It takes a period of time (around a month, or so) to eliminate your OLD laundry products from your clothes, and that may be part of your problem. I'd also suggest NOT using oxiclean, especially during the elimination period of old laundry products. Expect to go through this again when you change clothes from your Charlie's washed summer clothes to fall/winter clothes.

Do you have hard water? That may make a difference in how much Charlie's Soap you need to use, as it does with all detergents/soaps.

Give Charlie's Soap a call - 1-800-854-3541 with your concerns. They are great at solving problems.

-Grainlady

I would think the "elimination period" would consist of a certain number of washings per item, not a fixed period of time. Or are you assuming some average figure of how many times an article of clothing is washed in a month?

The following text is copied from a PDF I received from the Charlie's Soap people (topic = hard water)

***excerpt***
Water Quality and Laundry Problems
Ann Vanderpoorten Beard
Extension clothing and textiles specialist, The Texas A&M University System

This paper has been altered (....) by me, Charlie Sutherland, only to clarify some terms and show how our Charlie's Soap relates to the report.

Research on laundering has shown that many factors affect the cleanliness of the wash. One often ignored factor is the quality of the water used. Several laundry problems are directly related to minerals, organic matter, and other impurities in the water supply. Some laundry problems may have similar symptoms but more than one possible cause. To determine if a combination of factors or water quality alone is responsible for your laundry problem, consider your equipment, water, products and procedures.

Problem: Hard Water

Laundry Symptoms:
Dinginess or graying, yellowing
ÂGeneral soil build-up
ÂStiff, harsh feel to fabrics
ÂWhite or gray streaks on colored fabrics

Calcium and magnesium are usually the minerals that make water hard. The greater the concentration of these minerals, the harder the water. Hard water doesn't clean as effectively as soft water. In hard water much of the detergent added to the washer goes to soften the water instead of to clean the clothes. This means that more detergent must be used than in soft water. Softening water by using more detergent has two drawbacks; it is expensive and if the detergent contains phosphate it can add to water pollution. Heavy duty liquid detergents will remove soil in hard water almost as effectively as powdered phosphate-built detergents and they do not contribute to water pollution. Normally, non-phosphate powdered detergents and soap do not perform satisfactorily in hard water. (Charlie's Soap is generally quite good, but very hard water needs some extra attention.)

Solution: To prevent the problems caused by hard water, First, use water as hot as recommended for the fabric since all detergents perform better at higher temperatures in any quality water.

Second, soften the water. Water may be softened in the washer with nonprecipitating ion-exchange water conditioners* (these are the phosphates you were just warned about), commonly sold in grocery stores simply as water conditioners. Water softener systems which exchange sodium for calcium and magnesium may also be connected to the water supply lines for the washer, the kitchen, or for the entire house. However, persons on sodium-restricted diets should consult their physicians before adding a water softener system to lines that supply water for drinking and cooking because the sodium content of the water will increase.

To remedy problems that have already occurred, fill the washer with the hottest water appropriate for the fabric. Add (a double scoop of Charlie's Soap Powder) and one cup on nonprecipitating *(phosphate) water conditioner. Agitate just long enough to wet the clothes. Soak overnight or for about twelve hours. Drain and spin without agitating.

Launder, using regular cycle, no detergent, and one cup of nonprecipitating *(phosphate) water conditioner. If needed, repeat the launderings using one cup of nonprecipitating *(phosphate) water conditioner and no detergent until no suds appear during the rinses. In order to remove all dinginess it may be necessary to launder with one cup nonprecipitating *(phosphate) water conditioner and chlorine bleach if safe for the fabric, following package instructions for the amount of bleach to use.
***end of excerpt***

I, too, live in the midwest and have hard water. I've had good results with Roma and Foca--both are made in Mexico and have non-precipitating phosphates added.

Foca and Roma have too much added scent and optical brighteners, etc. for my taste, I generally prefer to use Charlie's and Bi-O-Kleen.

I recently ordered a small bucket of STPP from the "Chemistry Store," and am having really good results with adding 1 TBSP STPP along with my detergent to each regular-sized load. Hot water helps a lot, too.

I had similar problems when I first started using Charlie's. I also had a problem with dark colored clothes getting a whitish "film" on them. I talked with the folks at the company and recommended that I add 1 TBSP of TSP or TSPP to the washload to soften the water (I have VERY hard water). That has made all the difference.

It did take about 5-6 washings for some clothes to return a "normal" look. Now that I'm past the adjustment period, everything seems to work well and I'm still happy with the product.

Using Borax really helps too. Borax is a natural anti redepositing agent so it helps sequester soil and grime and carry it away. I am an avid Charlie's user. I have hard water. I have also, from time to time, had problems with greying of whites. Usually Oxi clean and Borax along with the Charlie's clears it up. Lemon juice as bleach and white vinegar as a rinse helps too. A good dry in sun shine does wonders for whites as well.

I use to use Tide as well. Yeah it has optical brighteners to make everything uberwhite. However, realizing my little ones like to suck on wet wash clothes that held ice for boo boos and chewed on tshirts just cause they could, the optical brighteners began to make me nervous. At least with the Charlie's I know they are not ingesting harmful polymers. With Charlie's they are only ingesting clean cloth if anything at all.

I'm with happymomof2kids and use Borax with my whites. I've been using CS for about 8 years now and the Borax works well in my water with the CS. Our water comes the Ohio River so you can imagine the chemicals it has in it to clean it up enough to use it, plus it's hard.