Why is washing power more expensive than liquid?

[BoraBora]

Is it better?

I'd say it's because it does more loads. It would be interesting to compare prices per load.

Liquid is better for the long term effects on your washing machine itself.

It's more expensive per wash...that's why I wondered whether it was actually better!

I use smart price powder which does the job and is definitely cheaper than liquid!

Probably because the companies realise that with powder people are more likely to guess the amount / under dose so it lasts longer.

Ha! I know this.

People don't want to use grey mucky powder to make their washing clean.
So they coat the powder with a layer of titanium oxide which is pure white to make it.look bright and white and clean.
Titanium oxide is ridiculously expensive.

I normally buy it when it is on offer and refuse to pay full price for it. Powder keeps the drum cleaner than liquid due to the bleaches in it.

oh, I never knew anything about this. MN at its best

Interesting!

Poltergoose is spot on. I used an environmentally friendly non bio powder for years as DD had eczema. After reading somewhere that bio powder wasn't the evil stuff I thought it was I switched to Ariel Bio. DD's eczema has disappeared.

Bio powders do have oxygen based bleaching agents in them (just checked the boxes of bold 2 in 1 and the persil I have in the kitchen!). Powders for colours dont have the bleaching agents but bog standard bio powder does - as well as the enzymes.

thats ok because I dont use non-bio anyway - doesnt clean as well as bio

That's interesting as I have v bad eczema and my dr has advised using non bio but I gave had better results on my skin with soap flakes. But they don't clean very well.

I use Fairy conditioner and an extra rinse. The difference it had made to DD's skin has been astonishing.

I suspect that using bio powder has killed off the nasties lurking in my washer so maybe that accounts for the improvement in DD's skin.

Biological and non biological often have optical brighteners in. My dd eczema doesn't tolerate this, however it is found in many 'sensitive' branded washing products. Many other eczema sufferers find that these products are ok. I am happy now I know what my dd is sensitive too, so I can read the ingredients.

I think the best advice wrt machine life, and also build- up of product in clothes is not to stick to the same product endlessly.

Titanium dioxide, hey? Interesting.

I didn't know that ISeeSmallPeople. Thanks for the tip.

I use bio powder and do hot washes regularly (obv not for every load) and my machine never smells.

Washing machine engineer told me to always use powder, not liquid.

I thought the big box powder was much cheaper per wash last. Time I looked. It just takes us more space in our dinky kitchen. I was advised non bio and no conditioner forexcema . . .was that wrong? Would love to go back to bio!

petgiraffe
for excema it's trial and error, I'm afraid.
extra rinse is always good, some people with eczema also do better with a mild softener (as it softens the fibres/makes them less scratchy), others don't.
it's always a good idea to get a powder with the least additives anyway...

Powder is better for the machine (less build up of sludge) and more effective at cleaning and killing germs (bio powder contains bleach, liquid cannot contain bleach for one reason or another).

On the continent there often isn't a difference between bio and no-bio (almost everything is biological), however, there doesn't seem to be a bigger problem with eczema. My dh has got eczema, in the UK we used non-bio, now we use bio and it doesn't seem to make a difference. However, I only use one scoop of powder and then add one scoop of Oxy Vanish plus I always use the long program (so lots of rinsing involved).

Dikker. I had terrible trouble finding enzyme and optical brigtener free products in Spain and Germany, but after scouring the supermarkets I did find them.

Some people are sensitive to some of the ingredients in washing products, But gp's seem to give out blanket advice that people should change to non bio, which is not always helpful.