I think 1 tablespoon of detergent does work.

BUT it all depends on the load; e.g. I started to use about 1 1/4 tablespoon (eyeball guestimate of 1/2 the scoop which is 50 ml, ~2 1/2 TBS) on a load consisting of 1 polyester shower curtain liner, 4 13" square microfiber cloths, 1 2'x3' microfiber cloth that I use as a "dish rack drain board", 1 shower mat & sometimes another 2'x3 microfiber cloth used for drying after a car wash. I also have hard water. :-)

Now, a load of 2 sets of towels is entirely different as I don't use the 1 TBS; I do think that the absorbancy of a load should be taken into account as to how much detergent is needed as well as the hardness or water; especially regarding suds.

I understood that part of a laundry detergent's job was to hold/trap soil, to be eventually rinsed away from the fabric. It makes sense that under-dosing would result in the experience you witnessed -- on the contents and inside the machine. Without enough product to suspend soil, it could just relocate perhaps?

All things being equal, I agree that dosing might not be a good time to err on the conservative side. I haven't analyzed surfactants in years though!

@ vintage36

According to Google's measurement converter, 50 ml = 3.4 TBSP, not 2.5 TBSP. The actual amount you are using is 36% more than what you are stating in your message. That is a significant difference.

Convert 50 ml to Tablespoons

@ vintage36

I just realized I may have misread your message. Are you saying that you are actually using 50 ml of detergent, or are you saying that your scoop is 50 ml and you are using HALF of that?

I believe they are using half the 50 ml scoop. 1 tbsp is 15 ml. So a 50 ml scoop holds 3.33 tbsp - the half being used is like ... 1.66 tbsp. Right?

@ livebetter

Yes. And how can 1.6 TBSP possibly clean a load of laundry in hard water? Inconceivable! :)

@sshrivastava, @livebetter

Yes I am using approx 1/2 of the 50 ml scoop that I kept from the Sears detergent. So, by eyeball, it was maybe about 1.6 plus or minus; don't do it carefully so whatever looks in the current light is it.

I did keep the old 60 ml Sears cup, but don't know where it is. I did find that the 50 ml cup was a very small smidgen less than the line for a medium load with scoop that came with the Tide with bleach powder. 1st time I ever compared but the Sears scoop is much easier to use; just a full scoop instead of trying to see if the powder is at THE "line".

The thing is that 1 TBSP can do it provided the conditions are right & one can still see lots of suds with 1 TBSP. Oh, I have a Frigidaire Affinity of 3.5 cf IEF rating which looks to be considered & advertised as 3.1 cf now.

My Tide scoop shows medium load as line 1. I get approx. 4 tbsp to that line.

Hard to think about 1.6 TBSP can clean a load of laundry, normally.

Consider what I said consists of my "load". The small microfiber cloths were used for some dusting on the day of washing; except for 1 which I used to clean the mirror on the day of washing; the large microfiber was used as a "drain board" under the dish rack. How dirty can these microfiber cloths get?

The shower curtain liner was nearly "cleaned" each time I take a shower & washed once a week. The shower mat in the tub gets soaped & rinsed each time I shower & washed once a week along with all the microfiber cloths.

I did forget to say I also added borax in about the same amount as the 1.5 TBSP of detergent. Everything comes out clean & it works even if there is a "ton" of suds.

Do people use the same amount of detergent to wash 1 shirt as for a full load of laundry? maybe the same amount of detergent for 2 new shirts as for a "medium" load?

"Do people use the same amount of detergent to wash 1 shirt as for a full load of laundry? maybe the same amount of detergent for 2 new shirts as for a "medium" load?"

@vintage36 - I am finding, with my FL, that the amount of detergent I need to use depends on the size of my load. A "ton" of suds in my FL means too much detergent was used for that load. Items that don't absorb, like certain fabrics or plastics, will need less detergent based on my own experience. Everyone's water and washer are different, though.

A follow-up to my previous post that was a response to the question quoted in same response ...

Yesterday's load of clothing had no suds in the final rinses. Ran a Sanitize (not "clean machine") cycle right after that, with no detergent or bleach, for routine cleaning.

~Today, I washed a small load of clothes, in our Miele W4842 FL washer, that consisted of: my husband's microfiber travel blazer size Large or XL (it has been washed a few times previously, in our old top-load); three pairs of nylon soccer shorts; one size Med. cotton tee shirt; one pair wicking fiber athletic socks, two medium tote bags made of nylon woven with either a plastic or vinyl laminated to fabric.

I mostly tossed in the other items with the blazer in order to give it a fuller load. I did not think washing *just* a blazer would be a good idea, but what do I know....I'm still on the FL learning curve.
I used the cold water setting and one Tablespoon (15ml) of Persil Color Gel (liquid) on the Wrinkle-Free setting. Our water is moderately hard (right in the middle of the hard/soft water scale) and moderate in pH. Package directions suggest 40ml for soft water, so I went with approx. one-third (1/3) of that due to the smaller size load.

Suds; almost two inches of suds in and around the laundry and on the door. Suds in all the rinses. When the cycle finished, there were still suds in the gasket fold and on the gasket.
Next, I ran the entire load thru a Delicate/Cold cycle and NO detergent. Still had suds in the water, including all three rinses in that cycle, so I next ran it all thru the Rinse/Spin cycle twice.

Either that blazer was retaining a lot of detergent from its two or three previous washes in either Charlies Soap or All F&C, or one Tablespoon was too much for the size load and synthetic type fibers. Or maybe both theories are right? Now that I've had this machine for a few months, I am able to use more than 1/4 of the suggested dose of any brand. If there was indeed detergent build-up/residue from the old TL washer, it is finally all gone by now. It would appear that way, since now I can use more detergent.

Possibly the synthetic fabrics don't absorb the water/detergent mix, and I needed less than 1 Tbsp. for today's load? Truth is stranger than fiction.

Ok folks; I've done a little testing as well here in the foothills of NC. Current water condition coming out of the tap is 53mg/L (slightly hard water). I too have tried the 1Tbsp and 2 Tbsp and they didn't seem to get the clothes clean and just as sshrivastava had found; there was a mild residue left over. This was using Tide 2X Ultra HE liquid.

I did contact P&G about where they got the idea of using Line 1 for medium loads, Line 2 for large, etc... The rep told me that it was based on moderate water conditions such as what we have here where we are in NC.

In conclusion; I have to say that following the recommended amount does just fine and leaves not detergent residue or anything and our clothes come out clean and soft. I do use Downy Free but even for large larges, I fill the cap to the bottom line.

Oh yes; the machine: I have a new Electrolux IQ Touch and it rinses incredibly well. I used to hate front-loaders cause I didn't think they cleaned well- now I love them but only certain ones. The machine makes all the difference in the world.

ALSO; if you are measuring powdered detergents by volume instead of weight that makes a difference. Some detergents are more dense than others; compare the weight of 1 Tbsp of Tide to 1 Tbsp of Sears (very dense); whereas liquid detergents are more likely to weigh close to the same. Measurement by weight and measurement by volume are too different things ;-)

Doesn’t it make more sense to take the total quantity of loads recommended on the bottle, and divide that into the total volume supplied in the bottle. Example: I use a bottle of liquid HE detergent here in Canada that states it washed 96 loads. There are 4.43 Litres in the bottle so I multiply by 1000 to get how many millilitres are in the bottle. 4430 ml divided by 96 loads = 46.14 ml per load. 1 tablespoon = 15 ml and 3 TBLS = 45 ml so it’s just over 3 TBLS per load.

I use Nellie's All Natural Detergent and their whitener as well. You actually are only supposed to use one tablespoon for each. It's safe, works better than any detergent I've tried, and I've tried them all. I've been using Nellie's for a year now and couldn't be more pleased. My husband was allergic to so many detergents and never had one problem with Nellie's. www.nelliesclean.com. HSN sells is too. At first I thought it was very expensive until I saw you only use a tiny bit. No detergent residue and no graying of your whites, as well as keeping darks dark.

I forgot to add that I never have to use fabric softener either with Nellie's

The cleaning power of a tablespoon of detergent is not equal between detergents or washers, as not all washing machines use use same amount of water in the initial wash - mixed with only a few gallons of water a tablespoon of detergent can pack quite a punch - water it down with 30 extra gallons - not so much. In my Miele W1 Ive standardized on an 18 ML dose of detergent or about 1.2 tablespoons. I find this gives me plenty of cleaning power for even the largest loads - remember after the first tiny bit of soap has 99.9% of the effect on pushing the dirt out- more does not give better cleaning performance. Watch Mieles twin dos example to see how adding 20-30X does almost nothing for you. Between the two evils using less is easier to correct in subsequent washes than using too much.

Well, maybe I'm an exception here (like @davedvg ;-), but I use between ⅓ and 2 tbsp* of laundry detergent (powder) depending on the laundry load, which can be anything from a tiny to a full load, and my laundry gets spotlessly clean – consistently so.

Some riders:

• My washing machine is a European machine. I believe European machines are smaller than US ones (max. recommended load: 7kg for cotton — though it beats me how anyone could get that much into a tub my size, typo maybe? as even 5kg is a stretch — 3kg synthetics, 2kg shirts or delicates). It is also front-loading and, I believe in US parlance, HE (high efficiency)
• It is modern and therefore economises on the amount of water used relative to older machines
• If I see any particular stains, I will pre-treat them with an appropriate laundry stain product before laundering
• If my laundry load is especially dirty (rare), I will increase detergent quantity appropriately
• I believe my laundry detergent is moderately strong compared to the average European product
• I prefer to use hot washes when appropriate and desired (60C/140F for underwear, and for towels, flannels, dishcloths and bed sheets, 40C/104F for most other loads). I am un-PC in this area!

Ever since I reduced the quantity of detergent I use, I have the impression my laundry is cleaner. Maybe a subjective impression, I don't know, but it's certainly not dirtier.

Oh and, by the way, the water in my area is moderately hard. I do not use a water softener; though I do add a water softening product the occasional times I require laundering at maximum temperature (90C/194F) to avoid furring of heating element.

*based on 1 tbsp=15ml

I notice that one person here refers to dingy smelling laundry. This is a known problem arising from using too much laundry detergent over an extended period of time, thus causing residue to build up and remain in the machine. See https://smellywasher.com/3-tips-for-preventing-washing-machine-odor-in-your-front-loader/