Which works best: laundry powder or detergent?

Standing in the aisle of any supermarket laundry section and you’ll be greeted by colourful packaging all screaming for your attention.

From stain-busting capsules to heavily scented detergents all promising exceptional cleaning power and long-lasting fragrance, it can be difficult to know which one to choose for your laundry needs.

To help you make the right choice, we put laundry powder head to head with detergents to see which gives the better cleaning power and offers the best value for money.

Laundry Powder

Laundry powders generally tend to perform better of fresh stains and general day to day dirt and grime build up making it an excellent choice for busy families that get through a lot of washing every week.  From ground in stains on football kits to food stains from the dinner table, if you can get it in the wash quickly, then laundry powders tend to perform very well indeed in this respect.

However, make sure that you stick to the recommended load amount when adding powder to your machine or you could end up with a faint white residue on darker garments if you go overboard with the amount you throw into your machine and you’ll also end up shelling out much more for extra powder too!

Another thing to watch out for is the laundry powder draw which if not cleaned out on a regular basis can become clogged up with powder residues and stop your machine working properly.

Laundry Detergent

Perfect for more eco-conscious shoppers, laundry detergents are ideal for washing machines that use less water as the liquid foams, washes and rinses away with less water than traditional powders.

They also take up less space in your cleaning cupboard too and have easy to recycle packaging too, but can come with a slightly more expensive price tag due to their array of tempting scents that laundry companies know we’re all partial too.

In terms of performance, standard detergents are suitable for lightly soiled loads and stains but need a little extra help when it comes to ground in stains that may prove a little harder to lift.

If you’re guilty of overindulging in the amount of laundry detergent you add into your machine, you might want to consider capsules instead that have a dissolvable layer as they are quick, convenient and stop us tipping in far more detergent than we actually need for that quick mid-week wash.