Dirty laundry

My washing machine went on permanent strike last week. It didn't come as a surprise, since I don't remember the last time a load spun properly. But of course I had just changed all the beds in the house to get ready for Christmas so the mountain of laundry was immediately taller than I am (and growing exponentially every day since). All kinds of awesome.

Buying a new washer has been something of an education. Not only about how the new fancy machines work, but also about detergent. I don't mind, what with all this free time I have not doing laundry, and it's a natural topic for SMACK! Let's dive in.

GoodGuide rates laundry soap here. Method takes home top scores in the health category for all their laundry detergents as does Ecos Free & Clear Laundry Detergent and a few sets from Caldrea and Ecover Laundry Powder. ALL scrapes the bottom of the barrel with a health score of '0' on 15 of the 22 worst-rated products. Ouch.

EWG uses letter grades instead of numerical rankings for household cleaners. Their list of laundry products is here, with only 70 products out of 678 -- barely 10% -- receiving an 'A' or 'B' grade. EWG awards top marks to Ecover, Seventh Generation and Dr. Bronner's. Products from Green Shield, Nature Clean and Whole Foods round out the head of the class, all with 'A' grades.

A surprising entry to EWG's worst rated products was Green Works, which is made by the Clorox Company. It's a great example of 'greenwashing' -- that thing where marketing and labeling take advantage of terms like 'naturally derived' to convince consumers of a product's safety. Most of the popular store brands (Tide, ALL, Wisk, Arm & Hammer) have products with failing grades. It's a grim outlook on the market.

The higher-end front loading washing machines feature the very trendy steam cleaning and sanitizing. You're kind of boiling your clothes. Electrolux claims that its steam sanitizing cycle kills 99.9% of bacteria. If that's true, it means a very safe alternative to using bleach. Love it.

How does your detergent clean up? Me, I'll be looking for a new HE product to go with the new space age washer/dryer set we're buying. OF COURSE I'll share an in-depth review, because I love to try new things!

Yours in week-old sweats,
-- Jazzy