I took the Coldwater Challenge....
Written: Feb 21 '05 (Updated Feb 21 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Light scent, works well in cold water
Cons: Colors still fade
The Bottom Line: A fine product that cleans well in cold water.
|
|
|
| xyzwyatt's Full Review: Tide Coldwater |
Thank goodness for washing machines! I do a lot of laundry...four loads every day but who is counting. Today I have come to the shocking realization that I don’t really care about saving money when I do the laundry. I use cold water when I do the laundry and that’s enough of a savings for me. I want a product that is going to clean the best and smell fresh and cheap detergent just doesn’t do that for me.
I stopped using warm and hot water to wash my clothes. I shouldn’t really get credit for it, my washing machine’s handle broke off on cold. Never the less, we use cold water 100% of the time now. I agree that cold water saves money on the electric bill, it saves wear on the clothes, and saves the colors compared to hot water.
Tide is a great product, and I’ve been using their product for over three decades now. I have tried all of their scents and gimmicks over the years and all have been useful for the purpose that they were made for. Tide Coldwater is an example of a product that was designed to solve a problem and does well at the job it was intended for.
Tide, of course, is very secretive about what ingredients are used to make the product and leads one to believe that it is the mixture, not a single ingredient that improves the product. Tide says the following about their product:
“Tide Coldwater is different than regular Tide because the product contains new materials that will aid in typical coldwater challenges such as greasy stain removal and whiteness, while maintaining materials that provide typical cleaning in warmer conditions.”
Tide boasts that this detergent will save $63 a year for 7 loads a week using cold water. I have a problem accepting surveys for what they are. I wonder how much I would save if I used cold water and generic detergent. My thoughts soon drift to the survey being based on only 7 loads of laundry a week because I do that much in 48 hours. Anyway, I’m going to buy the product regardless if it saves money or not because I need a detergent that performs well in cold water.
I have been looking for Tide Coldwater for a month and wasn’t able to find it at any of the stores that I typically shop at. I finally found some on display at Wal-Mart. The display was nearly empty; apparently I wasn’t the only one who had a need for it.
I noticed that the bottle was a different color than other Tide detergents. The bottle was grayish-blue with an orange lid. This makes the product easy to distinguish between other Tide liquids when grabbing it off of my laundry room shelf. The product is in a strong container with a built-in handle that aids in pouring. The orange cap duals as the measuring cup. I find it nearly impossible to find the measuring line inside the cup but I’ve done laundry enough to know how much to add. The spout on the container is funnel shaped which allows the product to pour out in a stream without splashing.
There are already two fragrances to choose from. I chose Fresh Scent over Glacier. Tide is really marketing this product heavily. I signed up for the Coldwater challenge and have received many emails about it but still haven’t received my free sample. Their website, www.tide.com, also spends a lot of space marketing this new product. This is the first product that Proctor and Gamble has introduced that is designed especially for cold water. They seem pretty confident that this will be as great as they advertise.
I agree that their new product works better in cold water than original Tide, but it's not amazing yet. I do not believe that color fading has improved at all with this product. I seem to have a greater problem now with my darks loosing colors and bleeding on the occasional light-color item that gets mixed with the darks however I've been able to get the the faded mark out in the next wash.
“THE” biggest problem that I have using Tide detergent and cold water in the past is that it doesn’t get out mildew. Unfortunately, very hot water is required to kill mildew. Even a hot dryer is not hot enough to kill it. This product seems to be a little better than traditional Tide at addressing Mildew however I still find at least 2 washes required to remove the smell of Mildew.
I was very impressed with the cleaning ability of Tide Coldwater on my whites. My son…he’s quite a challenge. He uses his shirt as a napkin and I typically have to use Tide with Bleach on his shirts. I have given up on his socks and dont even bother with bleaching those and have noticed that they are starting to look like normal socks without any extra attention! I carefully looked at my son's shirts before grading this product. I was shocked to find that 100% of the spots on his clothes were removed with one wash.
The only thing that I have noticed is that grease from food still does not come out completely although Coldwater does remove more of it than traditional Tide. I'm not sure if Tide was referring to grease like from cars or grease like from steaks when they said that it removes grease better than the original Tide.
I have been happy with how my laundry comes out of my dryer. I don’t see much static cling and no wrinkling if removed from the dryer in a timely fashion. The smell is extremely faint and a little disappointing. The fragrance is fresh but short lived. I find no scent at all by the time I wear a recently washed item.
Lack of fragrance is not always a bad thing. I am able to use this detergent on sheets and pillow cases and they come clean quite nicely. My family can not sleep on sheets that were washed with Tide with Bleach or A Touch of Downy so I will continue to use this product for linens if nothing else. It is gentle enough from my girls with sensitive skin. I have not seen any allergic reactions from anyone in our family from changing to this detergent which is actually pretty unusual.
Tide calls their product Coldwater however is not limited to cold water. The detergent can also be used effectively in warm and hot water. It should be noted that fading will still occur while using this product in cold water so sorting colored laundry will still be necessary. I’m not sure if it is my imagination or not but it seems like I have had a lot more fading since I’ve started using this product on darks.
Overall I think this is a very good product that works just as well, if not better, than or original Tide. It has a very faint scent and can be used on colors or whites. The product is still safe to use with other things that you may add to your laundry such as bleach or fabric softener for times when you need it.
If you like Tide you may also like:
Tide with a Touch of Downy
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
xyzwyatt
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Location: Nashville, TN
Reviews written: 542
Trusted by: 171 members
About Me:
Be a coffee-drinking individual - espresso yourself!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.