Laundry Detergent Overload Can Lead to Costly Consequences

No matter how you may fill it or pour it, chances are when you do a load of laundry, you are overloading on detergent.

"When we asked consumers how much they use, they generally show us way too much," said Consumer Reports laundry expert, Pat Slaven.

To get to the bottom of why, NBC5 Investigates Consumer Unit went shopping for some of the top-selling liquid laundry detergents. Then the team invited a group of moms to talk about their laundry habits.

Most of the women said it was their mothers who taught them how to do laundry. But they also said their moms rarely read the directions. They'd just eyeball and pour. That's what many of these women do too.

Since that's the case, we showed them just the caps without showing them the detergent bottles.

The caps were colorful, but in some of the caps it was downright difficult to see the fill lines, even when the women held them up to the light.

All the moms agreed top-selling Tide's caps were the most user-friendly.

"They are some of the better caps that I see," Slaven said.

The billion-dollar detergent giant Proctor and Gamble clearly marks a 1, 2 and 3 in the caps.

But the company told NBC 5 it's also important to read the directions to get the proper dosing because different formulas of Tide have different dosing requirements.

Slaven said with some other detergents both the caps and the directions can be confusing.

"We've seen caps that have up to five and even six lines, and they'll only have directions for lines two and three or line one and two. And it's a mystery," said Slaven.

And that mystery leads to detergent overload.

Ryan Sanden, laundry expert at Pirch, an appliance and home goods store at NorthPark Center, said too much detergent is bad for washing machines.

"Consumers these days think that more is better. So they pour a ton of detergent into the cap and dump it into the machine. But what they don't know is they are damaging their machine," Sanden said. "It can actually shut the machine down. It can clog up drains, and it can cause a really bad odor inside the machine."

Detergent overdosing can also lead extra rinse cycles, wasted water and wasted energy.

"Use too much detergent and that can cost $50 to $100 extra a year for a family," said Slaven.

While dosing does depend on different machines, the amount of loads a consumer sees on the bottle is measured for a medium one.

Experts say to get the right amount, take the cap, find the fill line and draw it with a marker on the outside of the cap.

That way it's easier to see when pouring.