Best & Worst Laundry Detergents

Martha Stewart puts her name on a lot of products for your home. One of the latest is a laundry detergent that's being marketed as eco-friendly. Consumer Reports just tested more than 50 detergents, including the one from Martha.

They all face the same challenge in both top-loaders and in high-efficiency washers. Testers also run the same kind of load using just plain water to see what difference the detergent makes.

Martha Stewart's laundry detergent claims it "removes tough stains." And Consumer Reports uses swatches soaked with tough stains. They include wine, blood, and grass.

After washing, testers use a colorimeter to precisely measure how much of the stain has been removed.

In conventional top-loaders, there was barely a difference between the swatches washed in Martha's detergent and those washed in plain water. And the results from high-efficiency washers were only slightly better.

So which detergents did do well? For conventional top-loaders, Tide 2X Ultra Concentrated for Cold Water worked best.

And for high efficiency machines, Gain Original Fresh HE is a Best Buy at just six cents a load.

If you're looking for a green laundry detergent, both Kirkland Signature Free & Clear 2-X Ultra and Seventh Generation Natural Powdered HE cleaned reasonably well. Both of those detergents are for front-loading or high-efficiency top-loading machines.

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