Dizolve Eco-Strips Laundry Detergent – Review
I’ve shared with you how to make your own laundry soap using bars of soap or detergent bars, washing soda and borax. I’ve been using homemade soap to do my laundry for 3 decades. Since I make my own goat’s milk soap, there are always a few cosmetically challenged bars or batches of failed soap, that can be utilized to make laundry soap, so it wasn’t too much hassle to set aside an half hour to make up a quick batch of homemade once every 8 weeks or so. When I lived in Mission, it was a breeze to use homemade soap with my laundry. The water was naturally soft, like rain water, and my clothes came out clean and bright with homemade laundry soap. If I had this same soft water now, I would never give up my homemade laundry soap. However, since I moved to the mountains, I noticed that the water was HARD, with a capital H. There are mineral deposits in the tea kettle after only 3 boilings. And my water reservoir on the wood cook stove has to be descaled once a month, with citric acid, or the water isn’t potable. I won’t mention the unsightly brown scale in the toilet bowl.
Natural soap and hard water
Hard water does terrible things to laundry when you use homemade soap in place of commercial detergent. The soap forms a curd when mixed with the minerals in hard water, and this grey curd is deposited on your clothes and in your washer. The curd attracts dirt, making your clothes look dull and grey over many washings. And worse, once the greying of your whites has taken place, it’s very hard to get them white again. You can minimize this damage by using detergent bars instead of homemade soap in your DIY laundry formula. Or you can add a chemical water softener like Calgon, which is high in phosphates, to your laundry. This does get expensive. Further, if you are on a septic, the extra phosphates will definitely green-up your septic field and leach into your water table. So you need to take another step and plant your septic field to better utilize the output and keep it out of the water table, if you can. Your washing machine, even with use of a regular vinegar rinse, develops a soap scum ring around the water line, which has to be scrubbed out once a month, to keep the clothes from being marked with soap scum. If you fail to do this conscientiously, your husband’s light blue oxford dress shirts will take on unsightly grey streaks, announcing to the world a mega laundry fail! (Ok, I’m exaggerating, but you’ll have to find another way to wash them, which is more work.)
But I don’t like the chemicals in commercial laundry detergent!
My family has chemical allergies and I didn’t want to go back to a powdered detergent, with the additives, toxic fragrance, and brighteners – which include broken glass. Luckily, I discovered Dizolve Eco-strips last Fall, as a bonus product in the Winter version of the Ultimate Bundles that I purchased. I immediately filled my bonus offer order for a package of unscented Dizolve Eco-strips to try them out.
I love this product. I chose the fragrance-free version. Although they do have a faint odor, they are actually without added fragrance. We have allergens to chemical scent so this was a great relief to me.
Dizolve is an entirely new way to do your laundry. The detergent comes in a strip, held together with a natural binding agent. It dissolves completely in the laundry when it comes in contact with water. The strip is easy to use and pre-measured so there are no messy powders to work with. You simply tear off a single strip and toss it into your washer, as the washer is filling.
I found that the strip dissolved better in hot or warm water than it did in cold water. Further, the strip should be added first, and then the clothes. When I washed a dark load and added the strips after the clothes, the strip left a faint white streak on the jeans, where it dissolved. This washed out but it was a mild inconvenience.
The product is very economical. 1 box of 64 strips lasted me for 2 full months. These cost only $12.50 a package or less than 20 cents a load. It is benign to the environment, containing no phosphates, unlike using Calgon to soften hard water, so that you can use natural soap products. It’s hypoallergenic. And the company doesn’t hide its ingredients, unlike other laundry detergent brands. You can grab a complete list on its website and see for yourself. Dizolve is convenient, as each strip is premeasured. There are no messy powders to store and measure (or breathe in as you work). Simply detach a strip and place it in the washer if it’s a top load or in the detergent dispensing cup if it’s a front load. Add the clothes and start the washer. If you have heavily soiled work clothes just used 2 strips. If you have a light load use a half a strip. It can’t get easier than that. And it’s a great, inexpensive, eco-friendly solution when hard water defeats your efforts to use homemade laundry soap, and still have clean clothes.
So by all means make your own laundry detergent at home because that’s the most economical and eco-friendly way to do your laundry. But if you have hard water, as I do, or just because you already have enough to do on your homestead — try Dizolve eco-strips and you may be surprised at how simple this eco-friendly solution can be.
(This post contains affiliate links.)
judy says
Where can i fine those laundry strip like to get some more but cant fine them at the store.
Joybilee Farm says
I think they might be off the market. I used them for a couple years and then had trouble finding them. Now I’m using Method 4X Concentrate Liquid Laundry Detergent.
Shahin says
I have a lot of thats 32 loads with 6 $
Eva Moody says
Thank you so much for this post! I began making my own laundry detergent about two years ago. I started noticing my whites becoming grey, and my colors looking worn and dull. I thought it was my detergent, and with a heavy heart I went back to commercial detergent. I didn’t even THINK about it being due to hard water! )Let’s just say I feel your pain on the toilet rings.) Do you use the Eco strips with your detergent, or as the detergent? I am very interested in trying this!!
Joybilee Farm says
The eco-strips ARE my detergent. They are an eco-friendly detergent with a biodegradable binder. They dissolve completely in the washing machine in hot or warm water. I found with my hard water, they do not dissolve fully in cold water. But with softer water they will, according to the company.
Rose Petal says
Thanks so much for this info. The water from our homestead well is so hard that I despair of washing our good whites. The rest of the laundry is ok using soap nuts (http://www.livereadynow.com/sustainable-soap-that-grows-on-trees/ ), but the whites I usually take to town and use my mom’s washer. They have a water softener which is great but not a practical option for us being off grid. I can’t wait to try this option. Thanks again!
Blessings,
Rose Petal
Joybilee Farm says
I hope it works for you. I have seen a difference in my laundry.