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sshrivastava

I'm Back to Vaska

sshrivastava
11 years ago

For the better part of the last year, I've settled into a detergent usage pattern that I've grown accustomed to. I've been alternating between Tide Total Care HE liquid and Persil Megaperls for the majority of my laundry. A week ago I wandered across a section of my garage where I had put all of my previous detergent experiments - Bi-O-Kleen, Charlie's Soap, Country Save, EcoVantage, All Small & Mighty, Method, Vaska Clorox Green Works, Le Blanc, LanoSoft, etc. Out of all these, the one I remember the most was Vaska because it left my clothes so soft and fluffy they practically float out of my dryer.

Well, I pulled the Vaska back inside and started using it on my recent loads. It's funny how you forget the things you liked about a product when you've stopped using it for a while. I love the light, fresh, slightly citrus scent that Vaska leaves behind as well as the incredible softness when combined with their softener. In fact I liked it so much that I re-ordered the Vaska products, which arrived a couple of days ago. Vaska has changed the verbiage on their packaging and has also re-formulated some of their products. The detergent is now thicker and more viscous at a 4x concentration. The oxygen bleach appears unchanged, the fabric softener scent seems to have been tweaked slightly and no longer has that mustiness to it that lavender can sometimes bring to the party.

I also ordered Vaska's Spot Off stain spray. So far it's working better than expected. For a non-toxic, natural stain spray I must say it works just as well or better than the bottle of Shout that it replaced. Since I have to pre-treat stains even with a detergent as aggressive and toxic as Tide, Vaska gives me the same level of clean for the same effort. While I'm certain that Tide may remove some stains that Vaska can't, I have yet to find anything in my everyday laundry that Vaska can't handle.

In another thread I shared that I found some odorless grey "biofilm" material around the inside of my pin trap. Guess what? After using Vaska on a few loads the biofilm has disappeared! So after all is said and done, I'm back to using Vaska for my laundry again.

Comments (39)

  • covingtoncat
    11 years ago

    Where are you getting Vaska from? I can't find it locally on the shelves. I guess mail order is my only option. Are you using Lavender or Unscented? TIA

  • dualref
    11 years ago

    In a lot of stores Vaska isn't in the laundry detergent department, but in the place where you find floor detergents and mops. It's in the same place as Ms. Meyers detergents are.

  • covingtoncat
    11 years ago

    Not had much luck with that. A few, limited number of Target stores USED to carry it, but no more. Not even the natural food markets carry it. Thanks for the suggestion, tho.

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I use the Lavender scent, I find that it smells more like Sprite the soda beverage - very bright, fresh and citrusy. If you go to deals.alice.com, you can often get amazing Vaska deals - they are currently having a 45% off sale, you can get 6 x 50 oz bottles of Unscented for only $39.56 and free shipping. It's a killer deal.

    You can also buy Vaska at an every day low price at Alice.com as well as Vine.com. Vine.com is a little less expensive, but may not offer all of the Vaska products.

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    @ Alice,

    I had never considered this before but your explanation makes total sense! I had been primarily using the Tide liquid products before switching back to Vaska again, with the occasional Persil powdered load. The little bit of water left in the pin trap/sump area is water leftover from the final rinse. For the better part of this year, I had stopped using fabric softener so the water in the pin trap would have been ordinary tap water. With Vaska, I am now using their fabric softener. It's possible that there is something in that fabric softener that inhibits the growth of biofilm.

    Now that I think about it, a natural anti-bacterial agent would be a great ingredient to add to fabric softener!

  • AliceHasLeftTheBuilding
    11 years ago

    Most fabric softeners, even "green" ones, contain some sort of preservative (biocide) that prevents the product itself from spoiling during its shelf life. Adding enough to kill bacteria in your washer would be cost and safety prohibitive and still likely not do much good. The trouble with preservatives is that while initially they kill bacteria, the resistant strains thrive and grow. Oxidizing biocides (such as chlorine bleach or oxygen bleach) don't allow development of resistant bacteria, but you don't want them in your fabric softener.

    It is very unlikely that anything in the Vaska fabric softener is specifically inhibiting bacterial growth, aside from just altering the conditions created by your previous laundry routine.

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    This is such good news about your rediscovery of Vaska because the same thing happened to me. I bought an expensive quilt and the salesperson said to be sure not to wash it in Tide, because while Tide is the best at cleaning, it is so because it is so harsh and really destroys many fabrics. I got to thinking, what do we have that gets so dirty that it needs to be washed in something so harsh. I went back to Vaska, use spot remover when needed, added an extra rinse that I missed last year, and am not concerned with whether my laundry is clean enough because it IS. I just never knew about their fabric softener, so thank you very much. I'm also using liquid Clorox 2. And because of zero enzymes, Vaska cleaned our down coats and wool blankets so beautifully. Now to get the FS!

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    When used in combination with the oxygen brightener, I find that Vaska removes most common stains. For stains that are more industrial strength - for instance, those on my white potholders - I use the Spot Off remover which does a great job.

    For anyone using Charlie's Soap, Bi-O-Kleen, Ecover, Seventh Generation or other "eco" products, Vaska beats them all in my humble opinion.

  • beaglenc
    11 years ago

    @Patann, is Tide total care as harsh as regular Tide? and would a detergent w/o enzymes not cause pilling? I really have a problem with that, have to turn my cotton things wrong side out, and still get pils. I have a bosch 500+ use perm.press and warm water. I also add any where from 1 to 4 gallons of warm water for about all loads.

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    beagle, the best Forum person to answer your pilling question is S'Stava, whom I hope will answer your question. I believe S'Stava preferred Tide TC because it has an ingredient that actually eats the pills, to put it simply.

    I do know that Consumer Reports lists TTC's cleaning ability as only "Good," and not "Very Good" or "Excellent," as the other Tides are rated. So, I suspect that makes it less harsh. But it still has enzymes.

    Funny thing is, today I washed a Polartec-like shirt in Vaska and it came out very pilled. I looked inside the shirt and it was less pilled, so I should have turned it inside-out. Or perhaps I should have washed it in Tide Total Care? S'Stava, help!

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    The instruction booklet from my Miele washer says that certain fabrics must be turned inside-out in order to prevent pilling. One of the big causes of pilling isn't the detergent, but rather not reversing those garments.

    Tide TC has something in it that is supposed to reduce pilling. However, it does not appear to have any noticeable effect on clothing that has already developed pills. More than anything else, the anti-pilling agents in Tide TC do more to smooth fabric fibers, thereby restoring some color saturation where the fibers have become frizzy on a microscopic level.

    My solution to pilling, unfortunately, is to use a pill shaver and then ensure the garment is turned inside out before washing.

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    beagle, forgot to mention that enzymes are supposed to ruin down feathers and wool, hence people use Woolite for such things because Woolite does not have enzymes. Neither does Vaska and Cheer powder, so that is why I use Vaska to wash my down coats and wool blankets.
    Pat

  • sparky823
    11 years ago

    The Cheer Powder does have enzymes but no brighteners.

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    Memory is the first to go.

  • sparky823
    11 years ago

    LOL I agree. Then the eyes...

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Seem to lose one or two other functions simultaneously when I sneeze, I guess it's downhill from here!

  • herring_maven
    11 years ago

    sshrivastava: "For anyone using Charlie's Soap, Bi-O-Kleen, Ecover, Seventh Generation or other "eco" products, Vaska beats them all in my humble opinion."

    As has been noted in other threads here, the local water conditions (and the type of "dirt" in one's laundry mix) is a huge variable that rules out one-size-fits-all. Here in Portland, Oregon, where the water is very soft, we use Bi-O-Kleen (the liquid, in the "All Temperature" version that, unlike the "Cold Water" version of Bi-O-Kleen, is enzyme-free), along with a scoop of borax, for all of our laundry loads; and, while it is conceivable that another detergent (such as Vaska) could e q u a l the performance of liquid Bi-O-Kleen All Temperature, it is not possible that any detergent could b e t t e r its performance here.

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    herring_maven,

    I have a whole house water softener, so all of the detergents I mentioned work at maximum effect in my household without any additives. I've tried them all and Vaska beats them all hands down. I can only share my own experience, I can't tell others what to do or buy. I don't believe anyone else took my statement to be a dictatorial edict telling others what to do.

    I'm glad Bi-O-Kleen works for you.

  • larsi_gw
    11 years ago

    You say the Fabric Softener has been 'tweaked', does it still have a slightly fishy odor. I liked the way Vaska detergent left the majority of your clothes (was not awesome at stains), but for basic cleaning it left clothes soft and smelling fresh. The Fabric Softener was awful. The consistency, colour, smell and performance!

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    If Elmer's Glue had a lavender scent, that's how it would smell!

  • larsi_gw
    11 years ago

    Eek!! I do not think I will like this tweaked version of Vaska FS. I still really, really Tide Total Care he liquid in Renewing Rain. ALL my clothes are left soft, clean, fresh and look very new! For whites and my 6 year olds clothes I have been using a HUGE box of Original Tide he Powder for at least 6 months. Perfect whites, and like 99% of my kid's stains are gone! For Fabric Softner I use Downy unscented with some Gain Sweet Sizzle pellets (almost identical to the old fashioned, original April Fresh Downy).

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    Thanks to S'Stava's earlier comments, I ordered and already received from Vine, Vaska's fab sftr, oxygen bleach, and the Lavender version of the detergent. I normally hate FS, but this is really, really nice. Just a wonderfully CLEAN smell out of the dryer. Used it on spouse's towels (he likes soft, I don't), which I would never have done with any other FS, and we'll see if he complains of absorbancy. I thought they came out just as soft with just the Vaska detergent, but we'll see. My sheets came out smelling soooooooo good, used the oxy bleach also, but don't know yet if they feel any softer than they do with just the detergent. I was going to use up all my other detergents but now I may just have to make a trip to our Humane Society with them and yet another bag of dog food (another obsession of mine, canine nutritioin).

    Hey, I might even shampoo my large mixed-breed dog with Vaska this summer! What a great idea. I'm serious. It's so gentle.

  • AliceHasLeftTheBuilding
    11 years ago

    Oh, please don't use it on your dog unless you check the pH. Laundry detergents (even the gentle ones) are BASIC. Your dog's skin is intended to be slightly ACIDIC and should be washed with a neutral to very slightly acidic shampoo. Washing with basic detergents will shift the dog's skin pH, increasing bacteria, skin irritation and making your dog smell bad.

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    Alice,, thank you for that info. I will not do it.
    Pat.

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    Alice,, thank you for that info. I will not do it.
    Pat.

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Larsi,

    I have gone green in almost every other area of my life and I'm committing to doing so in my laundry as well. I eat organic, generate power for myself and the grid with solar, and have de-toxified almost every area of my life EXCEPT laundry... until now. I've also become a dietary vegan and have eliminated a lot of toxic food from my diet.

    I've tried all of the green/eco products and have been disappointed until I found Vaska. That's why I mentioned the other brands in an earlier post, nothing leaves my clothes as soft and pleasant as Vaska. Everything feels and smells so clean, and all of my clothes have been coming out clean. Perhaps they tweaked their formula, it seems to clean better than it used to.

    I don't mind if fabric softener smells funky in the bottle, I judge how it smells on my clothes after being dried. The scent out of the dryer is light, fresh, clean and bright. My bottles of Tide liquid and boxes of Tide powder are on their way to the animal shelter. I'm not looking back!

  • larsi_gw
    11 years ago

    We also try and de-toxify our lives and be Greener. We have an 18kw solar system that helps power our 3 A/C units, pool motor, 2 refrigerators, electric dryer, etc, etc! Some months we actually have an energy credit with Edison!! :))

    I will not judge, but being Vegan is very unhealthy and dangerous in the long run. Vegatarian is very smart and quite balanced and healthy. Just consider it.!

    How does Vaska do with Extra White or Sanitize in our Miele units? I remember Vaska being very sudsy and hard to rinse. Better now? Do you use some sort of Eco whitener for whites??

    Have you tried Seventh Generation Fabric Softener? I really do not love any of their detergents, but I found their softeners to work really great. I prefer their unscented, as Lavender is one of my least liked scents!!

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Larsi,

    I was actually using Seventh Generation FS until I switched back to Vaska. The Seventh Generation FS is a good alternative to Downy, but the softness still doesn't feel as light and natural as Vaska's approach. The hottest temperature I use with Vaska is "Very Warm" (120F), but if I needed to go to "Hot" (140F) or "Sanitize" (158F) then I would probably use a powder like Persil. However, I don't have many such loads - most everything I wash is handled just fine at warm or very warm.

    Regarding vegan, the only difference between vegan and vegetarian is the exclusion of dairy and eggs for vegans. Otherwise they are very similar. I eat a little cheese once in a while, but ever since I found out that casein causes cancer I've been avoiding as much dairy as possible.

  • AliceHasLeftTheBuilding
    11 years ago

    Interesting article regarding casein:

    Here is a link that might be useful: China study info

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    @ Alice,

    That article was a) written by someone who has no medical or scientific training and attempts to dispute work done by PhDs, and MDs, and universities; and b) the Weston A Price Foundation gets its funding from the meat and dairy industry. If you are truly interested in this subject, I encourage you to watch this video of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, PhD, presenting his findings at a conference in 2009:

    http://youtu.be/yfsT-qYeqGM

    You will quickly see that this man has no agenda, is very humble, and is swayed by his research and science - not politics.

    Here is Dr. Campbell's response to the criticism you posted from the Weston A Price Foundation:

    http://youtu.be/wxb7XPm_SxU

    Here is a written rebuttal from Dr. Campbell to the article you posted:

    http://tinyurl.com/3bkmf7y

  • sshrivastava
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Also quickly... Bill Clinton is vegan, is on Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's non-fat plant-based diet that has reversed his coronary heart disease. You can watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta's wonderful program "The Last Heart Attack", where he interviews President Clinton, Dr. Esselstyn, and discusses the benefits of a plant-based diet compared to SAD (Standard American Diet):

    http://cnn.com/video/?/video/podcasts/gupta/site/2011/08/29/sgmd.last.heart.attack.cnn

  • sweetmindy805
    11 years ago

    Just bought Vaska for the first time. I am a strong user of Tide and everytime i switch to gain or seventh generation, I always switch back to tide, why? I think it's because my grandparents always used it and I see it as the best laundry detergent there is. When I think back to cleaning results vs tide, gain and seventh generation, well I guess they have been all the same, great clean and smell. Now I have used arm and hammer and it never works, is like water. Why do i like to spend the extra money on tide? I don't know. So I wanted to try vaska. I've done a few loads today and so far i really like it. I am trying to get use to the amount i need to use for each load. I've used the half cap like it says, but it suds way to much in my new FL Kenmore Elite. So I'm guessing i should use less. Unless i use an extra rinse i can still feel the detergent in the clothes. But that may be because I'm using too much. Plus my washer has the Accela wash feature. It recirculates the water + detergent onto the load almost the whole cycle. So it's always equally mixed, therefore creating the extra suds, as I see it in my mind. Does it sud up for you guys? I like the smell. It does smell like sprite and i do smell a light lavender notes. My loads haven't been too dirty so I'm not sure on the stain removal.

  • larsi_gw
    11 years ago

    @ sweetmindy805....A while back, when Vaska first launched for consumers (and you could buy it at Target, and not have to order it online), I used a few bottles. Unless something was really stained or filthy (think Kindergartener clothes, lol)...Vaska cleaned everything quite well. Clothes were left clean, soft and really fresh, BUT...The suds were TOO much. I almost always use the Sensitive feature on my Miele machine (3rd rinse), and even during the 3rd rinse, there were way, way too many suds! Same thing for my BELOVED Clorox Green Works detergent....sds, suds, suds. I loved Green Works way more than Vaska, but it just would not rinse away :(

  • Pat z6 MI
    11 years ago

    I don't get the suds you are talking about. In fact, I sometimes add extra Vaska because I think I need more suds. I have medium hard water, have an old "water-hog" top loader. Maybe because I add the Vaska oxygen bleach or Clorox 2 oxygen bleach, it reduces the suds, don't know. Anyway, i particularly like the low suds element of Vaska, so wondering if your water is extra soft?

  • herring_maven
    11 years ago

    sshrivastava: "I have a whole house water softener, so all of the detergents I mentioned work at maximum effect in my household without any additives."

    That may explain in part why we had different experiences. The residual products of the minerals employed to make hard water soft may cause detergents to react differently than they do with water that had no significant mineral content to begin with.

    "I've tried them all and Vaska beats them all hands down. I can only share my own experience, I can't tell others what to do or buy. I don't believe anyone :else: took my statement to be a dictatorial edict telling others what to do."

    The negative pregnant is that you seem to think that I took your statement to be a dictatorial edict, which I assure you that I did not. In fact, specifically because of your unstinting praise of Vaska, when I found myself on the soap.com site the other day and needed something to push me over the free shipping threshhold, I added some Vaska lavendar 4X detergent to the cart, so soon I shall be able to see how it works here, all in the interests of Science, of course.

    As I simply cannot conceive of our laundry getting any cleaner than it does now using Bi-O-Kleen All Temperature liquid and a dash of borax, I am very dubious that I could see an improvement with Vaska. (If the laundry is clean, then it is clean.) But every milestone in the history of science has started with an open mind tempered by serious doubts, and I am willing to be convinced.

  • Pat z6 MI
    10 years ago

    So, ah, er, like, herring maven, what did you think of Vaska back in January and are you using it now? Did it work for you?
    Pat

  • herring_maven
    10 years ago

    patann: ". . . what did you think of Vaska back in January . . ."

    In January, I never had tried Vaska, and never had even seen a container of Vaska in person. As you can see from my comments above in this thread, I was skeptical (and I still am) that any detergent could clean more effectively in our water conditions than the Biokleen All-temperature liquid that we have been using for years and with which I was completely satisfied. I did not doubt that Vaska was and is a good product; but any piece of clothing can get just so clean; can emerge from the laundering just so soft; and if colored, could fade just so minimally, that I could see no room for improvement over Biokleen All-temperature.

    Nevertheless, in late March, when I was making an order of something else unobtainable locally at Vine.com and needed another item to push me over the Free Shipping hurdle, I ordered a pair of jugs of Vaska, frankly solely on the basis of sshrivastava's unstinting praise of the product. On April 1 of this year, I posted in another thread titled, simply, "Vaska," that I had Vaska on hand, indicating that I thought Vaska deserved a try.

    We have gone through a jug plus more than half of the second jug now, and it was time to get more laundry detergent. The link below (14th message in the thread is my posting of Friday the Thirteenth) indicates the results.

    Here is a link that might be useful: This is what I wrote just day before yesterday

  • rococogurl
    10 years ago

    I tried Vaska after hearing raves about it here but didn't have good results at all. It's way too concentrated for my soft water and I do mostly hot (140F) washes. Using just a Tb for a load the entire drum filled with a scary amount of suds.

    I've noticed that some detergents perform one way in cold and cool washes and another way in hot.

    Talking about using Tide and being green is a bit odd to me. The greenest laundry option (and one of the least expensive) is CalBen, which is just soap.

    My best results are with Persil Megaperls. I can't bear the smell of most powder detergents even the Persil powder. I switch Megaperls up with Caldrea liquid and the Henkels Black Wash as I wear mostly black and we have a lot of those loads. Mrs. Meyers fabric softener works well on towels for me and I like their geranium fragrance. I began diluting it after I found residue left in the slot -- now no residue. When that's gone I'm trying Vernel.

    A sanitize cycle once or twice a month in a empty drum, no detergent, is recommended for my machine brand -- probably not a bad idea in general.