I'm gonna agree with Tom.  I use German Persil Megaperls.  The smell is somewhat sharp in the container, but once in use there is almost no smell at all.   I also don't follow the dosing instructions on the box because they are assuming the very hard water that can sometimes be found in Europe. My washer drains into a laundry sink and the wash water doesn't have the smell of the detergent.  If anything the smell is a bit acrid with no hint of perfume. After the rinses there is no scent in the clothes at all.

Hmm...... sorry to hear this...I use Persil Megaperls  for whites and don't have any left over scent in the clothes at all. Sometimes I use 3 rinses but mostly only 2 and there is not scent.  I find that Tide seems to leave my clothes stiff even with using fabric softener.

Did you use regular Persil or the Megaperls formula?

@Laundress: you may be right about today's Tide HE powder approaching or equaling Persil. I wouldn't know because I tend to buy in bulk when I see it on sale...as a result, I have six or more boxes of Gain and Tide HE sitting on the garage shelves!!! It will take me several years to use them up, and they must be 2-3 years old already, so the most recent Tide HE I have tried is the 2008 version, or earlier!! Add that to the fact that I have two packets of Persil Megaperls, half of a large carton of Via (Swedish Unilever Persil), and four small boxes of UK Ariel (all either brought by friends visiting Germany or purchased by me in UK or Sweden), it may be another few years before I have any reason to buy a new box of Tide HE!!

@mrwash: you may be right, though a lot of friends my age in Germany will wash with Persil and nothing else. Why? Because that's how Mutti did it. And they still wash underwear and linens at 80-90C. Why? Because that is how Mutti did it. They will never change, but I see your point about younger generations not being married to Persil.

A little example about how we are slaves to high Miele prices here. I own a Miele S5 canister vacuum cleaner. I have a mixture of hard floors and carpet (about half of the house has hard floors, half of the house has carpet). European vacuum cleaners are wonderful on hard floors and have terrific cleaning accessories. Last night I used the Miele crevice tool to clean out the lint trap on the dryer (beneath the drum). The one place where they don't do so well is with carpets. I believe this is the reason why Miele recently introduced an entire new line of upright vacuums in the USA (S7 series) that still can operate all of the wonderful Miele attachments.

My Miele is ten years old. Still works fine, I have it serviced every 2-3 years and am told they will last 30 years if cared for properly. The vacuum came with the SEB-217 powerhead for carpet. It does a reasonably good job on my carpet, but no better than my old upright Hoover machine (but carpet is the ONLY thing that the Hoover did better). Miele has now introduced several updated, more powerful powerheads with height adjustments, headlights, etc., that perform much better than the SEB-217 in reviews. You can buy this device in Germany on Amazon for 107 Euros, which I presume includes tax and shipping.

http://www.amazon.de/Miele-3427131-SEB-236-Elektrob%C3%BCrste/dp/B000A32LI6/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335365179&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Or you can buy it in USA for $259:

http://www.amazon.com/Miele-SEB-Electro-Premium-Powerbrush/dp/B0058OILBS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335365305&sr=8-4

The Amazon price is the full standard US price, though it does include shipping and no sales tax because it is being shipped across state borders (if you live inside the state in which partner "BanksVac" is located, you will pay that state's sales tax on top of $259). If I buy it in a Miele store here in California, I would likewise pay the standard $259 plus 7.75% sales tax. So this upgrade will wait until my next trip to Germany, and I'll simply order it from Amazon.de and have it shipped to the home of friends prior to my arrival. I know of people who buy Miele vacuum bags and other accessories while visiting in Germany because to us it's virtually "free": when you can buy the product in Germany for only 40-50% of what one pays in USA, why not? They don't weigh a lot and won't push one's luggage over the weight limit. Before a trip to Germany, I order what I want from Amazon.de and have it shipped to a friend's house near Köln (and they no longer think the behavior is odd, once they learned that all of the purchases would cost double or more in USA).

Anyway, this is an example of how Miele controls prices over here. The prices for Persil, which is sold through the Miele store network here, is even worse. No one in Germany would pay the prices we pay here for it. Actually, I don't pay those prices either. Either I buy it in Germany, or else I make do with American detergents. As Laundress pointed out, the quality is increasing, and if Proctor and Gamble can make a decent detergent (Ariel) in Germany, they can do so here. The majority of existing machines in USA are still top loading, but of machines currently being sold, front loaders have the majority. So with time a majority of machines in US homes will be front loading. At that point there will be more competition and quality as the demand rises.

It was a different conversation on here that prompted me to try it.  I bought it through ABT.com and loved it. I bought the liquid Persil Power Gel (Anti-Greying Formula) and loved it!  I've tried the powedered version of it and I did like it but the liquid is the best for me.  ABT stopped selling my favorite version and I've been buying it from betterproductsonline.com.  It's also available through amazon.com.

I love this stuff.  It does a great job and for hard water places like Phoenix, it's great.  I love the Vernel Day by the Sea softner and it's been great for me.  It's not the cheapest but I don't have to use much of it and it does last for a long time.  It's too bad the Henkel here in Scottsdale couldn't make some batches instead of ordering it from everywhere else, but they're making the old Dial like of stuff.

I know that some people think it's too scented but I really think it's pretty mellow compared to some of the stuff I've tried. 

Wow I have not used the regular Persil  since 2003 only the Megaperls so I guess I will stick with that.  I have a front loader so I understand that things might not work the same in a TL with this stuff.  Thing is that my Megaperls has scent in the container but doesn't seem to have it in the water as the washer drains in the laundry sink - maybe I am just too dirty.

Every now and then I will try one of the current formulations of Tide.  Been using a bottle of Free and Clear liquid and it does a good job and it rinses much better than former Tide formulations, but it does leave some clothes hard and it contains optical brighteners  so I don't like using it on colored loads and I only have one white load per week. 

I just tried Purex triple action liquid and it performed almost as well as liquid Tide and costs dollars less...so don't know what to make of that. 

Would like to try powdered Tide He with Bleach but cannot find this anywhere I look.

The above boxes look like mine except mine says Megaperls which are small beads instead of powder, but the box does state that it works in 20C water.   Bought my box over a year ago and emptied it into a tub with a lid.  Even now when I open the lid the scent rushes out.   Thing is that there is no smell in the wash water or in the clothes at the end.  This seems to be unlike powdered Tide which gives off a fragrance when opened but also in the wash water and then the entire laundry smells of it.  Everyone is different in that I don't like the smell of powdered Tide in the wash water and then overtaking the entire laundry area.

Is there a fragrance free powdered Tide He?

Here's what I think and I might be thinking incorrectly

When I started using Persil in 2003 I used Persil powder.  This box lasted almost 2 years.  The next boxes were  Persil Megaperls for whites and Megaperls for colors.  With Megaperls the boxes are smaller, but still do the same number of loads because the formulation is more concentrated than the powder form.  The consistency is that of little beads and not of a powder.  If you drop any you can almost scoop it up with your fingers because it doesn't fly all over like powder.

Currently I have Megaperals Universal  and I use it in white or lightly colored loads only because the side of the box recommends not using it for colors and suggests using Persil Megaperals for colors.  The difference seems to be that Megaperls for colors does not have oxygen bleach or whiteners like the Universal.

Universal states that has cold wash action and lists the temperatures at 20, 40, 60, or 95C.  It also states that it contains an anti-Greying formula - I don't know exactly how this works but it might not work so well on colors.  It seems to be Universal in temperature but not in color.

Miele detergents which are made by the German company Krussler follow this same pattern of having detergent for whites containing brighteners and bleach and detergent for bright colors which are free from bleach or brighteners.