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Thread Number: 78747
/ Tag: Detergents and Additives
Curious about Lidl DW detergent and fabric softener |
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Post# 1027334 3/17/2019 at 16:42 (1,863 days old) by Joe_in_philly  (Philadelphia, PA, USA) |
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I visited Lidl when in Germany and Spain, but Lidl is new in the US. I picked up the dishwasher detergent and fabric softener shown below. I am curious if they are special Lidl products, or if the have a name brand equivalent. The softener says it was made in Germany, and the detergent was made in the Netherlands.
I found it interesting that the dishwasher detergent lists “Salt” as an feature, as well as the mention of limescale. I can’t recall those claims ever been made on other products sold in the US . | ||
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| Post# 1027338 , Reply# 1 3/17/2019 at 16:54 (1,863 days old) by gorenje (Slovenia) | ||
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Post# 1027355 , Reply# 2 3/17/2019 at 21:06 (1,863 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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That shows just how out of touch Lidl is with trying to make a "splash" in the US...much of that detergent package is gobbledygook for customers in the US/Canada. Our dishwashers don't have softeners, so "salt" is complete nonsense. How much effort would it have been for them to contact Korex to get a private label program going with appropriate packaging and labeling? Reminiscent of the cluelessness of Tesco coming in with the UK model at Fresh & Easy.
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Post# 1027371 , Reply# 3 3/18/2019 at 03:29 (1,863 days old) by mrboilwash (Munich,Germany) |
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The dishwasher tabs I`m 99% sure that they are made by Dalli. Among other locations they have a production plant in the Netherlands which is focused on tabs.
The shape of the packaging is identical to ours, the printing looks similar. So assuming that the tabs might be the same as ours then they have to be brilliant. IIRC even better than Finish Quantum and the lower end Somat according to "Stiftung Warentest" | ||
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Post# 1027372 , Reply# 4 3/18/2019 at 05:17 (1,863 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands) |
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Post# 1027382 , Reply# 5 3/18/2019 at 07:21 (1,863 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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no argument that they're probably pretty good tabs (I was floored by how hard the water was on a recent visit to Luton, England----their 5 month old jug kettle had 10x the encrustation I've gotten in 5 years here)...just that Lidl didn't do a very good job localizing the packaging to be relevant to the average US customer; which is a sign of how they might (not) succeed here. Remember WalMart's success in Germany---not!
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Post# 1027406 , Reply# 8 3/18/2019 at 13:26 (1,862 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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Not arguing their efficacy--only their packaging/localization. Are whole-house water softeners a "thing" in Europe? They are here...someone on here talks about using the Culligan water softener service (where they bring out your salt tanks)---otherwise you just have one installed and "you do it yourself". In areas of hard water/where people use well water here in the midwest, there are pallets of water softener salt in most bigger gas stations/quick marts (it's often a good proxy to help understand water hardness generally in a locale.
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Post# 1027411 , Reply# 9 3/18/2019 at 13:46 (1,862 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands) |
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Post# 1027510 , Reply# 10 3/19/2019 at 13:41 (1,861 days old) by marky_mark (From Liverpool. Now living in Palm Springs and Dublin) |
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 Yes, rather than saying "salt substitute" they could have said something more meaningful to US consumers who mostly wouldn't be used to adding salt to a dishwasher's water softener, such as "contains water-softening ingredients to protect your dishwasher and dishes against film, residues and build ups, leaving nothing behind but sparkling shine." I should have gone into marketing LOL.
Although all (or virtually all) dishwashers in Europe have a water softener, I do wonder what percentage of people fill it with salt. And of those who do, how many think of it as a "salt dispenser" and have no idea what it's actually for. Especially now that the most popular detergents are all-in-one and are supposed to work without the addition of rinse aid or salt.
Yes whole-house softeners are definitely a thing in Europe. Well in the UK and Spain at least. Here in Spain they are generally large units (same as in the US), either all-in-one or with the separate brine tank. I think they are about as common here as in the US. Some parts of Spain have soft water, other parts medium and other parts hard. I think water softeners are somewhat less common and possibly more expensive in the UK and are often smaller units that can actually fit under the kitchen sink! Some even work without electricity. Reverse osmosis units are also common here in Spain. In fact, all the apartments in my building were built with the water line to the fridge passing via a loop under the kitchen sink making it RO-ready, should the owner wish to install an RO. My building also has a "whole-building water softener" that removes the worst of the hardness from the water for all the apartments, but doesn't soften it completely by any means.
As for the definition of hard water, it depends who you ask! My parents in the UK have water that is 6 US GPG and their water company classes this as slightly hard. | ||
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