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Twelve laundry detergents — liquids, sheets, pods, and pacs running from 6 to 28 cents a load — plus an OxiClean booster used on its own went up against the same set of dried-in stains: egg yolk, a ketchup-mustard blend, soy sauce, strong coffee, blackberries and blueberries, and used motor oil, all applied to white cotton shirts and given 48 hours in the sun to set. Each load ran with the brand's own heavy-soil dose, alongside a water-only control wash that several detergents would struggle to beat.
The second round was filthier. Fourteen shirts were soaked in foul-smelling mud, sun-dried, dosed with gear oil, and given a single hot-water wash each — 28 wash cycles in all. Every stain zone was then graded with a colorimeter on lightness, averaging three sample areas per stain, so the charts below are measured color scores rather than eyeball calls; higher is better.
The two Tide products and the OxiClean booster split five of the six graded stains between them, but the sixth — egg — went to Purex, an 8-cent budget bottle. Price predicted little overall: both budget standouts finished in the top half of the field, while several detergents, cheap and expensive alike, landed behind plain water on at least one stain.
Best Overall
2.3 Average Finish
Average Finish: 2.3
Purchased for: $15
Liquid with oxygen-based stain fighters, 65 loads (~23¢/load). Best overall: top four in every test, and won coffee and motor oil outright.
Top four in every test, with outright wins on the coffee and motor-oil stains
Runner-Up
3.4 Average Finish
Average Finish: 3.4
Purchased for: $22
Ultra-concentrated liquid, 110 loads (~20¢/load). Second overall; never left the top half of a test, with five podium finishes.
Top half of every test and on the podium in five of the six graded stains
Best Budget
6 Cents a Load
Purchased for: $7
Hypoallergenic concentrated liquid, 110 loads (~6¢/load). The cheapest per load in the lineup, and it beat the water-only control in every test.
Beat plain water in every test — and Purex at 8 cents a load is just as sound a pick
| Name | Purchased for ($) | Average Finish | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | $15.00 | 2.3 | Search on Amazon | |
Liquid with oxygen-based stain fighters, 65 loads (~23¢/load). Best overall: top four in every test, and won coffee and motor oil outright. | ||||
| Persil | $22.00 | 3.4 | Search on Amazon | |
Ultra-concentrated liquid, 110 loads (~20¢/load). Second overall; never left the top half of a test, with five podium finishes. | ||||
| Tide Pods | $27.00 | 4 | Search on Amazon | |
Pods rated for stain removal and color protection, 112 count (~24¢ each). Third overall and won the gear-oil test. | ||||
| Amazon Basics | $7.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Hypoallergenic concentrated liquid, 110 loads (~6¢/load). The cheapest per load in the lineup, and it beat the water-only control in every test. | ||||
| Purex | $13.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
4-in-1 concentrated liquid, 165 loads (~8¢/load). The other budget standout — top half overall and won the egg-stain test outright. | ||||
| Arm & Hammer Liquid | $14.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Liquid blended with baking soda, 170 loads (~8¢/load). Fell behind plain water on the berry and motor-oil stains. | ||||
| Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | $15.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Detergent sheets, 100 loads (~15¢/load). Beat the liquid version on egg and berry stains but trailed it on coffee and the gear-oil round. | ||||
| Earth Breeze | $12.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Detergent sheets free of dyes and optical brighteners, 60 sheets (~20¢/sheet). Mid-pack to lower on most stains. | ||||
| Molly’s Suds | $23.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Liquid marketed on safer ingredients, 100 loads (~23¢/load). Last on the gear-oil stain and behind plain water on mud. | ||||
| Gain | $10.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
3-in-1 pacs with Oxy Boost and Febreze, 42 loads (~24¢/load). Podium finishes on the berry and egg stains. | ||||
| All Free Clear | $16.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Sensitive-skin pacs free of perfumes and dyes, 60 count (~27¢ each). Mid-pack on most stains. | ||||
| Seventh Generation | $15.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Concentrated liquid for sensitive skin, 53 loads (~28¢/load). The most expensive per load; third-best on the coffee stain. | ||||
| OxiClean Odor & Stain Remover | $12.00 | Search on Amazon | ||
Oxygen booster (~$12) run on its own instead of a detergent. Won the berry and mud tests, but did little on motor oil. | ||||
Lower is better
Container prices run from $7 for Amazon Basics to $27 for Tide Pods, but loads per container vary from 42 to 170 — so the cost-per-load chart below is the fair comparison.
From each brand's price and claimed loads per container — sheets, pods, and pacs counted per piece
The two cheapest detergents per load — Amazon Basics at 6 cents and Purex at 8 — both finished in the top half of the overall standings, while the winner costs nearly four times as much per load. Sheets carry a convenience premium: Arm & Hammer's Power Sheets run nearly double the cost per load of the same brand's liquid.
| Rank | Product | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon Basics | 6 |
| 2 | Purex | 8 |
| 3 | Arm & Hammer Liquid | 8 |
| 4 | Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | 15 |
| 5 | Persil | 20 |
| 6 | Earth Breeze | 20 |
| 7 | Molly’s Suds | 23 |
| 8 | Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | 23 |
| 9 | Gain | 24 |
| 10 | Tide Pods | 24 |
| 11 | All Free Clear | 27 |
| 12 | Seventh Generation | 28 |
Colorimeter lightness averaged over three sample areas — higher is better
Tide Ultra took the coffee test at 79.66, with Persil at 78.57 and Seventh Generation at 78.13 rounding out the podium. Arm & Hammer's Power Sheets posted the only score below the water-only wash, 73.21 against the control's 73.62, and Purex barely cleared it at 73.65.
| Rank | Product | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | 79.66 |
| 2 | Persil | 78.57 |
| 3 | Seventh Generation | 78.13 |
| 4 | Amazon Basics | 76.92 |
| 5 | Gain | 76.20 |
| 6 | Tide Pods | 76.17 |
| 7 | OxiClean Odor & Stain Remover | 75.99 |
| 8 | All Free Clear | 75.57 |
| 9 | Earth Breeze | 75.13 |
| 10 | Molly’s Suds | 74.96 |
| 11 | Arm & Hammer Liquid | 74.71 |
| 12 | Purex | 73.65 |
| 13 | Plain Water (No Detergent) | 73.62 |
| 14 | Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | 73.21 |
Dried blackberry and blueberry stain — higher is better
The OxiClean booster ran away with the berry test at 81.75 — the widest winning margin in the review — ahead of Tide Pods at 74.55 and Gain at 74.51. Arm & Hammer's liquid removed less berry stain than plain water, 67.61 against the control's 68.13.
| Rank | Product | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | OxiClean Odor & Stain Remover | 81.75 |
| 2 | Tide Pods | 74.55 |
| 3 | Gain | 74.51 |
| 4 | Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | 72.70 |
| 5 | All Free Clear | 71.90 |
| 6 | Persil | 71.46 |
| 7 | Amazon Basics | 71.12 |
| 8 | Seventh Generation | 70.55 |
| 9 | Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | 69.52 |
| 10 | Purex | 68.75 |
| 11 | Molly’s Suds | 68.52 |
| 12 | Plain Water (No Detergent) | 68.13 |
| 13 | Earth Breeze | 68.08 |
| 14 | Arm & Hammer Liquid | 67.61 |
Dried egg-yolk protein stain — higher is better
Egg was the closest test of the six — every product beat the control's 84.57, and the whole field landed within about four points of it. Purex won at 88.2, the budget bottle's best result, with Gain at 87.89 and Persil at 87.41 close behind.
| Rank | Product | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purex | 88.20 |
| 2 | Gain | 87.89 |
| 3 | Persil | 87.41 |
| 4 | Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | 87.30 |
| 5 | Tide Pods | 87.28 |
| 6 | Seventh Generation | 87.18 |
| 7 | Amazon Basics | 87.05 |
| 8 | OxiClean Odor & Stain Remover | 86.72 |
| 9 | All Free Clear | 86.58 |
| 10 | Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | 86.48 |
| 11 | Molly’s Suds | 86.36 |
| 12 | Earth Breeze | 86.18 |
| 13 | Arm & Hammer Liquid | 86.12 |
| 14 | Plain Water (No Detergent) | 84.57 |
Used motor oil, dried in — higher is better
Motor oil dragged every score into the 48–63 range and split the field hardest. Tide Ultra won clearly at 62.24 over Tide Pods at 60.67 and Persil at 57.6, while Arm & Hammer's liquid was the one product to score below plain water, 48.04 against 49.01. The OxiClean booster on its own managed only 50.02.
| Rank | Product | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | 62.24 |
| 2 | Tide Pods | 60.67 |
| 3 | Persil | 57.60 |
| 4 | Gain | 56.45 |
| 5 | Purex | 55.69 |
| 6 | All Free Clear | 55.10 |
| 7 | Molly’s Suds | 54.76 |
| 8 | Earth Breeze | 54.59 |
| 9 | Amazon Basics | 53.34 |
| 10 | Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | 53.21 |
| 11 | Seventh Generation | 53.09 |
| 12 | OxiClean Odor & Stain Remover | 50.02 |
| 13 | Plain Water (No Detergent) | 49.01 |
| 14 | Arm & Hammer Liquid | 48.04 |
Shirt whiteness after one hot-water wash of the mud-soaked load — higher is better
The podium finished within 0.15 points: the OxiClean booster at 79.84, Tide Ultra at 79.75, and Persil at 79.69. Molly’s Suds was the only product to come out of the wash less white than the control, 74.67 against 74.97, and this round was also Tide Pods' one weak result at 78.07.
| Rank | Product | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | OxiClean Odor & Stain Remover | 79.84 |
| 2 | Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | 79.75 |
| 3 | Persil | 79.69 |
| 4 | Purex | 79.27 |
| 5 | Arm & Hammer Liquid | 78.73 |
| 6 | Amazon Basics | 78.62 |
| 7 | Seventh Generation | 78.50 |
| 8 | Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | 78.09 |
| 9 | Tide Pods | 78.07 |
| 10 | Gain | 77.97 |
| 11 | All Free Clear | 75.53 |
| 12 | Earth Breeze | 75.49 |
| 13 | Plain Water (No Detergent) | 74.97 |
| 14 | Molly’s Suds | 74.67 |
Gear-oil stain on the mud-soaked shirts, same hot-water wash — higher is better
Tide Pods took the nastiest stain in the review at 72.16, ahead of Tide Ultra at 69.62 and Persil at 66.87. Molly’s Suds went backwards here, scoring 48.4 where the water-only wash managed 52.13 — the largest deficit to plain water in the review.
| Rank | Product | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tide Pods | 72.16 |
| 2 | Tide Ultra Oxi Boost | 69.62 |
| 3 | Persil | 66.87 |
| 4 | All Free Clear | 66.22 |
| 5 | Gain | 65.60 |
| 6 | Purex | 65.41 |
| 7 | OxiClean Odor & Stain Remover | 65.13 |
| 8 | Amazon Basics | 63.43 |
| 9 | Arm & Hammer Liquid | 61.14 |
| 10 | Earth Breeze | 59.80 |
| 11 | Arm & Hammer Power Sheets | 59.16 |
| 12 | Seventh Generation | 56.68 |
| 13 | Plain Water (No Detergent) | 52.13 |
| 14 | Molly’s Suds | 48.40 |
Tide Ultra is the best laundry detergent in this comparison, finishing with an average finish of 2.3 and a top-four result in every test. It won the coffee test at 79.66 and the motor-oil test at 62.24 — the hardest of the flat stains — and backed those up with second place on both halves of the muddy gear-oil round. At about 23 cents a load it sits toward the expensive end of the lineup, and the results say it earns that.
Persil is the runner-up at a 3.4 average finish. It never left the top half of a single test and collected podium finishes on coffee, egg, motor oil, mud, and gear oil — the most consistent detergent here after the winner. Tide Pods took third at a 4.0 average and won the gear-oil test outright at 72.16; its scores were strong everywhere except the mud round.
On a budget, Amazon Basics and Purex are the picks. Amazon Basics improved on the plain-water control in every single test at just 6 cents a load, and Purex, at 8 cents, went one better by winning the egg test outright at 88.2. Both finished in the top half of the field — a competitive detergent does not have to cost 20-plus cents a load.
A few results are worth weighing before buying. The OxiClean booster on its own won two tests — berry stains by the largest margin in the review, and the muddy-laundry round — but managed little on motor oil, so it reads as a complement to a good detergent rather than a replacement for one. And plain water set a bar some detergents missed: Arm & Hammer Liquid fell below the control on both the berry and motor-oil stains, and Molly’s Suds finished below it on mud and gear oil. In this category, chemistry — not price — decides the result.