Review: Country Save Laundry Detergent

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By Bryana ⋅ April 27, 2009 ⋅

Country Save Powdered Laundry Detergent Reviewed

If you are one of the many asking “Does Country Save Powdered Laundry Detergent work?”, this review is for you. I’ll cut to the chase…Country Save Powdered Laundry Detergent really works. Recommended by Happy Heiny’s and many other cloth diaper manufacturers, this dye free, perfume free, and most importantly, residue free detergent does the trick.

In my online cloth diaper store I offer many modern cloth diapers; these diapers are sewn from extremely soft, super absorbent, ultra-trim fabrics like micro-fleece. Though micro-fleece is fabulous for its stay-dry capabilities, it is also a synthetic fabric with very small…well…micro channels that can easily clog with detergents. When these micro channels become clogged with detergents, odors can embed (yes, even in freshly washed cloth diapers), cloth diapers may lose their absorbency and the detergent residue can irritate baby’s skin, leading to diaper rash.

I am a huge fan of diapers that contain “micro fibers” – my favorite being Fuzzi Bunz. For years (a 5 year cloth diaper journey with 2 children back-to-back in cloth diapers) I dealt with my fair share of stinky diapers and diaper rash with my HE front loading machine. The wash routine became a huge science experiment as I tried to put together the right combination of wash cycles, detergents, and the amount of detergent I should use. I don’t think I ever really got it right. Still, I could not bear to part with my favorite pocket diapers and other styles of “stay dry” cloth diapers.

After reading several great reviews about Country Save Powdered Laundry Detergent, I decided to give it a try – though I was not wildly excited to have to buy something I could not find locally.

When it arrived I put it to the test, washing my daughter’s mattress pads. These mattress pads are made from the same materials found in the modern cloth diapers in my store; PUL, microfiber, and microfleece. I have struggled to get these mattress pads odor free for quite some time. Since I have a HE washer, I used 1/4 scoop in a hot wash. When I pulled the mattress pad from the wash, giving it the good ol’ sniff check, it didn’t smell too bad. However, once I pulled it from the dryer and sniffed it again, the odor was still there.

EEWWW…nope, didn’t do it.

Back in the washer it went for another go’round.

Now, I know that I’m supposed to be the “cloth diaper washing expert” but sometimes a girl’s gotta stumble. When it comes to cloth diapers and detergent, my recommendation has always been “less is more”. It took a second wash with a full scoop of detergent (which would normally be equal to four cloth diaper wash loads in a HE machine) and an added extra rinse cycle, to get the result I wanted.

After the wash cycle was finished I sniffed and the mattress pad smelled fresh. After the dryer completed, they were just as fresh! They didn’t stink! I was THRILLED the smell was gone.

I reminded myself not to get too excited because I knew Country Save would only prove itself if, in the following weeks, the odor didn’t return to the mattress pad.

Guess what? The odor did NOT reappear.

It has been months now since I switched my family over to Country Save Powdered Laundry Detergent for all our family wash. And the stink issues? GONE.

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Discussion

3 comments for “Review: Country Save Laundry Detergent”

Great post and so timely for me because I too use pocket diapers and find that they retain odor more than others. I am curious now that you have switched to Country Save Laundry Detergent how much do you put in your HE machine for your regular laundry and for diapers? I am still trying to figure out a good washing routine for my cloth diapers. I wash every two days and I have tried several different detergents and rinse aids (Bac-Out and Simple Green). I just never get that smells fresh smell from them. I think that I am so used to scented detergent that it is hard for me to get the concept that they can be clean without having a scent. I don’t know. I would love any advice on washing cloth diapers in an HE machine with the Country Save detergent (I actually just switched over to this two weeks ago). I am still experimenting with right amount to use, especially for diapers. Thanks for the great blog post.

Comment # 1 | Posted by Jen D. | April 27, 2009, 3:37 pm
I think many parents have a hard time determining a clean smell without a scent. I even think it is sometimes hard to determine a clean smell even coming out of the washer. Sometimes you don’t smell it until it comes out of the dryer or until the baby has wet in the diaper again.

The downfall to washing in an HE machine is that because it uses less water detergent can easily build up in the fibers depending on the detergent used. When we wash diapers in our HE washer, I would use a Whitest Whites cycle and add a prewash to it. If you do not have a Whitest Whites cycle, choose a heavy duty hot wash load, add a second rinse and a prewash to it. After many trials I found that putting the detergent in the prewash section of your dispenser rather than the regular wash section seemed to work better as it had one extra rinse cycle to get all the detergent out.

I generally wash other clothing items wit our mattress pads so I have been using the ½ scoop of Country Save which is the full recommended amount for clothes in a HE washer but double the recommended amount for diapers. If you decide to give Country Save a try, I would recommend starting with the ¼ scoop but up it if needed.

Hope this helps!

Comment # 2 | Posted by Bryana | April 28, 2009, 1:56 pm
Glad to know you found the right detergent for your laundry needs. It just worries me that people now use regular detergents instead of HE detergents for front load washers. This might speed up the deterioration of your front load washer. In addition to ensuring the cleanliness of your clothes, make sure you treat your washer in the same way. Running a quick rinse cycle and adding a cup of white vinegar will help dissolve excess detergent that have hardened up and went rancid.

Comment # 3 | Posted by Zach Smith | May 11, 2010, 4:37 am

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