Charlie's Soap Powder - 2.64 lb (80 Loads)
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List Price: Our Price: $11.99 You Save: $5.00 (29%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Health Care See more product details |
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Customer Reviews of Charlie's Soap Powder - 2.64 lb (80 Loads)
Customer Review: Not good for cloth diapers, fades regular laundry
Summary: 1 Stars
After much research and many recommendations I bought this detergent for my Indian prefold cloth diapers, which was a mistake. Despite claims to be clean-rinsing, it really isn't, even when using *much* less than the recommended amount. I was unable to get all of the suds out either by hand or machine, no matter how much or how vigorously I rinsed. As a result my daughter would end up with a rash every time. The company (whose customer service isn't the best) claims that the rashes many people are seeing in their babies are due to residual bacteria and that one must use a sterilization method when washing their CDs with this detergent - the thing is, I was already boiling my diapers after each wash. Even a vinegar rinse didn't get all the soap residue out. After switching to Rockin' Green the rashes went away entirely - RG truly is a clean-rinsing detergent and I would recommend any of their formulations over Charlie's.
I'm using up the rest of my Charlie's tub on our family laundry. It cleans great, but does fade blacks and most colors after just a couple of washes (so does Rockin' Green for that matter). Since it doesn't seem to rinse away entirely, some with sensitive skin might not want to use it, but my husband and I haven't had any problems.
Just okay - and for cloth diaper washing, you can do much better.
***EDIT/UPDATE***
Almost a month after posting my original review and having used Charlie's many times for family laundry, I felt the need to update. As I said previously neither my husband nor I have sensitive skin issues, but this soap has been giving me a rash on my back and ribcage around the bra area (especially after I workout/etc), and I now wash all of our "unmentionables" in Rockin' Green as Charlie's obviously can't be trusted with anything that's going to get moist and be in contact with skin. Very disappointing - this product is obviously something that should NEVER come in contact with a baby's sensitive and highly absorbent diaper area; I hate that they even market it as a good CD soap. I'm still going to use the rest of the tub as I'm terribly frugal, but I'm going to be careful where I use it. No washcloths, underwear, towels, etc. Downgrading to one star; wish I could give it none. For those of you who want a truly safe and clean-rinsing green detergent for your cloth diapers, I would highly recommend: Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper and Laundry Detergent (Classic Rock, Bare Naked Babies)
PS - You can get it cheaper elsewhere, but if you have to pay for shipping on one of those sites it probably comes out to about the same (average price is [...]/bag, or 90ish loads).
Customer Review: Works pretty well but more expensive than my usual detergent
Summary: 4 Stars
I came across this detergent on Amazon when looking for more natural products to clean clothes. I've been using it for a little over a week now and have had a chance to see what it can do. I like the fact that it's unscented, hypoallergenic and doesn't leave a residue. I also like that it leaves my clothes soft without having to use a fabric softener and that it's made from biodegradable coconut-based detergents and high-grade, completely soluble, Green River washing soda. How does it do on cleaning my clothes? It does a decent job. It doesn't get out every set stain completely, but it does as good a job as Arm and Hammer unscented detergent. I did a trial run on a piece of cotton fabric (actually it was an old pair of white cotton underwear that were ready to be tossed anyway) and put some soy sauce, a smashed blueberry, butter, wet clay soil and some Oil of Olay face make-up on the fabric. I put them in the microwave for 1 minute to try and set the stains. Then I washed it with some dishtowels and other white things.
After washing in a front load Asko washing machine that has a lot of rinse cycles using a level tablespoon of detergent it got the butter, the clay soil and the soy sauce out completely. I could see the blueberry stain very faintly. It didn't touch the Oil of Olay foundation make-up. But then, my regular detergent didn't get that out either. (Good all day make-up, huh?) I would say it didn't do any better or worse than my old Arm & Hammer. I didn't pre-treat before washing. But the clothes felt quite a bit softer than the Arm & Hammer, even my jeans which are usually pretty stiff right out of the washer. I normally add an oxygen based bleach with any clothes that are heavily soiled or have stains. It worked well with the addition of that and got out all the stains.
Now for the value. The prices on Amazon change a little from day to day, but the day I bought it I paid .143 cents per load, based on getting 80 loads as advertised. I checked a Consumer Reports magazine for the price per load of my Arm & Hammer. It was 9 cents per load according to them although the amount of detergent you use is more. So it costs about .053 per load more than my old detergent. That's over 37 percent more expensive. If you use a product like Tide, it could be as much as 23 cents per load so Charlie's would have the price advantage there.
So will I continue to use Charlie's Soap? I probably will because of two factors: it leaves my clothes softer and it's a smaller package that's easier to store. I also kind of like dealing with a family owned company (at least as far as I can tell it's still family owned). The other thing is that I love the packaging. The little cloth bag is way cool!
Customer Review: Good at cleaning, Great natural feeling and smelling clothes. Not the miricle some have said.
Summary: 4 Stars
I was encouraged by the rave reviews, so I started using Charlies about 9 months ago, and here are my results:
- Overall: While I struggle with the whites not being the absolute whitest, I really enjoy the low residue, low sudsing, no fragrance, no fabric softener, economical, basic solid cleaning cleaning of Charlies laundry powder.
- It does clean...but not everything in the world.
I use it on everyday loads, without any special treatments, in my front load HE washer with 1 scoop on warm water. I do not have hard water. It does an great job on typical items, but my son's grass stained white baseball pants do not come out clean this way. They need special pretreatment, and gentle scrubbing, and even then, the green is gone, but there is still discoloration. Whites are clean, but they will not win the "whitest whites" contest against products with more aggressive cleaners like oxiclean, bleach, or other "proprietary magic blue crystals whiteners".
I had a 2 year old cream colored baseball hat with sweat marks and ball point on it, which I thought I'd either throw away or clean up. I put some Charlies powder and water on the stained areas and gently brush cleaned it. I had to repeat 2-3 times, and the sweat stains came out great and did not discolor. The ballpoint pen needed a special spot attention with glycerin.
Twice I've left a load of laundry in the washer too long and the black mold grew... really bad. Some clothes were ruined (stained and smelling), some were smelling so bad I thought they were ruined, and the on washer took a terrible smell we had trouble getting rid of. We had to run the washer through empty "sanitation cycles", ie. with extra hot water, vinegar loads, bleach loads, several detergent and rag towel loads. This did knock out the smell. We rewashed the clothes 2-3 times, and we were able to remove most, but not all of the musty smell. It's easier to notice the musty smell because Charlies does not have any added fragrance, so you might notice them more. I now always leave the washer door open between loads so it gets plenty of air. Its working well.
- It does not leave much, if any residue.
My previous Costco "green" detergent left some light built up at the door jambs and I notices that Charlies does not. It appears to be breaking down the "built-up" residue for the old detergent and leaving a cleaner surface. So I believe what they say on the website about it cleaning tanks well without leaving a residue, and I think it does the same for your washer, which can be important on some of the HE front loaders since the tanks can built up residue with the low water usage.
Customer Review: Actually works!!! But some management required. Great for running synthetic clothes...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have now used the soap in my high efficiency washer using only the measured cup for over two months and can write an informed review.
Firstly, as stated elsewhere, after a few washes clothing does become softer and shinier if it has synthetic fibers in it (this probably because the fibers are not saturated with excess detergent). The overall stain removal of the detergent is excellent to very good and clothing does feel very clean to the touch, and works especially great in cotton linen and underwear.
However, because it does not contain fragrances it can be a bit disorienting. Further, if one item with a strong smell is washed with others on occasion the other items might acquire the smell. For example, to be good to the environment we use 100% cotton terry shop towels in the kitchen as opposed to paper towels. If one towel is saturated in oils, its smell can migrate to other clothing items. This, of course, might happen with standard detergents but due to the perfume that they include it might be hidden away. So some thought might help when planning the wash (I confess we have not separated colors for years with rarely a problem).
A particular plus of this detergent is that it amazingly removes **all** sweat smell from synthetic running clothes, something no other soap had ever achieved in my many years of running and biking and hiking. The clothes leave the wash and drier as new, which is quite something.
An additional plus is that I am fairly sensitive to allergens and occasionally had unexplained "itch" attacks where I just felt itchy all over... even with hypoallergenic detergents. These "attacks" have not been repeated while using this detergent.
Highly recommended and highly economic (do not use more than the amount specified by the included measured cup).
Customer Review: Not for my baby
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this soap from Fuzzi Bunz because they highly recommended it for washing the cloth diapers. It came with no instructions so I had to download them from the Charlie's soap website at: [...] and followed the directions to the letter. My son had been using Fuzzi Bunz without incident but after using the Charlie's, he developed some weeping sores/blisters and bad diaper rash. I took him to the Dr. and they gave me some ointment for him and told me that they have seen other parents with babies that develop some type of skin irritation after using Charlie's. I went home and did some research and there is complaint after complaint after complaint about babies getting all kinds of skin irritation after using Charlie's. And I also read Charlie's defense that if the product was used correctly, there would be no product left on the diapers to cause this irritation. I also read that Charlie's claimed that since they are so confident that their product rinses completely away, that maybe remnants of human waste are the real culprit to the skin irritations. So let me just say that whether my normal GE washing machine lacks the ability in two rinse cycles to completely rinse this soap out, or whether this detergent lacks the ability to effectively clean my pre-hand rinsed cloth diapers from all remnants of human waste, or whether it is in fact the Charlie's burning my baby's tooshie--it is just not for my baby. We will not ever use it again. It has been suggested to me to soak a diaper washed in Charlie's in water and wring it out and see if there is in fact any soap that can be seen or tasted in the water. But honestly--I'm not putting my baby's diapers back into this detergent just to test that out. I've stripped them and moved on to using Dropps and have had no problems since the switch.