Anyone here ever catch onto the "tide pod" craze?

[nbp]

Maybe they had the right idea in the olden days, beating the heck out of their clothes out on a river rock under the noon sun. Haha

 

[Frijid]

Maybe they had the right idea in the olden days, beating the heck out of their clothes out on a river rock under the noon sun. Haha

Lol I bet back then when someone used a scrub board, everyone else was like "a rock works just fine!!"

Is this where we talk about tints, color rendering, and getting whiter whites ... :thinking:

Kinda makes you wonder how many times when someone "accidentally" washes a light in the laundry, if they were really trying to wash up the tint

I have to say, it's highly entertaining to have a thread of gear junkie dudes discussing laundry. Lol. Well done guys.

Lol gotta keep that laundry clean, from all those flash light adventures

I take my keys and stick a couple of them in the lid sensor hole. That works pretty well.

When pods first came out they were expensive. I just stuck with liquid. But now, pods can often be cheaper than liquid... So sometimes I buy them just because they're on sale. It's convenient. When you're traveling, you can take a couple with you in a ziplock bag and wash clothes in a bathtub.

Lol I'll have to try that. I miss watching mine run. Although mine doesn't have an agitator, I believe the manual referred to it as a "washplate." I can agree that traveling would be a good idea for pods. I certainly wouldn't want to drag around a big bottle everywhere

 

[xevious]

Thus defeating the convenience of the pods, haha. It'd be faster and simpler to just use the liquid or powder.

Another related topic is liquid vs powder. I have heard that the powders are better for the machines as the liquids can over time gum up the washer guts, necessitating those cleaning tabs to dissolve the residues. However for a long time I could only find the Tide Free in liquid. I haven't looked recently, perhaps it's in powder now.

I have to say, it's highly entertaining to have a thread of gear junkie dudes discussing laundry. Lol. Well done guys.

Not necessarily inconvenient. With liquid you have to measure it out, and it can be a bit messy (I see some people with blobs of dried liquid detergent on the sides of their bottles). I live in a building and opted not to have a washer/dryer machine in my place, because I'm not far from the basement and the washers down there are only $1 per load (the dryers are free). So I don't have to lug down a large liquid detergent jug with me--just a small pod or two. It takes about 20~30 seconds to cause the pod to break open with the rushing water. No inconvenience for me.

As for liquid vs. powder, I know some quality liquids won't gum up washers (like Meyer's). The really cheap stuff probably will.

 

[mightysparrow]

I was stubbornly using bulk powdered detergent in the small top-loader in my rental apartment for years, but now it is getting difficult to impossible to find the powder in local stores. The liquid detergent gums up the cheap washer in my apartment, so I am reluctantly moving to using pods, although I have not used them yet. One disadvantage of the pods, aside from the much greater cost, became apparent recently, because I am similarly being forced to switch to pods for my dishwasher. My landlord does not turn on the air conditioning until May 1 - which leaves my apartment temperature in the 80s during April. That creates condensation inside the dishwashing detergent pods. It has not so far reduced the detergent pods' effectiveness, but it might at some point. I have not yet opened the box containing the laundry detergent pods, to check for condensation inside those pods, but it is now 84 degrees F in my apartment, so I am concerned about it.

 

[PartyPete]

I was stubbornly using bulk powdered detergent in the small top-loader in my rental apartment for years, but now it is getting difficult to impossible to find the powder in local stores. The liquid detergent gums up the cheap washer in my apartment, so I am reluctantly moving to using pods, although I have not used them yet. One disadvantage of the pods, aside from the much greater cost, became apparent recently, because I am similarly being forced to switch to pods for my dishwasher. My landlord does not turn on the air conditioning until May 1 - which leaves my apartment temperature in the 80s during April. That creates condensation inside the dishwashing detergent pods. It has not so far reduced the detergent pods' effectiveness, but it might at some point. I have not yet opened the box containing the laundry detergent pods, to check for condensation inside those pods, but it is now 84 degrees F in my apartment, so I am concerned about it.

Not sure if condensation will effect the pods but in some cases water temperature will; even with a good laundry pod (Tide and such) a short, cold cycle might fail to dissolve the pod entirely, leaving some residue behind.

They obviously dissolve best in warmer water, but for cold wash you definitely want a longer cycle as I've had several leave a film in my front loader with bits and pieces of pod left over.

Other than that they perform fine, at least the good ones. Tide and Gain always work well for me however I had a terrible expirience years back when Tide Pods first became a thing. I decided to try the pods Arm & Hammer made and regardless of the water temperature or cycle length the pods would just not dissolve in the wash. The clothes smelled weird, big chunks of pod were still present.

I washed a few loads several times with different settings before I realized these things were terrible. But the worst part was a day or two later when I noticed my arms, legs and face started feeling warm and itchy - I ended up with a rash from head to toe from the Arm and Hammer pods.

Usually I don't have sensitive skin either. I switch deodorant, soap, shampoo etc all the time but for whatever reason I was extremely allergic to those particular pods. I use Tide and Gain exclusively now, I definitely don't want a rash like that ever again...

 

[Frijid]

I was stubbornly using bulk powdered detergent in the small top-loader in my rental apartment for years, but now it is getting difficult to impossible to find the powder in local stores. The liquid detergent gums up the cheap washer in my apartment, so I am reluctantly moving to using pods, although I have not used them yet. One disadvantage of the pods, aside from the much greater cost, became apparent recently, because I am similarly being forced to switch to pods for my dishwasher.

I still see the powdered laundry detergent for tide and gain in just about every store around here. Some stores even have their own house brand of it. Some are some brands I've never heard of like aierel and another brand that has a seal on it.

Now dishwasher powder on the other hand I've noticed is scarce.

 

[Frijid]

I washed a few loads several times with different settings before I realized these things were terrible. But the worst part was a day or two later when I noticed my arms, legs and face started feeling warm and itchy - I ended up with a rash from head to toe from the Arm and Hammer pods.

Usually I don't have sensitive skin either. I switch deodorant, soap, shampoo etc all the time but for whatever reason I was extremely allergic to those particular pods. I use Tide and Gain exclusively now, I definitely don't want a rash like that ever again...

Wow that's weird. I wonder if arm and hammer liquid would have the same effect? If so, then it must be a shared active ingredient.

Thankfully, I've never had an allergic reaction to detergent. Only time I've stopped using a detergent is because of its smell. I used to love tide original, but I can't stand it now. Started a few years ago, I noticed it had a different smell. Now the newer one gives me a headache from the perfume smell of it. I smelt a bag of tide pods original and even it smells different from the liquid that they're selling. About the only tide I could tolerate now is like ocean breeze or ocean mist or something like that. I just gave up and went to persil and never looked back.

 

[alpg88]

maybe your machine does not rinse good, ours do not, we have to run them twice, once with soap, another time without.

 

[PartyPete]

Wow that's weird. I wonder if arm and hammer liquid would have the same effect? If so, then it must be a shared active ingredient.

Thankfully, I've never had an allergic reaction to detergent. Only time I've stopped using a detergent is because of its smell. I used to love tide original, but I can't stand it now. Started a few years ago, I noticed it had a different smell. Now the newer one gives me a headache from the perfume smell of it. I smelt a bag of tide pods original and even it smells different from the liquid that they're selling. About the only tide I could tolerate now is like ocean breeze or ocean mist or something like that. I just gave up and went to persil and never looked back.

I really have no idea. Back in my college days doing laundry at the laundromat, I'd often times use the cheapest detergent I could get my hands on with no ill effects. I'm fairly certain I used liquid Arm & Hammer before too, so I guess those particular pods just had some ingredient I was highly allergic to.

But yeah, that was years back and even to this day when it comes to laundry detergent, I stick with a few brands and never switch.

 

[StarHalo]

If you want the scent but don't want to do the laundry:

 

[raggie33]

im pretty sure i saw on tv that kids eat them now. good lord i hope this isnt true. if it is true im truly scared. as a kid no one had to tell me not to eat soap

 

[nbp]

They're teenagers. They're real stupid.

 

[raggie33]

They're teenagers. They're real stupid.

im more stupid now im sure but when i was a kid no kids on my street would eat soap lol. no one had to tell us not to eat soap. but i grew up in a bad area we had no time for being silly we was just trying to survive

 

[nbp]

When you were a kid you didn't gain notoriety by posting videos of your stupidity on the internet.

 

[raggie33]

When you were a kid you didn't gain notoriety by posting videos of your stupidity on the internet.

thats even more of a reason to not do stupid stuff. i mean then everyone knows you are a idiot lol. im a idiot im sure but i try to hide it. but what ever floats your boat who i am to judge when i was 4 i tried to put water wings on my feet and i tried to walk on water

 

[Frijid]

If you want the scent but don't want to do the laundry:

Make the whole house smell like a laundromat lol
I'll have to check it out and see how it smells. I've had people tell me that the original scent is how they've always remembered it, but I swear its not. Kinda like how Mr.pibb now a days tasted different to me than when I remember drinking it in the 90's, and then I later found out they did change the taste and gave it the new name pibb xtra in 2001

 

[Frijid]

Lol I've had the urge to pop them or smash one with a hammer but never had the urge to eat one. If pods are for lazy people, maybe they need pods for toothpaste or bathtubs so lazy people can use them for that.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

When I was a kid, moms would put a bar of soap in your mouth for saying a bad word. Now kids put a Tide pod in their mouths and moms say bad words.

 

[xevious]

thats even more of a reason to not do stupid stuff. i mean then everyone knows you are a idiot lol. im a idiot im sure but i try to hide it. but what ever floats your boat who i am to judge when i was 4 i tried to put water wings on my feet and i tried to walk on water

That's what makes it even more idiotic... they video record themselves eating a tide pod and post it on line to get a laugh... but not only do they miss the fact that people aren't laughing with but AT them, as soon as it gets copied and put into one of those "idiot fails" videos, control is lost and they're on the Internet idiot video circuit for the foreseeable future.

What's even more nuts is that some people made a hoax about kids eating Tide pods, posting it on-line, and then... idiot kids fell for it and went to do it themselves when they'd never have done it in the first place had they not seen the video. So many idiots, not enough Darwin awards.