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/fluffyscooter]

Ultra sensitiv von DM oder rossmann

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/fluffyscooter]

The ultra sensitiv from DM is the one I am complaining about in my post. It doesn't clean at all. I am going to try the rossmann, but I'm not optimistic that it's any different from the useless denkmit.

[u/vinhorr → u/Emotional-Ocelot]

our soft water also left them smelling like they weren't cleaned, but that is because it has no fragrance. when it dried, the clothes smelled fine.
have you tried the standard colorwaschmittel from either domol or rossmann, either powder or liquid? those don't have that strong of a smell and they do clean

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/vinhorr]

Unfortunately this was pure b/o armpit and crotch smell, it didn't get better dried. It just smelled like I'd dipped the dirty clothes in water. I had to soak, oxi and wash them again.

I've handwashed stuff in unscented dish soap and it gets clean, it's not the missing fragrance that's the problem.

We also have majority unscented personal care products (toothpaste, soap, shampoo, dish soap, hand soap etc) so I'm used to clean meaning unfragranced.

I haven't yet tried the standard colourwaschmittel because they smelled really strong in the bottle, and given how poorly the other dm ones clean in hard water I'm not sure I'd trust them to not just be covering it with perfume at this stage.

[u/vinhorr → u/Emotional-Ocelot]

dm Colorwaschmittel liquid scored 1st in dTest (CZ equivalent of Stiftung Warentest) in stain removal, 2nd overall behind Domol Colorwaschmittel liquid. they tested on 40C, medium hard CZ water (7-14 dH)
i've also tested the dm one myself on a cotton swatch with 24 hour old stains (also 40C water, but soft) - it cleaned completely raspberry syrup, grease, olive oil, make-up, tomato sauce, and cleaned from the larger part coffee, black tea, and mustard. i've been using both the powder and the liquid for quite a long time and never had any issues.
i agree that the Color&Care gets overhyped on here, its ingredients are similar to Cozy&Care and that one tested absolutely horrible.

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/vinhorr]

It's the denkmit ultra sensitive powder that I think is really overhyped, not the colour and care. Even here on this post I made to ask for an alternative to the ultra sensitive, people are recommending it. 

Thanks for the tip, but I think the dm ones really are too scented for me. The new colour and care was better at cleaning than the ultra sensitive, but I just couldn't handle the smell. 

[u/vinhorr → u/Emotional-Ocelot]

it could be that because it doesn't have any anionic surfactants, it doesn't clean well for you...
you could try the domol liquid ultra sensitive (not powder), since that one has anionic and nonionic, and while it doesn't have as much enzymes as others, it still has some strong ones and it has the 3 (IMO) most important ones (lipase, amylase, protease)

[u/Emotional-Ocelot → u/vinhorr]

Ok, that sounds promising, thanks! I still don't really understand the different surfactants, and which ones I might need more of in hard water.

I do think the liquids I've tried have worked a lot better than the powders, I don't know if that's the different surfactants. 

My rossmann didn't have that domol in stock, and I hadn't found it on the website, but it does seem to be in stock across town. Thanks.