updated to generate more clarity on the standard’s contents, so that it works in the favour of users.
Written By: Shrishti Dixit, Scientist ‘C’, CHD
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Comments
Title : 3 thoughts on “How to choose a good Laundry Detergent”
My husband and I want to switch our laundry detergent, as our current soap keeps staining our clothes. Your article had some great tips we could use to choose new, better detergent, and I liked how you said to consider a product with enzymes in it, as these work to remove stains in the laundry. Thanks; we’ll keep this in mind when choosing and using new laundry detergent.
heyy…Thanks for such a wonderful information with us.It really helps us to choose best quality laundry detergent.
My sister wants to switch laundry detergent because of her kids being allergic to the one she uses. It was awesome you mention enzymes products since they are great removing stains. Her kids play soccer, so this will be something that will draw her interest.