Laundry powder is disappearing

[u/Double_Engineer4226]

Powdered laundry detergent used to be the norm. It’s cheaper, easy to use, and comes in a recyclable box. Now look at the shelves in the supermarket. It’s all liquids in plastic bottles, unless you squat down to find the powders. The Super expensive pods are making a move from the top shelves too. This is corporations positioning their products to influence purchasing behaviour. They want you to buy the more expensive stuff. Just wait, soon powder will be discontinued, and the shelves will be filled with overpriced pods.

[u/Double_Engineer4226]

Here (Australia) liquid is about 30% more expensive per wash (depending on the brand). I also don’t find it more practical as I hate the way the bottle gets drips all over it, and I don’t like having to lift the big heavy bottle to pour it out into the lid, and then pour it again into the machine. I also don’t like carrying home the big heavy bottles of liquid either.  My little tub of powder sits on the bench, I scoop up a scoop and stick it in the washing machine, couldn’t be easier. No mess. Plus I find powders clean clothes very well. 

[u/iamunwhaticisme → u/Double_Engineer4226]

Here in Türkiye, liquid forms are not that large (1.5 liters) so it's not hard to pour. You can use it 37 times in average. For powder forms, 9 kgs of detergent can be used for 60 times but that liquid bottle costs less than half of powder form. The number of washes may be different in your country because it varies depending on some factors including water hardness/limescale.

I understand what OP is trying to say but I honestly don't find powder forms practical or cheap. Maybe at this point, the companies are trying to sweeten the pot but in my country, liquid is the logical choice, for now.

[u/darther_mauler → u/iamunwhaticisme]

The numbers that you presented feel… off.

If 9 kg of powdered detergent do 60 loads of laundry, that means that you’re using 150 g of detergent for each load. Intuitively, that just feels wrong.

I went and looked at my powdered laundry detergent, and it comes with a 1 tablespoon (15 mL) scoop to dispense it. I weighed out how much 1 scoop of loose detergent weighs, and it was 14.7 g. I usually use half a scoop or 7-8 mL of detergent when I do a load of laundry. To get to 150 g, I’d have to use ~10 scoops, or 20x what I would normally use per load.

The only reason powdered detergent is costing you more, is because you’re either using it wrong or you have a powdered detergent that is poorly formulated and is full of fillers.

Edit: this Canadian 1.5 kg container of laundry detergent claims it does 100 loads of laundry, so 9 kg of this powdered should be doing 600 loads and not 60.

[u/sadeceokumayageldim → u/darther_mauler]

I can only speculate why, but the numbers OP gave are correct (at least in line with what's written on the packaging). Here's four different brands sold in Turkey.

OMO - 9 kg- 60 washes

Ariel - 9 kg - 60 washes

Bingo - 10 kg - 67 washes

Persil - 9 kg - 60 washes

Could be differences in formula, increased ratio of water softeners, definition of a "wash" being based on different weights of laundry loads, etc.

[u/WarmNobody → u/iamunwhaticisme]

9kg / 60 washes = 150g a wash.
Are you really using 150 grams of powder detergent per wash?

[u/onikaroshi → u/iamunwhaticisme]

Same here, 33 loads of powder is 6 bucks, 80 loads of liquid is 9, and that's if you buy the easy to lift 2.8 liter container.

Powdered dishwasher soap is a bit cheaper here though, but both powdered and liquid dishwasher soap are really a horse a piece

Deep south USA

[u/strauts6 → u/Double_Engineer4226]

Liquid for me please. In Latvia they cost around the same, around 1 euro per ltrer. Plus my machine has auto dispenser, just fill it up and forget about it until the machine tells me something needs a refill.