Is it ok to use less detergent?

[Moongold]

I have a Beko 1400 rpm front loader washing machine, 8.5kg size.  I love the machine and try to use as little soap (usually powdered) as possible, as instructed.  However, over the last few months the soap does not totally rinse out from where it gathers in the front door rubber gasket, I think it's called.  I have to do about literally 7 cold water rinses on top of the one at the end of the cycles - and it still often shows some soap still flushing into this gasket, showing that the soap is still in the wash!  What I'm saving in soap will be spent on water costs if I can't find a way to fix this.  The soap is rinsed back through the clothes and I then get a dermatitis and itchy skin from any soap remaining in them.  Can you help please?  Thanks.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hello. I believe using as little detergent as possible will cost a lot of money in the long run. You need to use the amount recommended on the detergent package taking into account the heaviness of the soiling and more importantly the hardness of your water. it's a fallacy to say that the detergent manufacturers try to con us into using more than we need.

If you don't use enough detergent you can suffer from a lot of problems. You get a lot of dirt and grease re-depositing inside the washing machine because there isn't enough detergent to attach to all of the dirt. This can shorten the life of the washing machine.

You can also get, and this is counterintuitive, extra foam-like bits in the rinse water. I personally don't believe that the laundry is been properly washed either although obviously on the surface it appears to be okay otherwise people wouldn't do it.

So potentially your problem could be to do with not using enough detergent because as discovered in another topic about poor rinsing not enough detergent causes what looks like soapsuds in the rinse water.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Sorry I forgot to mention the most important problem with not using enough detergent. That is limescale. If you don't use enough detergent you are likely to suffer with big limescale problems in the future. This can ruin a washing machine as the heating element, inner drum and all of the hoses and even the door seal can become caked in limescale. The detergent needs to adequately soften the water to protect against limescale and it needs enough of the ingredients there to attach to all of the dirt and grease that come out of the clothes. When the detergent gets rinsed away it also rinses away the dirt and grease.

So if you have not got enough detergent in there some of the dirt and grease will deposit inside the hoses, on the door seal, and inside the pump etc.

I've seen cases where people have not used enough detergent and it has halved the life of their washing machine. So even if it turns out not to be the cause of this particular issue it is definitely something to sort out 🙂

[Moongold]

That's very interesting - perhaps you're right! The Beko salesman initially told me to use very little soap and the little I have used has always resulted in plenty of soapsuds - which I've been grateful for cost-wise, but it's now getting to a ridiculously low amount!  Unfortunately I've never been able to find on any soap packet specific measures for soap used in a Beko, which he manufacturer themselves advise needs a lot less than other machines,  - so, hard to discern.  I've always simply estimated according to amount of suds appearing in the machine when it starts a cycle.  And as I say, if I put too much it takes so many rinse repeats to get rid of it,  Bit of an enigma!  I might phone Beko again and see if they might have a brand of soap that they recommend or themselves manufacture (they haven't had such a product since I bought the machine, to my knowledge).  Thanks for your advice.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hello Moongold. Yes I'm struggling to think of any possible motive Beko salesman could have for advising you to use very little detergent. It makes no sense at all other than the washing machine won't last as long and you'll be back to buy another in a few years 🙂

The washing machine detergent is the most expensive part of washing these days so it is very tempting to use a lot less than the packet tells you to. But the way detergents work is that there are parts of it that attach themselves to the dirt in the laundry. Then when the washing machine rinses away the detergent it also rinses away the dirt and grime. If you hardly put any in then a lot of the dirt and grime is not attached to any detergent and is much more difficult to flush out of the washing machine.

Ironically, when you don't use enough detergent you get a lot of what looks like soapsuds in the rinse water. This anomaly causes people who are obsessing about rinse efficiency to use less and less when they should actually be using more. I can't remember exactly why it does this, it was explained to me once by someone who used to work in the detergent industry. For the best washing machine detergent you can't beat checking out the Which? detergent reviews. They thoroughly test all of them. A good example of how you can not only get the best, but potentially save a lot of money with Which? is that for years we used the most expensive Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablets until I read in a Which? review that they had tested and found a supermarket own brand equivalent that was just as good but considerably cheaper (if I remember right half the price).

Several good reasons to subscribe to Which?