Just a guess here that worked on similar problems.
Spray heavily around the edges of the ‘concrete’ with a household degreaser/glue remover and let it stand. If it soaks in it should cause it to release from the plastic dispenser. There are similar products at Colesworths.
A difference w/vinegar would be the hydrocarbon content, eg some ‘oily’, that might (not guaranteed will) act as a release agent.
This is concerning as if it leaves a ‘concrete-like deposit’ in the detergent draw, it might also be leaving ‘concrete-like deposits’ in other parts of the washing machine which may cause problems in the longer term or shorter washer life.
For anybody who was interested in this, our washing machine just died. Didn’t do a post-mortem but being full of Aldi concrete cannot have done it any good.
Never again…
I was definitely interested!! I had considered Almat but had a ton of other stuff (Biozet and one of those dont buy in plastic and stick a sheet in the bottom of the tub things). Glad I never bought it, but now am worrying about what effect the Aldi dishwashing tabs might have. Gotta be so careful 
We’ve just finished the latest round of laundry detergent testing. See the best and worst performers here:
Or check out the full review:
A comprehensive long list of products. Our home favourite shows up costing just 13c per wash. Interesting to see there is an even less expensive alternative which scored higher. Especially when there are other products costing more than $1.00 per wash for little or no better outcome. It would be difficult for us to justify, given the good relative performers at less than half that cost.
What I don’t quite understand is how the test results can vary so much from year to year…the laundry powder I use came in third or fourth last time laundry products were tested and this year is way down the list and isn’t a recommended product. So…what changes? The product? Are newly introduced products superseding old ones? Plus I see the number one product is an antibacterial, antibacterials contain some very questionable ingredients which I would hope might preclude it from top spot. I think I’m just going to continue with my tried and trusted Aldi detergent…I’m very fussy about my washing results and so far I have had good results!
I use the same Aldi product and have had no issues with residue in detergent drawer, been using for 12 months now. Bosch front loader. Maybe the issue is not so much the product as some other factor? The machine? Water quality? Water temperature? Maybe that powder just not suitable for your machine or water?
I never see Euca Laundry Powder tested. I buy this in 10kgs container from Mitre 10 or Rural Centres. Australian product. Can you please include in your tests.
Yes. As you appear to use a store branded product, these have a higher chance of changing. Supermarkets go out to the market to find manufacturers of their own store labelled products regularly to ensure they can have low cost products which are competitive compared to the other supermarkets. As their principal driver is cost, this leads to manufacturers adjusting their product ingredients to try and drive down their own costs. Lower price formulations can affect performance.
This is where Choice does a great job as a good store branded product can change to be a poor product over a short time. Assessing product performance regularly and measuring there is a change allows a consumer to make more informed decisions about the products they buy.
It is more likely to be water and its temperature.
Water with high total dissolved solids can result in slower or lower detergent dissolvability. This could, in addition to the TDS cause build up in a washing machine.
Likewise with temperature, dissolvability increases with temperature. Choice has found through surveys that many consumers use cold water for washing. As a result, if one has a warmer tap water temperature (say in summer or living in the north of Australia), dissolvability would be better than in winter or the south.
These factors as well as ingredients in the washing detergent can affect build ups in a washing machine which could affect the machine’s performance and longevity.
It’s a good comparison. Just wondering why CHOICE did not include laundry detergent sheets in the comparison?
I cannot speak to the most recent test, but from 2 years ago.
Anecdotally many consumers like them and claim they do a good job but the lab test did not confirm that. Whether they have changed since is a question. Choice explains its position here and for those not clicking through,.
Our past experience with laundry sheets showed they were poor performers. While you may think they are more sustainable as they don’t come in a bottle, the ingredients found in laundry sheets are very similar to those in any laundry liquid (minus the water). Not to mention, the chemicals used in laundry sheets enter the wastewater stream without providing any benefit to the cleaning cycle.
Their poor performance is caused by the nature of the product. Being a flexible material, laundry sheets contain no builders or enzymes, which has a significant negative impact on performance. The size and weight of the sheet also means they have a much lower dose than regular laundry detergents. In comparison, a single laundry sheet is equivalent to 4 grams of laundry liquid. A laundry liquid generally has a dosage around 50-65 grams. Essentially, laundry sheets simply add fragrance to a load of washing.
Anything further @airedale?
Hi @PhilT , manufacturers do regularly change their formulas with the aim of improving performance and reducing costs/increasing profit margins, I doubt much will have really changed when it comes to laundry strips, and I imagine they would still perform very badly in comparison to other detergents.
If I was to speculate as to the reasons people believe they do a good job when they actually don’t, I would say it’s a bit of a halo effect - people have heard through marketing channels, social media or their own networks that these things work really well, and they genuinely want to believe it - they have after all invested their own money into buying them, and people don’t like to feel like they’ve been taken for a ride. So when their clothes come out of the machine cleaner than when they went in, it’s taken as a sign that the detergent strips did a great job, when the truth is their clothes are nowhere near as clean as they’d be from using a top performing detergent.
There are other, non-performance reasons why people may favour laundry strips too - convenience and lack of mess being two of the big ones. If for whatever reason you have difficulty using conventional detergents then a laundry strip makes things much easier. Of course, so do laundry pods, which seem to perform much better.
Gave up on Biozet powder for the same reason. Concrete like residue in front loader drawer. Moved to Biozet Sensitive Liquid (Biozet powder had very low perfume) and have been happy with results. No more concrete.
