It has recently been brought up on a German forum that bigger boxes (aka 'great value' offerns) frequently contain detergent that has more fillers in it and, sometimes, even less active ingredients. Case in point were P&G's German Ariel detergents that can either be bough as a high-end formula in a small and expensive bag or one can get a big box of cheaper and less effective detergent. One should think that the big box presents a value as you are buying in bulk but it's actually only cheaper because P&G chose to leave some enzymes etc. out of the big-box formula. Of course, you'll have to go online to find out about this. Anyway, it was said on that forum that Henkel was also guilty of selling cheapened powder in it's bigger boxes and that the Megaperls version is generally superiour to the powder.

Persil is always HE.

Alex

Could you back this up with any facts? A link or two perhaps?

If you are fluent in German, sure.

clean_laundry_lover,

Traditionally, Persil Universal Powder has always been the "regular" non-concentrated formula and Persil Universal Megaperls has been the concentrated product. Even if the Universal Powder is less concentrated, it all comes down to price per load. If you can find the Universal Powder at a good enough price where your cost per load is less than Universal Megaperls, then the choice is pretty clear.

I don't take a resellers recommendations on how many loads I can get - I rely on the manufacturer for that information. According to Persil.de (translate via Google if needed), your dose for a normally soiled load in a 4-5 kg machine under medium hard water conditions is 135ml of Powder or 85ml of Megaperls. Megaperls are about 50% more concentrated than Powder.

That should be enough information to compare each product at a given size and price and determine which is the better deal on a cost-per-load basis.

I have a box of the German Universal Powder that I use on sheets & towels. The scent is not as strong as the Sensitive MegaPerls and it works fine in my front-load washer.

Thanks for the follow up responses. I've already opened the box so, I guess I'm using it on my whites & lights until it runs out, then I'll probably move on to the Powder.

I may try the Persil Colour for my darks. I'm trying to get away from liquids as I've read they don't clean as well as powders and I don't think Costco sells HE powders--we'll see. Any recommendations on colour-safe powder detergents (that I can get in Canada)? I don't think there is the same value proposition for the Persil Colour as they only sell the Megaperls 2.7 kg (~40 loads) where as I can get the Universal in a jumbo size that works out to be cheaper per load (~80 loads) which equals $0.97 vs. $0.66 per load, respectively.