Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Arm & Hammer Power Gel Review

I was really excited about this opportunity to use a new laundry detergent and to review it for Tackle it Tuesday on the 5 Minutes for Mom blog. One of the ways I love to serve my family is to do their laundry. It's a time where I get to be in prayer for each of them as I touch their laundry and think of each person God has put in my life for me to serve.

So, here is my review.
I purchased my detergent and used the coupon provided to allow me to have a free bottle of Arm & Hammer Oxi Clean Power Gel. This detergent wasn't very pricey as Safeway was carrying it on sale for $3.99 for the bottle at the time of purchase.

When typically doing my laundry I use a different detergent for my little ones than I use for the adults in the house. They are extremely sensitive to detergents and once I found one that worked, I stuck with that one but it was pretty expensive so I thought I would try this detergent to see if this bothered them at all. As of yet I've seen no reaction, but it usually takes a while for them to work it through their wardrobes so everything has been washed in a specific detergent and for them to have full exposure to it. I'll have to update at a later time to see if they reacted to this detergent at all.

The first thing I noticed with this detergent was its scent. It smells wonderful. Just walking near the laundry room when the washer was running you were given this wonderful clean scent. A huge bonus I never expected! Very exciting as all of my good smelling things around the house have run out and making it to the store these days have been few and far between.

My biggest tests I wanted to do were on stains, mostly because the bottle states multiple times that it is a 'stain fighting' detergent and does it really do 31 loads of laundry.

First test...Stain Fighting. It does include Oxi Clean which is my go to detergent and stain remover in most things. What a great week it was to try this detergent as well. There were two meals in particular that my little ones chose to use their outfits as napkins and of course when we were having Blackberry crisp and something with a red sauce.

I didn't pretreat the stains at all, I wanted to see what the detergent would do on its own. It did wonderful. I ran them through the wash and upon removal I could still see the stains but they were barely there. So I hung these items to dry and then I figured I would run them through again at the end of my laundry day and try again. Much to my excitement, there was no need. The 'stain fighting' continued working while they were drying and the stains were gone when I went back to throw them in the wash. Woo hoo, an exciting day in the Moore home. We have enough laundry and not to have to run things through twice makes my life that much easier.

Second test...does it really do 31 loads of laundry? To be honest, this test isn't complete. I'm 15 loads in and will update when I've completed the bottle of detergent. This is really important to me though because as I budget out our expenses I want a detergent that is going to do what it says it's going to do. In doing this test, I have run into my first negative thought of this product. The bottle states to fill 1/3 of the cap full of detergent for a medium load. So upon filling the cap I notice that inside the cap there are multiple lines and markings. None of which have a 1/3 fill line. The levels it provides is 1. 30ML, 2. 60ML 1/4 cup, 3. 85ML 3/8 cup, 4. 115ML 1/2 cup. A little frustrating for this Type A girl wanting the back of the bottle to match the markings in the cup. So, I'm not sure if we'll make it to 31 loads as I'm filling the cap to the 3/8 cup line as that is the closest line to 1/3 on the cup.

That's it for my review...thank you Arm & Hammer and 5 Minutes for Moms for allowing me to take part.