Ecover new concentrated laundry liquid review

I’ve been a fan of Ecover laundry products for many years.

I admit to using way before “green” was trendy and “eco” was in everyday vocabulary and I didn’t find the stuff very good. But times have changed, improvements have been made and I’ve been a loyal user of Ecover laundry powder.

I use biological powder at the moment because Little Miss Green is a tree climbing, stream paddling mud magnet. Combine that with our hard water and non biological products don’t shift a thing. I’m not after the ‘Persil white’ look, but something resembling an item that has been washed is nice!

Concentrated detergent

I was thrilled to hear that Ecover had bought out a concentrated range of their laundry liquid; including a biological one! This new concentrated product range uses 54% less packaging than Ecover’s regular 1.5L Laundry Liquid. Each bottle is 750mls and you use one to one-and-a-half caps of liquid per load, depending on water hardness. Each cap is 35mls.

Fragrance

I’m very fussy and hard to please when it comes to fragrance, but Ecover’s ‘Under the Sun’ fragrance gets the thumbs up from me. To be honest, if you are able to line dry clothes, most of the smell dissipates and you’re left with a lovely mix of sunshine and wind on your clothing straight from nature’s apothecary.

Ease of use

The liquid is simple to use: measure out your dose in the cap and add to the machine dispenser. The cap is non drip and the liquid is thick enough so it doesn’t spill.

Packaging disposal

The bottles are made from HDPE (code number 2) which is one of the most widely recycled plastics. Around here, we can put any number 1 or number 2 bottle in at our bring banks. I don’t know if Ecover have plans to offer refills, but hopefully, some refill stations will start offering this product once there is demand for it.

Washing results

This is the first time I’ve ever used a laundry liquid and I was really pleased with the results. I’ve been using this product for three weeks now, so it’s had the full range of everyday stains to deal with – blood, egg, mud, tomato, grease… The most amazing difference, and one which I was not expecting is that our fabrics seem much softer. This is a great ‘side effect’ and one which brings a lot of relief to Little Miss Green who has always said her clothes feel as if they are made of cardboard! I would be interested to hear what Ecover have to say about this – does their laundry powder leave a residue that makes clothes feel harder?

Value for money

750mls costs £5.69 which Ecover tell me is enough for 21 washes at 27p per wash. For me, with hard water, I’ll get 14 washes which is 41p per wash.

Room for improvement

I have one issue with this product which is there are no instructions on the bottle to tell me whether I should put the liquid direct into the machine, in a dosing ball or into the machine dispenser. I only found the information (you put it into the machine dispenser) after reading a press release.

Verdict

I’m giving this product 4 out of 5 and will definitely be using it in favour of the Ecover Biological laundry powder. I am concerned that I will be giving up cardboard packaging (easily recycled) in favour of packaging that cannot yet be refilled, so I hope demand for these products grow and refills come online soon. I will also need to plan to buy a couple of months supply from Waitrose to make this a practical product for me to use as I don’t use this shop on a weekly basis.

I would suggest Ecover change their directions for use to make it clear WHERE you put the liquid in order to improve the user friendliness.

The smell is great (big relief to me!) and the added and unexpected bonus of softer clothes gets a big thumbs up from us all at Chez Green. Naturally, I’m delighted to be using a product that is effective without harmful effects on the environment or my family’s health.