washing powders

[schoolmaam]

When I bought my house I was told by previous owner to use Ecover washing powder and fabric softener in the washing machine. Since using this product my whites have turned grey and the cling is well into my petticoats!!! Can anyone suggest alternatives? I have always used Fairy or Daz in the past and Lenor or Comfort.....can these products do any damage? We intend to use Eparcyl (a French product that you can buy on Ebay) and have the tank emptied annually.

I have always used Bio powder e.g. Persil, Ariel, etc and fabric condiioner. Do damage to what? What tank are you talking about too?

ah, you mean a septic tank (just googled what eparcyl was!). I have no experience with them so cant really help, sorry

Sorry, should have said it was a septic tank....so distressed about the colour of my whites my thinking mechanism has gone awol!

Have you tried ecover laundry bleach? We use this and it gets whites white again. I usually add it to whote washes and heavily soiled colours. It will take a couple of goes if your whites are currently grey but it does work. Most of their products are ok with septic tanks - you might want to double check though. Or you could soak your whites in a strong solution of soda crystals and then wash as usual.

Thanks for that...I haven't tried the laundry bleach but I will. Fingers crossed!

We have a septic tank and I always use Ariel for whites - I don't see why using it would cause any adverse problems - and I reckon my DH would have stopped me using it if there was a problem as he understands the whole workings of the tank.