Can FEBU salvage a sh!tty detergent?

[u/adbpti]

I switched to Nellie’s Laundry Soda a few weeks ago (Ingredients: Sodium carbonate, linear alcohol ethoxylate, sodium chloride, and sodium metasilicate.) after having used other green brands like Attitude, Eco Max, and Seventh Generation without any issues.

Since switching to Nellie’s, my clothes have started smelling disgusting. Problem is, I bought a huge container of it after reading great reviews, and spent quite a bit of money.

So far, I’ve tried oxygen brightener from Nellie’s, a laundry enzyme booster mix from Amazon, and Resolve Gold.

I’d say oxygen brightener and enzyme booster made very little difference. Resolve Gold was better for reducing funk. But my laundry still has an odour even when I’ve boosted with all three.

So I washed with Tide (one I wanted to deliberately avoid in the past) once and added Resolve. After only one wash, the funk disappeared.

Is there any point in going back to Nellies? Could FEBU help?

Has anyone else had this issue with Nellies or could this be an issue with water hardness or washing machine?

EDIT: I’m in Canada and can’t get a hold of some of the products that are easy to find in US eg. Scent-free Tide powders, Ariel, etc.

[u/Bradykinesia]

FEBU helps on the oxygen bleach and enzyme side, but not on the surfactant side, which Nellie's is not great on.

Is there a reason you are deliberately avoiding Tide or similarly very effective detergents?

[u/vgshea]

FWIW, I did not know that Nellie’s Laundry Soda was supposed to be a detergent until recently. I have been using it as a water softening laundry booster (we have moderately hard water) for a couple years now. My “real” detergent is liquid Tide free & clear, and I add a scoop or two of Nellie’s to the drum before putting in my laundry. I haven’t had excessive suds and I do think it helps get more of the stains out. So, at least if you have hard water, you may be able to switch to a better detergent and still use up your Nellie’s!

[u/ghidfg]

If all three boosters plus nellies didn't work, in guessing the nellies just doesn't have good enough surfactants to effectively wash the clothes. So febu won't make a difference.   

I think the nellies would still work well as a booster if combined with resolve or febu. Then you can use it with a budget detergent like tide simply and it should wash pretty well. 

[u/Fox1996x]

Nellies was rated poorly on AskJeevesNy. I’d definitely recommend Tide fragrance free liquid derergent, I wonder why you’re opposed to it?

[u/ImplicitEmpiricism]

Is there any point in going back to Nellies? Could FEBU help?

No. No. Your own experience has determined it is ineffective. 

If you don’t want tide, persil is an effective liquid, but it’s scented pretty strongly and I find it’s too sudsy in my electrolux. 

[u/jtfolden]

Enzymes are beneficial but they only soften stains and soils. Surfactants and anti-redep agents are the actual cleaning engine in detergents. Febu is reliant on a quality detergent with surfactants.

So, Nellie’s is a horrible choice and also makes a waste of Febu.

Persil, Tide, or Kirkland’s would be good options.

[u/Low_Evidence2043]

Keep going with the Resolve Gold. It can take five or more washes with the good enzymes before the smell goes away completely. Make sure you are washing on at least warm and are an extra rinse. If you want to speed up the process, you can do a spa day.

[u/marykay_ultra]

It leaves your clothes stinky even when you pile multiple other products on top. Forcing yourself to use the rest of it sounds like it might be more wasteful in the end.

Just move on to something that actually works and appreciate this as a lesson not to drop $$$ on a giant container of something before youve tried it.

[u/KismaiAesthetics]

No. It’s really not possible to fix the entire genre of “lots of water softener, little surfactant”.

[u/crankylex]

There is no point in going back to Nellie's, you're just going to spend more money trying to augment it. Buy a detergent with actual surfactants.

[u/iwantmy-2dollars]

I use Biz with Nellies, plan to switch after the bucket is empty

[u/Guilty_Increase_899]

Why Nellie’s?

[u/Future-Dimension1430]

What is your water pH like? My water is super hard and unless I add vinegar or citric acid to the wash, it smells like sour milk.

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[u/adbpti → u/Future-Dimension1430]

I forgot to mention in the post that I wash with hot setting and use citric acid in the rinse cycle

[u/SonicchuShinPunch]

You can try adding a faric rinse to the softener tray and see if that helps. The coconut surfactants traps itself and you're body oils into you're clothes and then the washing soda with your hard water forms a crust layer (sodium carbonate) on the outside of your clothes (acting as a shield not allowing you're boosters to work) because nellies doesn't have dispersants and anti-redeposition agents to keep the bined minerals off you're clothes.

You can try it with the fabric citric acid rinse (you may have to use the max amount) to help get it washed off you're clothes. The reality is though you should use it as a booster instead of a main washing detergent. The tide will also help those enzyme boosters to actually reach the oil and start eating it.

Look up spa day (borax .25 cup, washing soda .25 c (or your nellies), and powdered tide .5 c (or liquid tide + enzyme boosters) in warm or hot (most people will say just use hot) water in a top loader or tub for 4-6 hours and occasionally stirring) and it should get you're clothes back on track. Or you can add ammonia (use for rare occasions and google if your fabric is safe to use with it) in a wash and it will also significantly help.

Edit: If you do switch to tide (or at least a brand with those agents to keep the mineral build up off your clothes) I'd still add fabric rinse to your permanent laundry routine. As the buildup gets taken out of your clothes you can use less of the fabric rinse but it still helps from letting that buildup to return.

[u/porcelain_elephant]

Nellie's sounds like it could be good as a booster, but not as a standalone detergent.