If only the private citizenry could think of a workaround for this problem.
Your getting presoaked
This is stupid as hell. As a consumer you are responsible for you what you... consume. If I have dirty clothes I use more I don’t let the manufacturer determine how much soap I use.
I trashed some sensor on our new HE tub after less than a year filling it up to the “3” line. The “suds sensor” blew out. Was able to order on-line and fix myself, but still almost $100 iirc.
I fill it to the bottom line, “1” and call it good. A website called “appliance guru” has the skinny on this and all the repairs.
If using those caps is too hard, get a clear measuring cup that you can easily read, to make your measurements.
I saw a study a while back that said that profits were down because of the detergent pods. Consumers don’t over-use with the pods.
With the varying types of water around the country there really is no "perfect" amount of detergent to use...what they recommend is far more than needed in most cases. In some locales special additives are needed to make the detergent work due to minerals in the water.
FWIW, I have always used about half of the prescribed amount; it's more than enough for even the "dirtiest" load of laundry in most parts of the country.
That's why they came up with the "pod" thing; wildly profitable because you cannot skimp on the usage.
There’s some sleazy lawer somewhere preparing the class action lawsuit as we speak.
So this is why I keep flooding my laundry room with soap suds. I can’t read the line so I end up pouring the entire bottle into my washer. Maybe I can sue!
Pods bump. I use the Tide brand. Do a good job.
They could get really tricky and put the markings in US/English Units and the instructions in Metric. :0)
The fact that adding “line of contrasting color” is at least one, and likely 2 or more additional manufacturing steps. As a result, it requires additional machinery and material, and thus raises costs in a business where profit margins are tight and consumers easily move to less-expensive brands.
AKA “economics”. . .
The new HE detergents are enzyme based cleansers. Adding too much won’t effect how clean your clothes get. What adding too much will do is make your washing machine smell like a bag of dirty gym clothes.
Another gotcha. Many of the HE liquids are concentrated. Some take as little as a tablespoon per load.
At the end of this discovery process, we switched to the pre-measured liquid pods. We use All. Very reasonable price and no more smelly washer.
I don’t use the measuring cup. I pour a small amount directly from the bottle, and it’s clearly much less than the recommended amount. Unless my clothes are truly dirty, there’s not need to use a lot of detergent. They never come out smelling bad or looking dirty.
I agree with the article. Manufacturers want us to use as much detergent as possible. It’s not necessarily dishonest, because people would also complain if the recommended amount was too small to reliably wash very dirty clothing. The manufacturer has to recommend enough to guarantee good, clean results in nearly all cases. That doesn’t mean I have to follow their advice.
Just about every product has a team of people behind it trying to chisel an extra penny of profit. Constant vigilance from the ever shrinking coffee can to cheesy tires on a new car that used to have a 5MPH bumper. Freedom isn’t free.
Sun rises in east, update at eleven!
No fix for stupid but companies sure know how to leverage it....
I mark it with a Sharpie, like several others here, after having tested to see how much it takes to make the clothes look and smell clean. That mark is for a full load of normal-use clothes, and it’s about an eighth of a cap.
Camping, hunting, yard work, and similar activities require a different amount, and I have no doubt that I overuse occasionally for those loads. I also under-use occasionally and have to wash some items a second time. I’m okay with both errors.
The few times when I do the laundry, I always fill the caps to the very brim. Was I doing wrong? No wonder my wife hates it when I do the laundry.