Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Laundry Detergent Post

I recently created a mobile site for my blog. If you're reading this from your mobile phone, hi! I hope it is now easier to read than before! :)

I know I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I had been looking for a good laundry detergent to get rid of the sweaty smell from my clothes. I tried 5 different solutions and I'll tell you what (finally) worked for me!

First things first, I need to mention that I have hard water (and softener). I think this makes things a little different than regular water. For comparison purposes, I tried each product with a full load of wash including workout and regular clothes. It is also worth noting that all clothes were also put through the dryer as well (with the same dryer sheet and for the same time frame).

Solution 1: Penguin Sport Wash
I sent an email asking the Penguin/Nathan company to send me some free samples before investing in an entire bottle. They responded very quickly and were able to send some samples along. I was most excited to try this one so it was up first. I gotta say, I was disappointed. The result was a little better than regular detergent, but not by much. The armpit test (smelling the arm pit of a once super sweaty shirt) still yielded disappointing (and stinky) results. Perhaps this solution would work well with regular water? I have 2 more free samples. If you want to give Penguin/Nathan Sport Wash a try, leave me a comment! I will pick 2 people at random to receive the samples. If you are looking to purchase this product, you can find it at most local running or athletic stores. For a complete list of retailers, feel free to check out their website here.

Solution 2: Atsko Sport Wash
I also emailed the Atsko company asking for a free sample before committing to a full bottle. The marketing on this product seemed much more industrial, rugged, and for sportsmen. When I used this product, the sweat smell was cleared. The clothes were left clean but without a clean scent (I was disappointed by this but others may love this). I think the product worked well overall and accomplished its goal. If you have sweaty hunting clothes and want something clean without a scent, this is the product for you. Maybe if I paired this with some of those Unstopables beads, it would be a good combo? I think that would end up being pretty expensive to do all the time so I didn't research that result. Unfortunately, I only received one sample of this product that I used for the analysis. If you're interested, this detergent can be found through Atsko's website here.

Solution 3: All Free and Clear with Oxi Clean
After not having luck with traditional All Free and Clear, I decided to give the Oxi Clean version a try, with an assumption that the Oxi Clean would help. I'm not sure if it was the hard water, the Free and Clear formula, or the Oxi Clean works better on stains and not smells, but this product performed only mildly better than regular detergent. The sweat smell was was not removed from the clothes.

Solution 4: Arm and Hammer
After a recommendation, I tried traditional Arm and Hammer next, as their products are made with baking soda. After a cycle, my clothes smelled very fresh, but the fresh smell seemed to be doing a poor job of masking the sweat smell that still lingered when conducting the arm pit test. It seemed to attempt to mask the smell without getting rid of it.

Solution 5: Arm and Hammer plus 1 or 2 tbsp of baking soda
Based on another recommendation, I decided to sprinkle some baking soda in with the regular (Arm and Hammer) detergent. Folks, this was the huge winner! My clothes smelled clean, And they all passed the arm pit test! I still get excited when I grab a shirt and it still smells fresh with any remnants of a sweaty smell. This is how I will be washing all of my workout clothes from now on!

Special thanks to all the folks that made recommendations. I finally found what works best for me and our hard water. As this has been a long process, I'm happy to have come to a great solution that won't break the bank.

Don't forget, if you're interested in trying the Penguin/Nathan Sport Wash, leave me a comment telling me that you're interested and I will chose 2 winners at random to receive the free samples in the mail. You don't have to have a blog to enter, just leave me a comment! All comments must be received by February 26 (11:00pm CST). The winner will be announced on Monday, February 27.

Note: I was not compensated in any way for these reviews. Tide also has a sport product, but when I contacted them for a free sample, they were unable to send one. I do not buy Tide so I did not buy a bottle for testing. I also was told that Lululemon has a sport wash available, but this product was not part of the analysis.

15 comments:

  1. Baking soda is awesome. I buy it in a three-pound bag at Costco and use it for everything. My family was green before it was called being green. Back then, it was called being cheap.

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  2. I need more baking soda in my life!!! It is an amazing thing.

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  3. Baking soda huh?? Wonder if it will work with all types of detergent!

    You can put me down for a free sample of that other detergent Kelly. Doesn't hurt to try!

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  4. what great reviews. I haven't had any issues just using my normal detergent. Maybe I'm not working hard enough?!?!?!?!

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  5. Thanks! Haha, that is probably not the case. I just sweat a lot, and apparently it stinks. I'm so excited to have found a solution! :)

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  6. Wow! I have not heard the baking soda solution. I must try that! Sounds like Atsko was second best?

    I would be interested in trying the Penguin/Nathan Sports Wash!

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  7. Yes, Atsko was 2nd best. It got rid of the smell, but the clothes didn't smell clean. They didn't smell like anything. I like to have my laundry smelling clean so that is why I wasn't a fan. However, it did get the job done which is what is most important!

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  8. Have you tried thte Tide plus Febreze Freshness Sport Liquid detergent? I would be interested to know if that works at all? Thanks!

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  9. When I contacted Tide about offering a free sample, they did not send one. I didn't want to spend my own money on a large bottle of a product if I was unsure whether or not it would work. Therefore, I did not try Tide as part of this post and I have not since purchased Tide since I found a solution that worked for me and my washing machine. Thanks!

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  10. I hope so, but in Lion you fleshlight need to focus on individual body parts.
    Getting ready There are a few other great features.

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  11. Great article! Wanted to add that powdered sports detergents work much better than liquid detergents because of the types of surfactants that they use.

    Also, using the correct detergent is only half of the battle. You must also be sure you are caring for your performance fabrics properly. We compiled some tips here-- http://www.rawathletics.com/how-to-wash-your-sports-laundry-properly/

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  12. Thanks Stephen. Since writing this post 2 years ago, I've started doing some of the tips mentioned in your article including air drying my dry fit items. I am interested in the powdered detergent idea. I might have to try it. Thanks!

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  13. Kelly-- if you're interested in doing an updated review of sports laundry detergents (this one is 2+ years old!!) and want to test out a powdered detergent, I'd love to send you a free bottle of our Vapor Fresh® Sports Laundry Detergent to contribute to the post! Link to the product below. If so, shoot me an email-- stephen (at) rawathletics (dot) com

    http://www.rawathletics.com/vapor-fresh-sports-laundry-detergent/

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  14. Thanks Stephen. As this is one of my most popular posts of all time, perhaps it makes sense for me to re-visit it. I will let you know if I decide to do so.

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