Using Homemade Laundry Detergent in an HE Washing Machine

The most frequent question I get about my homemade laundry soap recipe-both here on the blog and over on my YouTube video for making laundry soap is “Can I use homemade laundry soap/ laundry detergent  in an HE washing machine?”

The next most common question is “Really? Only one TBS for a load?”. . . but I digress.

HE stands for “High Efficiency” -HE washers are typically front loading washers specifically created to use less water than a standard washing machine.  Because less water is used, laundry detergent must be low sudsing and disperse quickly.  About.com has a great article explaining HE Clothes Washers that you can read for more information.

Unfortunately I do not have an HE washer, and I can not offer solid advice or personal experience on this question.  What I can say is this.  Homemade laundry soap has almost no suds-that is actually one of the complaints you hear from first time users.  “There were no suds and the water looked gray? Is that right?”*

If I were the person with an HE washer, I would personally feel comfortable trying the homemade laundry detergent in the machine.  However I am not an expert-each of you faced with this decision will have to make your own choice based on the facts you have available.

I did look around to see what some of my favorite sources had to say about using homemade laundry detergent/soap in an HE machine.  The fabulous Tipnut addresses this about 2 pages down in her “Homemade Laundry Detergent FAQ“, and Thrifty Fun had this exact question about HE washers & soap asked-you can go read all the answers from their readers.

Do any of you use homemade detergent in an HE machine? What are your feelings on the matter?

*note: Yes, it is normal for there to be little or no suds.  Yes, it is normal for the water to look gray-that’s the dirt coming out of the clothes.  You just don’t notice it with your store bought detergent because the suds keep you from seeing the water.

Reader’s Question: Homemade Laundry Detergent Residue

Dear Frugal Upstate,

My husband and I recently bought a house. The house came with a washing machine that does not like my homemade laundry detergent (I’ve been using your recipe for a year at the old house with no problem).

The only way I can get my detergent to dissolve in this washer is to dissolve it first in hot water and then do an extra rinse cycle – which pretty much negates the money I’m saving by making my detergent in the first place. Otherwise, my clothes come out of the wash with goopey pieces of soap still stuck to them.

I’m already drying out the soap and re-grating it with my food processor before I mix up my detergent, so it’s a pretty fine powder. I don’t want to have to make the liquid version. Am I overlooking something obvious that I can do to solve this problem?

Heather

Dear Heather,

Wow, that’s a new one on me.  My first impulse would be to wonder if your water heater is set high enough-but then again I use my laundry detergent in cold water, and it always dissolves fine.

My second thought would be to wonder if there is something different in the actual water itself-perhaps harder water?  Then again, the water is very hard where I am and again, it dissolves fine.

Obviously the recipe itself isn’t at fault, as you have used it previously without an issue.

It almost seems like your machine isn’t really draining well. . .

Long story short, if we can’t figure out how to fix your problem, then your best bet is probably to go back to using store bought detergent.  If you have to do that then of course you should look into combining coupons and sales to get the best price.  Don’t forget to comparison shop across several stores to see where you can get the best price-by load, not by net weight! Most boxes and jugs do say h0w many loads they will clean.

What about all you readers out there? Anyone have a suggestion that Heather can try to make her homemade laundry detergent work?

Jenn

Reader’s Question: Dingy Clothes w/Homemade Laundry Detergent

Dear Frugal Upstate,

I’m using you laundry detergent recipe but, my whites are getting dingyier and dingyier. I live in North Carolina and have 2 boys aged 7 and 9. They stain everything in the red clay here. I’ve tried bleach in with the detergent on the long soak cycle but, still dingy wash. What would you suggest?

Mary

Mary,

I’ve been using my homemade laundry detergent recipe for years and have never noticed that particular problem with my clothes~the homemade has always worked fine for me~so I don’t have a really good answer for you. First and foremost, if you are saving money but you aren’t happy with the quality you are getting then you should consider switching back to store bought laundry detergent. Just shop the sales and cut your coupons of course.

I think if I had some OxyClean at home I would experiment with throwing some of that in each load and see if it helped. I haven’t tested it myself so I can’t swear to the effectiveness of it in this particular situation, and of course you’d have to figure out the change in the cost per load with using the OxyClean to see if it continues to be cost effective compared to store bought.

Readers-help Mary out! Have any of you had this problem? What have you done to fix it?

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