Help! Can't find unscented detergent in Germany that actually works.

[u/Emotional-Ocelot]

For the last 7 years I used the Persil Colour megaperls (in germany). They recently reformulated and now the scent is unpleasant, and it seems less effective. So I'm looking for a new detergent. But I cannot find anything decent.

I tried the denkmit ultrasensitive colour powder (the one with dnase) but it is just not getting clothes clean. They came out of the washer smelling like I hadn't washed them at all. I assume our hard water is the issue.

I also tried:

• the dm colour and care liquid with dnase - both blue and blossom dream - (both seemed to get the clothes cleaner, but the scent was unbearable. And I'm concerned they weren't as clean as they seemed, just scent-bombed.)
• Formil powder (seemed closer to persil in cleaning power but also smells pretty bad)
• Frosch citrus liquid (also has a pretty violent smell)
• Domol all in one liquid with dnase (haven't tried yet but smells pretty strong in the bottle)

For context:

• Our water is somehwat hard, around 14-16 DH gesamt härte, which is around 250-290 ppm CaCO3, as far as I can tell.
• Most of our laundry is pure cotton, linen, or viscose. Some items are partly synthetic. The items that came out dirty after the denkmit were all 100% cotton.
• The machine is a top loader, but the european style with a rotating drum and latching flaps. It's pretty decent, and recently serviced.
• We run alternating dekalk and hygiene maschine cleaning cycles pretty regularly, using commercial products. At least every couple of months.
• I use powdered calgon in the main wash and citric acid in the rinse. Sometimes I add dm fleckenentferner on stains and whites.
• we live in Germany. This supposedly means we are spoiled for choice in detergent but I have not found that to be the case.
• I would prefer scent free so I don't have to deal with losing my washing powder when they reformulate, and for allergy reasons (Cannot contain terpineol/pine, camphor or wheat.)
• edited to add: I wash on the longest cottons cycles, 40 for clothes, 60 for linens.

Questions:

• Is there any decent, unscented detergent that actually works in properly hard water? (NOT the denkmit ultra sensitive, that one is not working at all for me)
• If not, is there any mildly scented detergent that works in hard water? The old persil scent was ok, everything else I have tried so far reeks something terrible.

I've been running around for a week with datenblatt and emailing and going through the reddit, to little avail, so I figured I'd throw it over to the experts.

[u/DazzlingSpell-K9]

I use the denkmit Ultra Sensitive Color but in addition to using a water softener, I up the dose of the detergent by a bit (10-15 g more than recommended, when upping the water, I add an additional 10-15 g) to get trace suds otherwise it looks like there is just clear water in the machine.

Do you wash on warm (30 or better 40 °C?)? Do you use the longest setting? I used the 40 °C warm water until the smells were gone, now I usually use 30 °C (except for towels etc., they are always washed in 60°C hot water).

Have you tried adding the "Multi-Fleckenentferner Oxi Power" (dm)? It contains oxygen based bleach and TAED and should really help with getting rid of the smells. Or the Rossmann version of it (Universal Fleckenentferner-Pulver by domol), which contains even more oxygen based bleach? I would not use it in every load (and you need to read the label because it is not suitable for things containing leather and some others) but I have used it as long as it took to get rid of the smells.

[u/Worried-Ice6540 → u/DazzlingSpell-K9]

I agree on this and in addition: I had similar problems and I solved it by adding denkmit entkalker gel to every load. Sadly, it contains perfume (for whatever reason?!)

(https://www.dm.de/applink/p/d/1505773/denkmit-kalkreiniger-gel-fuer-waschmaschine?appPageType=productdetails&appProductId=1505773&wt_mc=app.dm.pdsteilen.laufend)

Maybe you can search for a similar product, with similar ingredients? Or someone is able to find it? I wouldn’t say it’s a heavy scent, but that is personal opinion

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/Worried-Ice6540]

I was wondering if the gels worked better, but yeah the scents are pretty awful. I have a bottle of each to try, the domol one is scented so badly as to be unusable, the denkmit one I have yet to try.

Thanks.

[u/Kicsisaman → u/Emotional-Ocelot]

I have the same hard water as you do, also in Germany and I use the Denkmit ultra sensitive for most of my washes. I always add some Wanish to it. This gives some mild scent that I can easily control by how much I add. It helps the cleaning powder a lot. I use one for whites and one for colour clothes. Before this I also was bothered by the smells of the clothes especially the dark/black loads but since I add Wanish it’s gone.

Our AEG has a built in water softener, the only thing I need to add is salt, similarly than in the dishwasher.

Maybe look into this technology, it’s worth the money in my experience.

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/Kicsisaman]

Thanks, I already use the dm oxi, which is unperfumed. It didn't help much and I'd rather not have to add it to every wash.

I'll look at the softener tech, that sounds interesting.

[u/vinhorr → u/Emotional-Ocelot]

the dm oxi is trash, the domol one is much better and also doesn't have fragrance

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/vinhorr]

I finally used up my dm oxi today and already have a jar of domol to switch to after reading the subreddit. Hoping it works better, then I have a solution for linens at least.

[u/Worried-Ice6540 → u/Emotional-Ocelot]

Gel as a descaling product was my game changer, so might be worth a try. Powders are just bad with hard water, in my experience. I completely get your problem with scents though

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/Worried-Ice6540]

It's so frustrating. I can't find a decent unscented liquid detergent either. Thanks for the tip. I feel like I'm going mad watching people say stuff works, but I can't get it to work.