The Importance of the Rinse Cycle
How Downy Changed My Laundry Routine
Every once in a while, I find a laundry product that genuinely changes the way I do laundry. For me, Downy Rinse & Refresh has truly, 100% been one of those products.
Before adding it to my laundry routine, I found myself always using the max amount of detergent recommended on the bottle. And still my clothes came out dirty. For particularly dirty or stubborn loads, I would sometimes resort to overnight soaks with Oxi products, and sometimes 2 or 3 washes, just to get close to having clean clothes.
We have a farm, and my husband cuts timber all day and then goes to the barn. Needless to say, the stains from the sweat and sawdust were usually impossible to remove without the drastic routine I mentioned above.
However, since I started using Downy Rinse & Refresh, my routine has changed significantly, and I’m using half of the laundry detergent (Tide Hygienic Clean Pods only 1 per large load; I was using 2 or 3)
I’ve also completely eliminated those overnight Oxi soaks from my routine, and my clothes are coming out cleaner than ever.
What I Noticed After Adding Rinse & Refresh
The biggest difference for me has been how clean the laundry looks and feels when it comes out of the wash.
Instead of relying on extra detergent or lengthy soaking, I’ve simplified the process. Most of my loads use 1 or 2 pods instead of 2 or 3, and I put a 1/4 cup of Downy Rinse and Refresh into my dispenser. It really is that easy, and the clothes are sooo much cleaner.
For someone who does a lot of laundry, eliminating an overnight soaking step and extra detergent is a pretty big deal. This means fewer products, less money, less soaking, and a much easier laundry routine.
All About the Rinse
We usually focus so much on the wash part of our laundry that we forget how super important the rinse part is. In fact, if you just use a single rinse on your laundry, your laundry is likely still dirty. The recommended amount of rinses by laundry experts is 3 for a truly clean load of laundry.
Why so many rinses? Well, when your wash cycle ends your washer is full of three things. Dirt, soap and laundry. The rinse job is to carry the dirt and the water out of the washer and keep it from getting back into the laundry.
That’s why your rinse cycle is done in cold water. It closes the fabric so that the dirt can’t re-enter as easily, but if you only use one rinse, you are most likely leaving behind detergent and dirt. Plus, when you put fabric softener onto dirty clothes, you’ve just trapped the dirt under a coating of oil.
So the extra rinses help to ensure that your clothes are really clean before you lay down a layer of softener. That’s what makes Rinse and Refresh so helpful; it adds extra power to your rinse cycle by taking out more dirt than your plain water rinse alone can do. In fact after using this product by Downy, I most often don’t even have to use softener. Downy’s Rinse aid comes in 5 scent options that smell just as good as softener.
Give it a try at your local laundromat today. Let the rinse cycle work harder for you, and get a better clean!