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The laundry detergents only marginally better than water

Some of Australia’s leading laundry detergents are performing only marginally better than plain water, new lab tests have revealed.

Choice tested 100 products and ranked one humble home brand detergent as the most effective to tackle dirty laundry.

The independent laundry detergent test found the $4-a-pack Coles’ Ultra Front was the best in the market, beating prominent brands OMO, Cold Power, Dynamo, Fab, Surf and Radiant.

Cleaning your clothes with the top performer won’t break the household budget, with Coles Ultra costing an economical 16 cents per wash.

The second-best performer, Omo Ultimate, was marginally inferior to Coles Ultra on general detergency, but significantly more expensive at 88 cents a wash, or $21.99 per pack.

Choice tested each of the 100 products to rate how well they washed out nasty stains like tomato, blood, mud, olive oil, make-up, and baby food, with the Coles front-loader powder scoring high in each category.

Some products from bigger brands were some of the worst ranked, the study revealed.

Choice study reveals the laundry detergents that are not much better than water, Coles rated best.
The $4 pack of Coles Ultra Front, at 16 cents per wash, ranked the top detergent, compared to the second-best, Omo Ultimate, at 88 cents per wash, or $21.99 per pack. Source: Choice

One Surf detergent and one Fab cleaner each rated 46 per cent, an OMO item was deemed 47 per cent effective, and a Radiant product rated 48 per cent. Those results proved not much more effective than running water through the wash alone, Choice concluded and added that water by itself was 42 per cent effective.

“Coles brand aims to deliver great quality and excellent value and we work closely with our suppliers to deliver outstanding products for our customers,” a Coles spokesperson told Yahoo7.