GrabGreen Laundry Detergent

I tried out this laundry detergent and loved the ease of just tossing a pod into the wash.  However, it's cleaning power was not spectacular.  I threw in a couple of my kids shirts wihthout pre-rinsing just to see how they would do and this detergent didn't remove a single spot.  And they weren't bad stains, just typical spots.  I suppose this stuff wouldn't be bad for adult clothes with no stains or spots, but I wouldn't recommend it for kids clothes unless you pretreat everything first.

I was asked to review this product and I like it a lot.  It is so cool to drop in premeasured packets.  No mess and they dissolved very quickly.  My clothes came out looking well.  It was nice to be able to use such a nice eco friendly and handy detergent.  I would definitely look for this product in the future.  I give it an "A".

This is quite an interesting detergent and impressive I might add. First I was impressed by the list of ingredients. It's the first time I see all the ingredients of a laundry product listed in such a prominent way on the package. Not only that, I see nothing scary in it and I applaud. The second thing that I found rather pleasing was the individually packed dosages. They are very convenient, especially for people that have to go to the laundromat or the basement, or anywhere outside their dwellings, to do laundry. This way you don't have to carry a whole box with you. You can just toss the little packet in with the clothes and stick everything in the machine. Another advantage for me is that I don't have to measure the detergent, not because I am lazy, but because I am always worried that I probably used too much.

Performance wise, I would have to say that this detergent did not do better than other ones I have used. I would say it did just as well with your regular dirt but not so well with persistent stains. Oily stains and blood stains did not go away and unfortunately the smells didn't either. Clothes that were moderately dirty like sheets and towels came out great, smelling fresh. But my husband's stinky work clothes, or my cloth pads, not so much. Next time, I will use some laundry booster to help things along, which I always do, I just wanted to test this without them. What I do love however, is that the clothes come out softer than with other detergents and require less ironing.

Overall, I think this is a great idea. Less packaging, truly green ingredients (as far as I know) convenience for people who have no washing machine and have to go far to do laundry. However, I find it a bit expensive something that makes it prohibitive for large families that have to do more laundry than some of us.

For the past few months I've been using Tide Coldwater as my laundry detergent, so that will be my basis for comparison.

Tide has a significant advantage on price.  It only costs around 10 cents per load, whereas GrabGreen costs $7.50 for 24 loads - about 3 to 4 times more expensive.  On the other hand, if you only do 1-2 loads of laundry per week like me, the $7.50 worth of GrabGreen pods will last 4-5 months.  Not exactly a bank breaker.

The GrabGreen pods got my laundry as clean as Tide, maybe a little cleaner.  They also claim to have a softener, which is good because the one problem with hanging clothes out to dry is that they tend to stiffen up.  I actually left them out longer than usual today, and although some of my clothes did stiffen up, they weren't as stiff as when I use Tide.

Another nice bonus of the GrabGreen pods is the convenience.  You just grab one of the pods out of the bag, toss it in the washer, and then toss the clothes in.  Not like measuring out detergent is a big task, but it's still a nice convenience factor.

The big drawback I've been noticing recently is that often the pods won't completely dissolve in cold water.   So I'm left with a little soap puck and clothes that aren't as clean as they should be.  And I'm certainly not going to offset the green advantage of the detergent by using hot water.

So overall I'm disappointed in GrabGreen.  It's a bit more expensive than Tide, and doesn't work well in cold water.