It'll all come out in the wash. (Safeway Cyclon Washing Tablets)

Member Name: nikkisly

Product:	Safeway Cyclon Washing Tablets
Date:	23/07/00 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really does cope with difficult washing

Disadvantages: Can't get the tablets to fully dissolve in the drawer

In recent months, I have become a little disillusioned with Safeways's - so much so that, since they discontinued their customer loyalty reward scheme last year, I have taken my customer loyalty to another store.Yet, there is one Safeway's own brand product which keeps me going back again and again, simply because I couldn't manage without it.

Believe me, you wouldn't want to see - or smell - what goes into my wahing machine. My husband works on building sites and I work in the dairy farming industry, so, between us we are the ideal couple to test any laundry product to destruction. Safeway's Cyclon has passed every single test with flying colours.(Cyclon is available in both biological and non-biological, in powder, liquid or tablet form. Since I normally use the Biological tablets, it is these to which this opinion refers.)

It copes with anything we throw at it. (well, almost anything - it did fail once on a massive chocolate ice cream stain that had been on my white tee-shirt for over a week!).Mud,grass,biro,blood,iodine,indelible ink (!) and sour milk (not to mention what my husband euphemistically refers to as "cow ploppings") disappear as if by magic. As an added bonus, I now routinely use a 40 deg. rather than a 60 deg. wash, which saves me both time and money.

I wear mainly dark clothes - sooo slimming, you know. Cyclon Biological tablets claim to keep colours bright and have a gentle no-bleach action, and I have found that my clothes really have faded very little in the years I have been using the product. (A friend and I bought identical red tee shirts once, and after three washes in another biological powder, hers was far lighter in colour than mine which had been washed in Cyclon five times).

The tablets are specifically not reccommended for hand washing - although the liquid can be used. Yet I find them gentle enough for wool and silk, which I wash on a 'delicates' programme in my
machine. Hence, I was not surprised to find that Cyclon products support the industry programme to " reduce the environmental impact of laundry detergents" - something which is important to me, not least because our washing water goes into a septic tank.

I also like the fact that these tablets do not have a strong smell. Washing smells 'clean' rather than highly perfumed.

I have found it necessary to use a separate fabric conditioner with the tablets, but then, I would do that anyway since I feel that it makes the clothes softer. (On the few occasions that I have forgotten the softener, clothes have seemed a little stiff and scratchy.)

The one complaint that I have is that the tablets do not fully dissolve in the detergent dispenser of my washing machine. I get round this very easily by putting them in the drum, although this is not reccommended by Safeway.

They are comparable in price to most brand names and are frequently sold as a 'three for two' product by Safeways which makes them even more economical. They must be good, since I visit my local store (admittedly under protest!) solely to buy them.

I had good intentions of never visiting Safeway's again after the demise of their loyalty card scheme - but,then, my life is so much brighter with Cyclon. So much for having principles and high ideals.

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