Price versus performance. The highest-rated detergent, SA8 with Bioquest (made by the company formerly known as Amway), cleaned up when it came to, well, cleaning our test swatches, which were impregnated with nine common staining agents, including blood and makeup. It was also the most expensive, at 61¢ per load. Plus, it’s available only online. Fortunately, store-bought alternatives, such as Tide Free HE and Gain HE, perform nearly as well for less than half that price.
ConsumerReports.org – Laundry detergents 1/07: Surfacants, NPEs
Yes, I'm sure it is a conspiracy.
Are you really saying that 15% better performance is worth twice the money?
How many oz. does 2 scoops of SA8 contain?
If anyone can explain how the heck they came up with 61cent a wash I'd be fascinated! Quite obviously something wrong in their pricing there. They also claimed it could only be bought online – false, you can buy it from any one hundreds of thousands of IBOs and they compared CostCo members price to Quixtar full price, despite CostCo membership being more than Quixtars. I recommend you check out – http://www.thetruthaboutquixtar.com/index.php/content/view/2216/73
Oh and SA8 was the only detergent to get "excellent" in all 2 categories, and scored 15% higher than the detergent that came second. A winner by a big margin, not "perform nearly as well".
Someone at CR apparently doesn't like A/Q and had to spin this as best they could. Let's face it – SA8 blew the competition out of the water.
I found (in the past) that Consumer Reports uses the highest suggested amount which is 2 scoops when it comes to SA8.
Would the product have rated as high with 1 scoop?
They state in the test they used tested using instructions for "heavily soiled". SA8 instructions for "heavily soiled" is to used 50% more, which means 1.5 scoops=42g.
In the normal package size that's 3000g/42g=71 washes.
RRP$22.75/71=$0.32
Even in the new "test" package size thats 750g/42=18 washes
RRP$8.50=$0.47
I'm still trying to get some back of the box instructions from the other products so we can compare.
CR has had to be corrected at least twice I'm aware of in the past in SA8 comparisons because they didn't calculate cost and usage properly. I've no idea why, doesn't seem that hard to work out!
I have some experience with Consumer Reports when I was a young Quality Engineer for a major clothing company. They don't always deal in the real world.
However, they are always fair when it comes to using the same process for every product. They likely took the highest suggested everything from every company.
That's a crazy methodology! I've seen instructions on other brands that simply say something like "for hard water of heavily soiled cothes use more" – how the heck do they interpret that? SA8 would appear to be getting "punished" for actually providing proper intructions.
In my opinion it would have rated as high, yes. More does not necessarily mean better, it just gets washed out in the water. I personally use less SA8 than is recommended on the box – and I still find it cleans better than other brands.
Bingo … they've taken the "test" package of SA8, designed for new users to try the product out, taken the highest possible PH level, and very heavily soiled clothes. That indeed works out at 61 cents per wash.
What ever happened to "real world comparisons".
Well, as Brad pointed out on my site they should have taken the price and usage of the 1 packet Tide for a buck forty you can buy 🙂
To just take the maximum suggested is ridiculous. When I do SA8 vs Brand X comparisons I take matching Ph, average size load, average dirtiness for all.
Net Grocer has the instructions for Tide Liquid on their site –
For: Large loads, Fill to: Line 2
For: Medium loads, Fill to: Line 1
Use more for heavily soiled loads.
That's it. How does Consumer Reports interpret "Use more"?
If we take the price and instructions on Netgrocer for a medium, not heavily soiled load, the cost per wash is 43cents ($11.19/26) compared with CR price of 35cents. Amazon.com has it cheaper at $7.99 or 31 cents per wash. According to the Tide website, line 1 is 4oz and line 2 6 oz, so 50% more, so that would give 17 washes at 47c/wash at the amazon price – and we're still not in to "use more" territory.
I can't see anyway the comparison done was fair. Only way is if RRP for Tide with bleach is somewhere less $5.95 – and I can't find anyone selling it at that price!