Why I Ditched Affresh

Honestly never thought much about washing machine cleaners til last month. My machine started smelling like wet socks after every load, even though I'd been using Affresh tabs every few months like clockwork. Grabbed my phone and typed "Affresh cheaper" at 1 AM – yeah, that desperation search when you're pissed about funky towels.

How I Compared Ingredients

Next morning, I raided the cleaning aisle at three different stores. Dumped all generic brands in my cart: Great Value, Seventh Generation, even that cheap dollar store one. Spread them on my kitchen counter like a poker hand. Got my reading glasses and started squinting at those tiny ingredient lists.

Here's what jumped out:

• Affresh: Sodium carbonate, sodium percarbonate, TAED – sounds like a science experiment
• Generic Brand A: Had citric acid instead of percarbonate, missing TAED completely
• Brand B : Nearly identical to Affresh but half the price – like finding a twin at Walmart
• Off-Brand C: Full of chlorine bleach that could ruin colored clothes

Testing Them Out

Ran each cleaner through my old Maytag separately. Watched the cycles like a hawk checking:

• How much foam bubbled up
• If any gunk floated to the surface
• That nasty mildew smell after

Brand B actually made the rubber seal look less grody than Affresh did. The citric acid one? Total dud – smelled like rotten oranges when the cycle finished. Bleach cleaner scared me so much I double-rinsed before doing actual laundry.

My Takeaway After All This

Stopped buying Affresh entirely after realizing it's just repackaged oxygen bleach. Now I buy the store brand twin for way cheaper and toss in a vinegar rinse cycle monthly. Funny how the cheapest option ended up being better at fighting the mildew smell. Still keeping that bleach cleaner away from my washer though – like storing dynamite in a closet.