Laundry Detergent Lab

Laundry Detergent Lab

Aim: In this lab, we will determine if the expensive laundry detergent is worth your money, or if the cheaper brands really give a bang for your buck.

Materials: 4 types of laundry detergent, 1 rag, mustard, scissors, droppers, graduated cylinders, tap water, 5 glass rods, thumb tacks

Prediction: We predict that Tide will work the best, considering it is such a popular brand.

Hypothesis: Woolite laundry detergent will not work the greatest, and will not be worth the extra $5.

Procedure:
Take a rag and pour on 30 ml of mustard, distribute evenly across, allow to dry overnight.
Cut the rag into 5 equal sections.
Fill 5 beakers with 400 ml of tap water.
Label each beaker (Sunlight, water, Tide, Ultra, or Woolite) and add 5 drops of that product to it’s assigned beaker.
Mix the detergent and tap water solution for 1 minute at medium to high speed.
Put a stained rag piece into each beaker, and stir for 2 minutes at medium to high speed.
Allow rags to soak for 20 minutes in the solution.
Stir for 1 minute post-soaking at medium to high speed.
Allow to soak for 5more minutes.
Rinse, ring out, and dry the rags, then hang on the wall to dry.
Assess which rag had the most change.

Observations:
1. The mustard stained rags smelled TERRIBLE.
2. The water turned a cloudy yellow.
3. The mustard came off in chunks, and then settled to the bottom.
4. The stains have little to no change when both wet and dry.
5. Water did barely anything.
6. Tide and Woolite were the “crunchiest” feeling and left the most mustard behind(along with water).
7. Sunlight left patches, but the perimeter of the rag had no change.
8. Ultra (no name) left the rag softest and cleaned the best.

Pictures:

Conclusions:
Our hypothesis was supported: Woolite was not the best working laundry detergent, nor did it leave the rag the softest. Woolite is not worth the extra money.
Our prediction was not supported: Tide was not the best working detergent and did not make a big difference on the stains, it just faded slightly.
Surprisingly the cheapest no-name brand (Ultra) worked the best. It left the rag the softest, and had the greatest amount of change. Sunlight was a close second.
The rags no longer smell bad!

Interesting facts/ questions:
Even if people knew that Ultra worked the best, do you think they would continue buying the name brand? Why?
The difference between Ultra and Woolite is 3.02$
In order to take this lab one step further, we could try using a washing machine, and/or a different stain provider.

1.8 ltrs Woolite = 9.97$
1.8 ltrs Ultra = 6.99$

Lab completed by: Shea, Anna, Veronica, and Makenna