I used exclusively Persil for several years. Especially when I was washing my kid's diapers at home. I went on line and had a box (usually $70.00 or more) delievered to my house. I was able to find some companies that delievered free of shipping. I never thought much about laundry because the performance was so good.
Because it cost so much, I decided to use other products. Tide HE by far was the best of the bunch but not quite at the level Persil was performing. Now I am using Ecos liquid to be environmentally concientious. Unfortunately, my laundry is dingy and not performing to my expectation.
When this bottle is gone, I am going back to Persil and not turning back.
It has been good to take a few year break from Persil. It has made me really appreciate what the detergent delievers. My husband claims that Persil is the only detergent that can get his sweat smell out of the laundry consistently. Other detergents make the clothes have odor as soon as he wears the t-shirt for a short period of time.

sshrivastava - At one point you were pretty enamored of Bi-O-Kleen. Can you tell me what moved you away from that particular product?

aliceinwonderland, my clothes developed a musty, mildewy odor after extended use of Bi-O-Kleen. It also left my clothes scratchy and needing fabric softener. It is excellent at cleaning, being just as good or better than Tide, but doesn't seem to rinse as well as Persil or Charlie's Soap.

You mention "Persil Megaperls and Persil Color Megaperls" do you use the first for white and the second for color laundry? IOW 2 products or will one do?

Has anyone used the Persil for sensitive skin?

I have been reading so much on this board about Persil. There seems to be a few to choose from as far as Megaperl, liquid, powder. I would like to buy some to try in my top loader. Which one seems to work better? Thanks

Hi, sshrivastava (and any other Persil users),
I'd like to try Persil, but noticed most of the powdered varieties contain optical brighteners something I try to avoid because we tend to wear a lot of dark-colored clothing, especially in the winter.

Do you get good results using Persil on dark fabrics? What variety do you use?

Does anyone use Persil's "Black Magic" liquid detergent? It seems to get mixed reviews.

Thanks!

I use Persil Megaperls for whites and Persil Color Megaperls for mixed or dark colors. I've also used Persil Megaperls on colored laundry without any ill effects. I believe regular Megaperls contains oxygen bleach which is not in the Color Megaperls product.

Persil is about 3.5x more expensive per load than Tide HE.

For me, cost is one of the main criteria which determines which laundry detergent I buy. I'm assuming the stat above references the regular price of Tide HE. When I buy it, I buy it on sale and use coupons too.

I also use Sears Ultra Wash Stainfighting detergent, which works great in HE washers. It is the least expensive detergent I've ever bought, even when it's not on sale, and I've always bought it at half price. I've used it on every type laundry except whites, and it has done a great job.

I'm sure Persil is a great detergent, but I cannot justify spending that much when I get great results for much less money.

on Sun, Nov 15, 09 at 12:51, sshrivastava said:

"I purchased one each of Persil Megaperls and Persil Color Megaperls. I started off using the 65 ml (4 TBS) dose recommended for soft water. My clothes came out of the dryer light, fluffy, and with only a hint of scent. My clothes smelled "fresh". I have since reduced the dosage to 1 TBS and still get the same results."

Just to confirm: So, you're saying that (in your case anyway) a 54-load box really becomes a 216-load box? If that's true, then the per-load price becomes much more reasonable...

I got some Perwoll black and it is excellent, even on a silk sweater formerly dry cleaned. That actually prompted my interest in the Persil. Perwoll has fragrance, which I like and expected as I use Henkel floor wax.

So if Megaperls has oxygen bleach, no need for Oxyclean?

When I used Persil powder approx 12 pound box, I blended it with STPP 2 table spoons to 1 one, and it lasted us about 9 months @ about 6-7 loads per week. That came to about 7 dollars per month. When we used the Sears detergent it was used in larger quantities to accomplish the same result and lasted about a year with two of thier large buckets. That came to about 2.75 per month. It was a lot cheaper but the Persil was much better overall and I am going back to Persil soon.

Well, it sounds like Persil plus STPP was better than Sears alone. Phosphates are the ultimate laundry booster, so it's not a fair comparison.

Persil works very well together w/Roma too. Roma powder alone works as good as Persil and it is CHEAP.
It doesn't produce lots of suds either. I have hard water and use more detergent b/c of it and have no problems.

czechchick2

If I may ask, how hard is your water and how much Roma do you use per load?

You have peeked my interest now. If Roma is similiar in performance to Persil, than I could try it and see if I might like persil too.

Heidi

Would someone be good enough to tell me what STPP is?

Roma detergent is cheap but illegal to use in some states due to phosphate content according to info when you google it.

STPP is Sodium Tripolyphosphate. It can be bought at http://www.chemistrystore.com/search.cgi.

They sell Roma where I live at the local Walmart. All our waste water goes to a treatment plant so that is most likely why we are still allowed to buy it here.

Since Persil Megaperls contains oxygen bleach, I would imagine that you won't need to use OxyClean or additional whitening "boosters". However, in some situations where you have a lot of colorful stains, you may wish to add an extra tablespoon of 100% sodium percarbonate.

Both of my Megaperls are 45 load boxes. Does anyone know what dosage that is based upon? I'd like to try to figure out how many loads I can get by using 1 TBS per load.

I find it interesting that so many people seem to love our Persil, yet you all can buy such a seemingly great detergent as Tide HE.

Heres why Im wondering:

- European washers fill with cold water and gradually and precisely heat it to any selected temperature from 86 to 203°F. If I select a temp above 104° on our washer, itll pause at 104° for the enzymes to work and then continue heating.
- European washers have longer cycles. On our machine, its roughly 2:00 hrs. for a regular cycle and 1:10 hrs. if I add the Quick Wash option.
- European washers have mostly three rinses as the default setting extra rinses can be added, of course.

Lets look at the American counterparts:

- U.S. front loaders usually fill with warm or hot water. Enzymes dont necessarily like hot water it kills them, actually. If the washer doesnt have an internal heater, you can forget temperature control during the wash cycle altogether. If it does have a heater, it might only come on on certain cycles or with options like Stain Treat / Deep Clean etc. Or you might have a front load washer that defines hot as 106° - as I read the other day.
- About 50 minutes seem to be the limit for many washers on the Normal cycle. The new Electrolux washer has a Heavy Duty cycle that takes only 57 minutes! Even with Heaviest Soil selected, the main wash is still shorter than on the domestic Speed Queen front loader.
- U.S. front loaders usually only rinse twice three times with Extra Rinse.

Now, of course there are options to extend the cycle time, add extra rinses or even do a profile wash but most consumers will just put the clothes in, hit Normal and go. Given the fact that Tide is expected to produce clean, well-rinsed clothes under the above listed conditions makes me think that it has to be an excellent detergent. However, most of you *love* Persil even though our washers do longer profile washes with more rinsing...

I wonder how Tide would do over here.

Finally, heres something for you to drool at. ;-) Persils 100th anniversary bottle from 2006: "Futurino". He looks like a superhero. :)

(I drew that black line around his collar).

Alex

I may be wrong about this, but I'm under the impression that Persil also contains ingredients that help keep hard water mineral deposits (scale) from building up on a washing machine's internal heater parts.

A 45 load box of Persil Megaperls Color weighs 3.083 kg. or 3,083 grams. I weighed 1 Tb. and it is 12 grams. So one box would yield 257 loads using 1 Tb. per load. At a dosage of 1 tsp. you would get 771 loads.

I bought a 45 load box for $50 including shipping, so the cost per load is $.195 using 1 Tb., or $.065 using 1 tsp.

I have found that 1/2 tsp. is sufficient for most loads, so at that dosage I would get 1541 loads at $.032 per load.

carol_jk, Thanks very much for taking the time to weigh a Tb of Persil. That's extremely helpful!

I looked back at old posts and see that you have a large Samsung FL... you're really getting good results with just 1/2 teaspoonful of Persil? That's AMAZING. That would be just 2 grams of detergent.

Could you guesstimate about how large your average laundry load is, in pounds?

Are the articles generally dirty/soiled/stained at all to begin with? Or pretty much just in need of freshening up?

Thanks again.

Alex, some of us have Euro front loaders. I have an Asko and a Bosch which takes up to 2 hours to wash and starts as you describe.

If Persil has some oxygen bleach then perhaps the Oxy can be eliminated. Would be interesting to see comparisons of TideHE+Oxy vs PersilMega.

Thanks for the STPP info.

Cryptandrus, I just received the Persil a few days ago and haven't had a chance to give it a thorough trial, but so far I have had good results. I have a water softener so my water is zero hardness. I think that is the main reason I can use just a small amount of detergent. I also was using 1/2 to 1 tsp. of Tide He, Charlie's, and Seventh Generation, all powder.

I did one load of 8 cotton knit tops and got a light amount of suds in the wash. In a medium load of towels, I saw no suds, but the wash water was milky looking and I could feel the soap. Same with the sheets (one set of king size). I have not done any heavily soiled clothes yet. The issue I was hoping to solve with Persil was that the soap was not rinsing out well. I was very pleased with the rinse out with Persil. I checked the water after the last rinse and it was clear.

All loads came out soft and with an almost undetectable scent. One of the tops had a stain which was gone. I expect it might take 1 tsp. for larger loads.

It's really quite simple: whenever you buy any German detergent that does not say Color on it's label it will contain oxygen bleach.

"Persil" does have oxi bleach in it. It also contains optical brighteners and TAED, which activates the bleach at about 104°F and thus helps to disinfect clothes even on warm washes.

"Persil Color" contains neither bleach nor brighteners, which would make the laundry look dull and dusty. Instead, it has color transfer inhibitors, which protect the clothes from bleeding onto each other.

The powdered versions also have water-softening agents in them. The liquid versions dont they try to make up for it by adding more surfactants. Neither do they have any bleach in them just optical brighteners.

BTW: If Im not mistaken, Perwoll (the pink one) does not have enzymes in it as they would eat up these natural fibers. Personally, I just use shampoo when washing woolen items.

Alex

rococogurl,
You are very welcome. I had to ask what STPP was too once upon a time. ;)

As for Tide HE, I think the powder does have oxi bleach in it. Isn't sodium perborate the same thing? Maybe someone here will know. Now I'm curious.

Alex, my Maytag Bravos' cycle lengths vary, according to what soil level I choose. The highest soil levels are set for the longest wash times, of course. [For example, my Whites cycle, set on highest soil level, is timed at 79 minutes (1 hour, 19 minutes)]. As a Whirlpool trainee, I would think you would know that. ;-)

Does oxi bleach actually disinfect laundry? I hadn't heard that before.

happymom, does Tide HE powdered detergent have oxi bleach in it? I haven't heard that, or seen any evidence of that on its label, but it does give great results on my white cottons. It cleans as well as Tide HE liquid w/alternative bleach, it rinses out better, and I much prefer its scent.

Mara,

Yes, oxi bleach helps to disinfect laundry. It's not as strong Clorox, though. It won't work in cold water, either. That's also why the Bravos with heater has a Sanitary with Oxi cycle.

I was referring to American front loading washing machines in general. I know some models can have long cycles (for example the Kenmore HE5t has a default Heavy Duty cycle of 1:45 hrs.) The Sanitary with Oxi is also 1:43 hrs.

Please refer to my (My Page) for an explanation on my user name. I'm gonna have to change it one of these days as it really was just a matter of time until someone assumes me to be a WP employee.

Alex

I've learned something today, Alex! I had no idea oxi bleach could disinfect laundry (I knew about LCB and Lysol Concentrate).

Because my Bravos doesn't have the heater, I hadn't given much thought to a connection between Sanitary and Oxi. Now it makes sense.

Your info is very interesting, indeed. I have heard that some Whirlpool products are built/designed/whatever? in Germany -- is that true?

I get better results since combining the Oyxclean with Tide HE. So if Persil replaces both, since it's a combo, then any calculation of cost benefits would need to factor in the cost of the Oxy as well. The added convenience would be using 1 product vs 2.

I can buy Persil at a hardware store in my neighborhood so when I swing by there I will snag one. A friend also wants to try it so we can split it for that purpose.

I've only used the black Perwoll.

Chlorine bleach -- Clorox 1:6 -- will disinfect most anything; even kill anthrax.

Wow, you can get it at a hardware store?!? Local or chain? Must be a nice one to stock a euro detergent!

Mara,

I think so. That is why I posed my question. I know that at P&G's website they list Sodium Perborate in the Tide HE powder and I am pretty sure that is the chemical name for Oxi Bleach. I wasn't quite sure so I asked just in case. ;)

I have heard that some Whirlpool products are built/designed/whatever? in Germany -- is that true?

Yes, the production site (also research and product development) for some of their front loaders is in the south of Germany.

mystery -- It's a very peculiar hardware store and part of a local chain. NYC. But we don't have Sears, Costco, Walmart or Lowe's nearby so there are things other we don't get.

mysteryclock, I've noticed that you'll often see Persil for sale in stores that sell Sebo and Miele vacuum cleaners.

THE BEST PRICE FOR PERSIL MEGAPERLS can be found at www.betterproductsonline.com. Here are links to the lowest price per load for both Megaperls products:

Persil Megaperls Color @ $0.89/load
Persil Universal Megaperls @ $0.89/load

I have not been able to find these products for less on a $/load basis. The 5-pouch bundles of the 18-load 1.215 kg product at Better Products Online yields the lowest cost per load and lowest cost per kg ($13.17) that I could find online. I just submitted an order, as my current stock is running low.

The above pricing is for the concentrated Megaperls products. They also contain the regular Persil Universal powder as well as liquid varieties and Perwoll. You may want to look those up to see if their prices are lower on those as well. Free shipping too!