Cloth Diapering Cloth Diapers Washing

Move Over Tide, There’s a New Cloth Diaper Detergent in Town – Persil

Persil Detergent and #Clothdiapers via @chgdiapers

Oh hey, thanks for stopping by to read this. Just wanted to mention that I paid for these products myself and I wasn’t asked to write, nor was I compensated for this post in any way. Cloth diaper detergent is an important issue for me and I just wanted to share. All opinions are my own! 🙂

Washing cloth diapers can be a hot button issue, and choosing a cloth diaper detergent is a polarizing subject. I’ve been a loyal Tide user for 5 of my 5 1/2 years of cloth diapering and weathered the change to the Ultra formula and Tide with Actilift. So what made me break up with Tide? The recent scent change, which they denied to me but confirmed to others. I even tried opening the box to air it out but I just couldn’t do it. Sorry Tide, you had to go. I tried Gain but it wasn’t love. I’d heard a lot about Persil Pro Clean Power Pearls and decided to give it a try. Move over Tide, there’s a new cloth diaper detergent in my laundry room!

I read a bunch of reviews of Persil laundry detergent (affiliate link) on Amazon (FYI there is one seller of the U.S. version of the detergent on Amazon, but the price is $30 for a bottle half the size of the one I bought at Wal Mart for nearly half the price) did some research and found that it’s been a beloved brand in Europe since 1907. Persil is made by Henkel, sold by Unilever in some countries and according to Wikipedia, Miele imports it into the U.S. and Canada as the recommended (and expensive) detergent for its washers.

Persil ProClean is available exclusively at WalMart in the U.S. via Unilever. I’m not a fan of the store; I’m more of a Target (affiliate link) gal. (Below is what my husband says applies to me. No way, I love Target!)

Target Humor

My husband and kids love the place, so my husband brought home a bottle for me. It is a “pearl” format in a liquid type bottle, though they also have a liquid version, a sensitive formula liquid, and power caps that are suitable for standard and HE machines.

persil power pearls ingredients

I tried the original scent, and I find that it is a pleasant, light scent, much more mild than even the old Tide scent. After washing & drying a light scent remains but it is not overwhelming. Best of all, my clothes (and my cloth diapers) are clean. A 75 load bottle was $17.97 (19 cents per ounce), the same price as a 102 load box of Tide Original powder (12.6 cents per ounce), making it considerably more expensive but still within my current budget.

I’ve also found that the pearls are mess free, not leaving dust and/or spilled bits like always seemed to happen with powder or liquids. Keep your eye on Coupons.com (affiliate link) for $3 printable coupons.

I won’t be going back to Tide (though I’d consider it if they changed the scent back)! Have you tried Persil?


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Maria
Maria is an aspiring "fit mom" of 3 children, writing about cloth diapers, going green, and her life as a single mom. Maria works with many companies within the cloth diaper industry and beyond, providing social media management, product development, and other services.
27 Comments
  • Meaghen
    May 2, 2016 at 11:52 pm
    Reply

    I don’t know why all the dissing the TIDE smell, Tide now has more Calgon/Water Softener in it when I open up Tide that’s what I smell the smell of Calgon Water softener. Considering how Calgon has been taken out of the market in Canada in the last few months, where I live and we have Hard water I like the Calgon Smell and the cleaness of Tide. Persil passed free samples out in Costco- but Tide Ultra HE Powder is still cheaper especially when it is on coupon at Costco. I am sticking to Tide Ultra Powder for my cloth needs. Do agree that Tide is someone like Ariel- tried Ariel while vacationing Europe and the Caribbean works wonders on diapers too. I would never use Vezeer(worst German detergent out there/discolours colours.

  • Rita
    February 27, 2016 at 12:31 am
    Reply

    I have been using persil sensitive for some yrs now. It is a big company in this region. I just started cloth diapering and was wondering if this was good to use. Now I know. Thanks alot.

  • April 17, 2015 at 11:54 am
    Reply

    I read that Proctor and Gamble controls about 60% of the detergent market, and that gives them the upper hand in their relationship with Wal-Mart. Very telling that the big box store has introduced a worthy competitor on its own shelves!

    • April 17, 2015 at 12:50 pm
      Reply

      Yes when I was so mad about the Tide scent change I thought to myself, well what do they care? More than likely I’ll be replacing it with another P&G product! Thankfully not!

  • April 14, 2015 at 4:07 pm
    Reply

    I think we just got a sample of this randomly in the mail. Maybe I’ll try it. I usually use F&C Tide. God knows after 3 weeks of tummy bug we could use a clean up and some refreshing. Blech.

  • Melinda
    April 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm
    Reply

    The ladies over at the Fluff Love & CD Science group on Facebook seem to love Persil for their cloth.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/FluffLoveCDScience/?fref=ts

  • Denise
    April 11, 2015 at 11:42 pm
    Reply

    What Tide did was switch boxes. so now the mountain Fresh scent is in the original box and the original is in the Mountain Fresh box. Get a mountain fresh and you will see it’s the original scent. Btw picked up the Persil today and so far am not a fan of the scent and my diapers felt a little rough after being washed with it. Gonna use up the bottle and see if I begin to like it.

    • April 12, 2015 at 7:52 am
      Reply

      Well jeez, are they just trying to frustrate their entire customer base? Wish there was a way to know if the boxes in my store were the old or the new mountain fresh!

  • Cassandra Rae
    April 11, 2015 at 10:50 pm
    Reply

    I will have to look for it in Canada at my local Walmart!

    • April 11, 2015 at 11:02 pm
      Reply

      I think it may just be the U.S. now but it’s still VERY new here so hopefully it will be in Canada soon! 🙂

  • April 11, 2015 at 9:50 pm
    Reply

    i had the opportunity to review Persil on my regular laundry and was thinking about trying it on cloth because like you Tide has been getting on my scent nerves. So happy to hear you’ve had success with it on your diapers I will definitely be making the switch now

    • April 11, 2015 at 10:01 pm
      Reply

      Did you like it on your regular laundry? I am digging it so far on everything! 🙂

      • April 11, 2015 at 10:04 pm
        Reply

        Oh my gosh I love it! It is seriously my favorite detergent. It does an amazing job and the smell really is awesome. Even with my extremely sensitive pregnant nose.

  • Vicki Hall
    April 11, 2015 at 8:40 pm
    Reply

    I just bought a small bottle of the liquid original scent haven’t tried it yet .

    • April 11, 2015 at 11:03 pm
      Reply

      Report back how you like it. I seem to not like liquids as much since using cloth even though I used to always use liquid!

      • vicki hall
        April 11, 2015 at 11:27 pm
        Reply

        I wanted to get a small bottle to make sure we aren’t allergic to it I wanted the powder but it didn’t come in the small bottle I’ll let every one know how it works .

  • christin
    April 11, 2015 at 8:05 pm
    Reply

    nah I am fed up with current detergent and was looking for something new just never been happy with anything yet

  • christin
    April 11, 2015 at 5:16 pm
    Reply

    I was thinking of trying it the other day, but the cloth diapers is what held me back, was not willing to risk something new and ruin them but if others have tried it I may when I get soap next

    • April 11, 2015 at 5:35 pm
      Reply

      I’m a big believer in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If what you have is working for you, stick with it. 🙂 I just couldn’t deal with the new Tide scent anymore (gave it several boxes to see if I got used to it!) so I was looking for something new!

  • April 11, 2015 at 12:28 pm
    Reply

    So, I’m curious, is it truly cloth safe? I wonder how it will compare over time and if it will cause any residue build up? I’ve had mild success with Tide but find better results with soap nuts, so I have no love affair with Tide except that I can buy it at my grocery store instead of ordering online. I’m always paranoid about using traditional “non-CD safe” detergents.

    • April 11, 2015 at 3:05 pm
      Reply

      At this point it’s purely anecdotal but I’ve been using mainstream detergent for 5 1/2 years with no ill effects and other families (such as the owners of Abby’s Lane) have been doing so for more than a decade. Several brands actually recommend use of mainstream detergents, and I have yet to see ANY evidence that they will harm diapers.

  • April 11, 2015 at 11:38 am
    Reply

    Persil and Ariel are two top brands in Europe, where I’m from. We often use it back home, but here we have been using Tide. I JUST stocked up on Tide, though, so this Persil will have to wait (several months!) for me to give it a try! 🙂

    • April 11, 2015 at 11:57 am
      Reply

      That’s what I was finding, that Persil & Ariel are the premium brands in Europe. So glad to get to use it here in the U.S. now! 🙂

      • sandra
        February 27, 2016 at 5:14 pm
        Reply

        well, Ariel=Tide. And Dawn=Fairy Ultra

  • April 11, 2015 at 12:00 am
    Reply

    Fascinating, I haven’t ever heard of that detergent before! But good to know about!

    • April 11, 2015 at 8:20 am
      Reply

      The press release was from March so I think it’s still trickling into stores. Especially since it’s only in Wal Mart not everyone would have seen it!

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