“45% less plastic and 75% less water!”

But the product they are comparing it to has 90% more detergent…

EDIT: Thank you for pointing the error of my ways, guys.

This article cleared up some misconceptions I had. TIL, there’s way more water in liquid detergent than you’d think!

  • CyberSeeker@discuss.tchncs.de
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    4 days ago

    Explain your thought process here, how did you arrive at the larger bottle being 90% more detergent? It’s EXPLICITLY clear that the concentration is higher in the smaller bottle.

    You could complain about the form factor or lack of precision in dosing loads using the higher concentration, but “detergent” is mostly water, which they clearly said they reduced by 75% (same solute, with less water/solvent = higher concentration).

    Quick search and going by what it says on the label, the cost per load has not significantly changed, a little more than half a penny’s difference:

    Ultra Concentrated (left) $15/60 loads = $0.25/load https://mrsmeyers.com/collections/laundry/products/ultra-concentrated-laundry-detergent-rain-water?variant=50673207640338

    Standard (right) $18/74 loads = $0.2432/load https://mrsmeyers.com/collections/laundry/products/ultra-concentrated-laundry-detergent-rain-water?variant=50673207640338

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.caOP
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      4 days ago

      how did you arrive at the larger bottle being 90% more detergent?

      24.3 oz vs 64oz. When I say “detergent”, I’m talking about the product itself, not the specific ingredient, which isn’t listed by a means from which to compare them by.

      It’s EXPLICITLY clear that the concentration is higher in the smaller bottle.

      Explicitly??? You’d only know because you can compare the two bottles. But someone shopping would see the same brand, same coloured bottle, same label, but smaller size (at nearly the same price). The marketing only focused on plastic and water, which to me, seem to benefit the manufacturer more than the consumer (lower shipping costs while selling at the same price per load).

      Why not match the load amount per bottle if you are marketing this as a better replacement from what they offered before?

        • Showroom7561@lemmy.caOP
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          4 days ago

          I’ve already corrected my OP and admitted to my overreaction.

          But…

          Is the text “ULTRA CONCENTRATED” not clear?

          No, it’s not. That’s a marketing buzzword.

          “Ultra concentrated” means absolutely nothing to a consumer without knowing more, like how is concentration level determined in this product? How does it compare with other liquid laundry detergents? And how does it compare to their 64oz version?

          Whirlpool says that most brands list the concentration level on the bottles in the form of 1x, 2x, 3x, etc., but that’s not on the bottles in the OP.

          All we know that we get less volume, fewer loads, and a slightly higher price per load.

          Less plastic? Sure, but with fewer loads in the bottle, it’s not an equal comparison from the start.

          That’s like saying, “our ‘ultra compact’ size 8 shoes use less rubber compared to our size 11 shoes!”. 🤔

  • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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    4 days ago

    Does it have less detergent? The company we used to use, before switching to powder, did this. But it was the same amount of detergent, less water. They updated the amount you should use per load with the change.

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.caOP
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      4 days ago

      If it does, they really need to make that more obvious! The smaller one is “ultra concentrated”, but is it more expensive per load? Is the assumption that someone who used to buy the larger bottle would even know that the smaller one is “better”?

        • Showroom7561@lemmy.caOP
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          4 days ago

          If you were using the larger bottle, would you know that the smaller one had more loads? You’d only know that it uses “less plastic” (per load, not per volume).

          • Fluffy_Ruffs@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            lol this thinking right here contributes to the problem. “The bigger bottle HAS to be better, right?”.

            If people would stop and read to see what they’re spending their money on, we wouldn’t be buying larger quantities of mostly water-based products in favor of more concentrated versions.

          • Devadander@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            Yes of course, why wouldn’t you? Again, it is clearly printed on the label, next to the name. You’re trying very hard to make this an issue but it’s really not.