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Cold-Water Detergents Get a Cold Shoulder
Tom Uhlman for The New York Times
A researcher for Procter & Gamble, Jack English, with fabric test samples. P.&. G makes Tide Coldwater, a category leader.
Newly formulated laundry detergents can wash most clothes perfectly well in cold water, manufacturers say, but customers are stubbornly refusing to turn down the temperature. Although some of these detergents have been available for several years, customers cling to mom’s age-old advice that hot water washes best — squandering energy and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Mandy Pessler, a P.& G. researcher, using a computer microscope camera to examine cloth fibers at a company lab.
wind turbines, solar panels and a Green Party that is part of the political mainstream, detergent makers waged an advertising war several years ago after they created detergents that worked equally well in all temperatures, including cold water.
On television and in magazines, on detergent boxes and bottles, they promoted the environmental benefits of the new cold-water products.
But the detergents languished on the shelves.
“I’ve never even tried it,” said Ottilie Theis, 53, who was shopping for detergent recently in Philippsburg, a city in southwestern Germany. “I’m just skeptical that normal dirt and spots can be washed out with cooler water.”
Dr. Mueller-Kirschbaum said he believed that consumer education, not advertising, would eventually change buying behavior. The average washing temperature is only slowly coming down in Germany, by about a degree a year, market research shows.
At a Target store in suburban New Jersey, Lara Snyder said she wanted to be part of the cold-water revolution and had bought Tide Coldwater. But so far, she said, she’s not ready to switch over entirely.
“I find that sometimes I wash it in cold,” Ms. Snyder said, “and have to wash it again in warm water.”
Despite the challenges, Procter & Gamble officials remain undeterred.
New advertising is promoting the virtues of Tide Coldwater, and the company is working with washing machine manufacturers to improve cold-water cycles in high-efficiency machines.
In September, for instance, Whirlpool’s Maytag brand is introducing the Bravos XL, in which the cold cycle has been designed to work with cold-water detergents.
Procter officials said they were encouraged by company surveys that showed more consumers were washing in cold water. When Tide Coldwater was introduced in 2005, just 30 percent of laundry loads were washed in cold water; now, it’s pushing 40 percent.
“We have people moving from warm to cold,” said Dawn French, the company’s director of North America laundry products research and formula design. “But hot-water loads have remained very steady.”
Currently, about 7 percent of white laundry loads are done in cold water, compared with 22 percent for lights and 57 percent for darks, according to company studies.
“If we can chip away, load by load, we can get to 70 percent,” Ms. French said.
CNN
Tom Uhlman for The New York Times
A researcher for Procter & Gamble, Jack English, with fabric test samples. P.&. G makes Tide Coldwater, a category leader.
Newly formulated laundry detergents can wash most clothes perfectly well in cold water, manufacturers say, but customers are stubbornly refusing to turn down the temperature. Although some of these detergents have been available for several years, customers cling to mom’s age-old advice that hot water washes best — squandering energy and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Mandy Pessler, a P.& G. researcher, using a computer microscope camera to examine cloth fibers at a company lab.
wind turbines, solar panels and a Green Party that is part of the political mainstream, detergent makers waged an advertising war several years ago after they created detergents that worked equally well in all temperatures, including cold water.
On television and in magazines, on detergent boxes and bottles, they promoted the environmental benefits of the new cold-water products.
But the detergents languished on the shelves.
“I’ve never even tried it,” said Ottilie Theis, 53, who was shopping for detergent recently in Philippsburg, a city in southwestern Germany. “I’m just skeptical that normal dirt and spots can be washed out with cooler water.”
Dr. Mueller-Kirschbaum said he believed that consumer education, not advertising, would eventually change buying behavior. The average washing temperature is only slowly coming down in Germany, by about a degree a year, market research shows.
At a Target store in suburban New Jersey, Lara Snyder said she wanted to be part of the cold-water revolution and had bought Tide Coldwater. But so far, she said, she’s not ready to switch over entirely.
“I find that sometimes I wash it in cold,” Ms. Snyder said, “and have to wash it again in warm water.”
Despite the challenges, Procter & Gamble officials remain undeterred.
New advertising is promoting the virtues of Tide Coldwater, and the company is working with washing machine manufacturers to improve cold-water cycles in high-efficiency machines.
In September, for instance, Whirlpool’s Maytag brand is introducing the Bravos XL, in which the cold cycle has been designed to work with cold-water detergents.
Procter officials said they were encouraged by company surveys that showed more consumers were washing in cold water. When Tide Coldwater was introduced in 2005, just 30 percent of laundry loads were washed in cold water; now, it’s pushing 40 percent.
“We have people moving from warm to cold,” said Dawn French, the company’s director of North America laundry products research and formula design. “But hot-water loads have remained very steady.”
Currently, about 7 percent of white laundry loads are done in cold water, compared with 22 percent for lights and 57 percent for darks, according to company studies.
“If we can chip away, load by load, we can get to 70 percent,” Ms. French said.
CNN