Ok, I am finally down to the last two detergents on my laundry shelf from when I went on an ordering bender. I am almost finished with Planet Powdered Laundry Detergent and have a jug of Charlies for the next round.
So anyway, on to Planet.
Planet is an eco-friendly laundry detergent I have always avoided just because it only came with 20 loads in the box. However, they sell it at my local co-op and also on vine.com, so I decided to give it a go. First off, it seems cheap until you see the 20 loads label. This is deceiving because it makes it seem pricey. Well if you take a closer look at the box, the recommended amount per load is FOUR ounces. That is four times more detergent than most boutique brands recommend! So if you used the single ounce so many other green brands suggest, you would actually get 80 loads, which is more than those boutique brands offer per unit for a standard washing machine. When looking at cost per ounce, Planet suddenly looks quite cheap.
But, how well does it clean?
I decided to start off with the full four ounces for diapers and regular laundry so that I could get the results Planet intended. It worked great. Everything was extremely clean and I would expect as much after using four ounces of detergent. I slowly tapered down the amount to just two ounces per load and still got good results with our hard water. Since two ounces is usually the amount I use with other detergents, that seemed fair and even gives Planet an edge as a more affordable green detergent per load. I see the 20 load box at various places for anywhere from $6 to $12. I would hunt around. You can even find it on Amazon.
Planet Powder Detergent Ingredients:
- Sodium Chloride (mineral flow agent and carrier)
- Sodium Carbonate (mineral alkalinity adjuster and water softener)
- Laureth-7 (plant-based cleaning agent)
- Sodium Laureth Sulfate (plant-based cleaning agent)
- Corn Starch (plant-based flow agent)
- Sodium Tetraborate Pentahydrate (mineral stabilizer)
- Sodium Silicate (mineral corrosion inhibitor)
- Cellulose Gum (plant-based anti-redeposition agent)
- Hydrated Silica (mineral flow agent and stabilizer)
Planet is free of dyes, perfumes, or brighteners. It is also cloth diaper safe.
Honestly after figuring out the real cost per load with some tweaking, Planet comes out a little better than a lot of pricey detergents you can only find online. I am glad I finally gave it a chance!