Is Tide worth breaking the budget?

[Aurora D]

So I usually buy whatever laundry detergent is on sale. For $1.49 or so I'm able to get Ajax or store brand on sale. The price of Tide seems ridiculous to me, but does it really clean your clothes better? Lately, my whites and sheets seems gray and dingy. Would Tide help? Or can someone recommend something to get the dinginess out of my sheets/pillowcases?

 

[DawnM]

Well, I have made my own laundry soap for a few years, but I splurged and bought the Kirkland brand Tide equivalent and it is very good. Half the price of Tide. It has high ratings in Consumer Report as well.

 

[ilovemk76]

So I usually buy whatever laundry detergent is on sale. For $1.49 or so I'm able to get Ajax or store brand on sale. The price of Tide seems ridiculous to me, but does it really clean your clothes better? Lately, my whites and sheets seems gray and dingy. Would Tide help? Or can someone recommend something to get the dinginess out of my sheets/pillowcases?

We exclusively use Tide. We also use the Walmart generic Clorox 2 in each load. We never use chlorine bleach and our whites are white. Nothing is grey and the colors are bright.

We have a front loader and use way less, as told by the manufacturer, than the the detergent company shows. We can get the 64 load HE detergent for $14.99 or less. With using less we get 128 or more loads. At 128 loads and $14.99 it cost us 12 cents per load. We do 3-4 loads a week for a grand total of 36-48 cents per week. That bottle lasts us for 32 -42 weeks. Not a huge cost for white whites and bright colors.

I am not sure how much the Walmart Clorox 2 costs but a bottle last as long as the detergent bottle, if not more. We put about a tablespoon in each load.

We would never use anything but Tide.

 

[rszdtrvl]

Yes.

I used homemade laundry detergent for over a year, but even with bleach it didn't clean DH's white work shirts (he is cook). They were still really dingy.

I use Tide with Bleach, and it is well worth the cost.

Does Kirkland make a detergent with bleach alternative? I am headed to Costco sometime this week.

 

[wallawallakids]

No. Tide, to me, is a rip off. I have used it before because I coupon shop and get what ever I can for the cheapest price. Occasionally I have gotten a good deal on it. That being said, I would NEVER buy it without a mega sale and coupons. It isn't any better, IMO, than any other detergent out there. That includes Shaw's cheap brand. BTW, I do only try to get unscented. I have noticed I do have better luck when buying the less expensive ones on sale if they are unscented.

 

[Disneyhenry]

YES
I have a 3 year old who seems to get very dirty every time that he plays outdoors, I buy tide and on most loads I use 1/2 of what is recommended so the detergent does last longer but still works great.

On those filthy pants and shirt from playing in the grass and mud I use what they recommend and it always gets the grime out.

Also tide gets the smoke out of smoked damaged clothing, in just one wash.

Plus the clothes look newer for longer and always look clean.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Is Kirkland the Costco private label? Consumer Reports always rates that really high. Compared to that, Tide (which also does well in their tests) is somewhat of a poorer deal.

 

[eliza61]

Tide is probably one of the few things that I won't give up. I love bright colors especially in the spring/summer. Tide is the only detergent that seems to keep my colors bright and get them clean. Whenever I have used generic detergents my clothes seem to come out not as clean and it seems like I use twice as much.

Tide always has coupons and target and shoprite have them on sale at least once a month.

I wait for the sale and use the coupons.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

IMO, yes. It's all I buy.

 

[3boymthr]

I have found it makes a HUGE difference.

I think it works better both because of the type of dirt we have - DH's clothes get nasty with oil - as with the temperature of the water. I find it just works better in cold water than the cheap detergents. Our cold water is always icy cold even in summer and if we use hot water by the time the washer fills with the water has started to cool and is never really much more than very warm...

 

[shortbun]

Every time I've left Tide because of the cost, I've returned, with dingy clothes. I use All Free and Clear for my linens because of allergies but they don't seem to get dingy-they never get visually dirty. Tide, no scent, no dye, is what we use for our clothes. My husband and my son both get filthy.
We need the Tide. I might try the Kirkland sometime to see what we think. I wonder if the have it color and fragrance free.

 

[mrsklamc]

Do you have hard water OP? Around here the water is so hard that without a softener whites will be dingy no matter what.

 

[dclfun]

I have tried Tide but don't find that it gets my clothing any cleaner than the detergent I make myself. You can always add a laundry booster such as washing soda or borax to any detergent to help the whites and colors to stay bright. Sometimes I add more of the boosters than the recipe requires but I haven't done any comparison to see if it's really needed. I save tons of money, BUT if my clothes weren't clean and the whites weren't white, I'd use something else. We are moving soon so I bought Tide during a sale and with coupons to avoid hauling my 10 pound bucket of homemade detergent. It's the liquid Tide and I'm already disgusted with the blue goo all over my dryer where the detergent sits from family members not being careful. So for me, it's not worth the cost nor is any other brand of detergent.

 

[indimom]

I use All Free and Clear for allergies and have no complaints with how white the whites are. I do use bleach from time to time and Spray and Wash for tough stains.

 

[JCMHutch]

I used to buy Tide and ended up switching because of the cost.

BJ's Wholesale has Arm & Hammer laundry soap (100 loads) for around $20. Every couple of months they have an instore coupon for $3-$5 off. I have found it works just as well as the Tide does and it fits in the budget.

 

[stitchlovestink]

Is Kirkland the Costco private label? Consumer Reports always rates that really high. Compared to that, Tide (which also does well in their tests) is somewhat of a poorer deal.

Yes, Kirkland is Costco's own brand. They are are usually pretty good products.

 

[foltzy]

Use to use Tide but my daughter ended up breaking out in hives and so we switched to the tide free but because of cost we decided to switch to all free and we love it. My clothes are still nice and bright and my whites are white.

 

[G2MAmber]

I too am a tide supporter with coupons and when it is on sale I stock up!

 

[MSSANDRA]

Tide is the one thing I refuse to give up for price. We have tried, I really tried but we just can not be happy with other things. Our clothes not only did not smell or look as clean , we saw a lot more wear on our clothes. I do use the powder, though I much prefer the liquid, and I buy at Sams to save as much as possible, but I stick to my tide!

 

[gillenkl]

Tide is too expensive for me - I buy whatever is on sale.