How Much Of Your Favourite Laundry Liquid Is Water? MOST of it!!
Hooper’s Store in Emerald recently measured the Refractive Index of some of the leading Australian laundry liquid brands to help people understand more about how to get real value with their cleaning products.
In the Table below – the bright yellow column shows the RI of major brands, plus the formulation that the team at Hoopers has created. In general terms, a score of 30 indicates that the liquid is “30% Active”. The other way to think about this is that 30% is “not water” – and therefore 70% is water. With detergents we need there to be some water – so that it is liquid! The right amount makes it easier to use, and helps it dissolve better to give you a great wash.
The majority of the brands in the table are owned by global conglomerates who have been using wonderful marketing for the last 40 years to capture the loyalty of the us Australian consumers. They have used attractive personalities, lovely scents, unique shaped bottles, and people in white lab coats to convince us of the power and value of their product – because they know we are creatures of habit – and will usually keep buying the one we choose. They have treated us like sheep for decades.
When you look at your detergent bottle – does it tell you how strong the detergent is?
No – it just says platitudes like “Cleans Your Clothes Whiter/Better”. Or “because you care about your clothes”. They add images of cuddly animals, and use psychology of different colours different colours to make us trust them more.
But the bottles do NOT tell you their relative strength or activity – and without this you can only make your buying decision based on their platitudes (“strong and gentle”). ALL detergents will clean grease and dirt and tomato sauce and coal dust out of your clothes. It works better than just water. But some detergents have half or quarter the cleaning power of other detergents.
The Table below is one way to estimate this. The table also shows the PER LITRE cost of these detergents at major supermarkets in Emerald, Qld on Friday, October 21st. The supermarket chains also mess with consumers ability to calculate value by changing their prices constantly. Why should a product be $15 a litre one week, and then $7.50 a litre the next? Why is it not ALWAYS the best price? Perhaps because the supermarkets and big brands know that playing this game makes them more profits? It is certainly not for the benefit of customers.
Our goal with Vortex Premium is to kick the global conglomerates with massive marketing teams AND the cynical supermarkets right where it hurts most.
For less than 50% of the cost of the “brand” name products that have become household names – you can get a better product. For $3 per litre, plus container cost if you do not refill or sway (which is $3 for a nice solid 5 litre container that you can refill or swap when empty) – you get a 30% active laundry liquid that is safe on your clothes, smell great (new Lemon), has no nasty fillers, is septic safe, good for top and front loaders, and is perfect for washing your clothes.
