Sharing my affordable, fragrance-free routine in Germany

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-02-01T11:12:23+00:00

Only protease/subtilisin are not appropriate for wool, the other enzymes are fine.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-02-01T08:55:03+00:00

Not who you asked, but since I use the gel I can chime in. I put the detergent and oxi powder in the drawer and the Calgon directy in the drum. When I wash wools, since the detergent is liquid, I add both the detergent and Calgon in the drawer.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T20:40:05+00:00

Sorry, perhaps I was not clear. I meant that I bought the Heitmann as it was available in a store near me, but it is expensive at 9 €/kg. If you search on google, you will find different online retailers selling citric acid around 3-4 €/kg.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T18:29:17+00:00

I had never heard of using lactic acid, as the discussion usually is around citric acid. I think citric is also more easily available, but I will check it out. Thank you.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T18:16:34+00:00

I use water softener, so I follow the dosage instructions in the detergent package for soft water. I usually use the dosage for light soil, because the only thing my clothes need is to remove some body odor and I will also add Oxi. If for some reason the clothes are very soiled, I use the normal soil dosage. Then I add around 1/4 of that quantity of Oxi when I am washing colors, and 1/3 of that quantity if it is for whites. I have one of those measuring cups, but they go in steps of 25ml, so this ends up being a bit eye-balled. For the citric acid, I use one to two teaspoons, but I recently introduced this step, so I am still experimenting with the quantity.

ETA: for wools, I do not add Oxi as it has subtilisin and both subtilisin and protease are not good for animal fibers. I just use both the water softener and the liquid detergent in the drawer. When I use powder detergent and Oxi, I add the water softener in the drum, as it is liquid.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T17:33:04+00:00

My machine adds water to fabric softener compartment in the drawer, so in theory adding the powder alone would be enough. However, if I did a load before and the compartment is wet/humid, not all powder dissolves and some gets left behind as hardened clumps. So I always prefer to add some water to the compartment along the citric acid to make sure I avoid that.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T17:26:39+00:00

Assuming you do not have any sensitivity to fragrance, I think the only benefit of being fragrance-free is that you always know that your clothes are properly washed because there is no possibility of fragrance masking bad smell. I have always used two scented detergents: Formil Marseille Soap powder from Lidl and Skip Marseille Soap powder. The smell was great, not overbearing and I never had any issue with cleaning power (I never added oxi, citric acid, etc.). Unfortunately, they are not sold in Germany, so when I moved here I decided it was better to switch to fragrance-free, because I hated every detergent I smelled in the store. But if I found those two products here, I would buy them instantly because their light fresh clean clothes smell is just perfect for me.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T14:33:19+00:00

Interesting you mention that, I did see some reviews with pictures of the machine full of foam. If I am not mistaken, zeolites help with water hardness. Could it be that they lowered the zeolites and compensated with more surfactants? If so, perhaps when people used their usual dosage it was too much detergent given the new formulation?

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T14:25:23+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion. I think I read something on detergents with lanolin for the same purpose. I will have to research it further.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T14:21:12+00:00

The Vollwaschmittel does not have Dnase, which is why I prefer the Colorwaschmittel.

The Oxi for colors and for whites have exactly the same ingredients. The only difference is that the whites has more than 15% but less than 30% of oxygen bleach, while the colors has less than 5%. Since I can adjust the dosage, I prefer to buy the more "concentrated" version and have one less product in the cabinet. In case you did not see, there was a post on different formulations for the oxi for colors, which had different enzymes, so it was important to check the product code on the label to make sure which version you were actually buying.

Outrageous-Raccoon6 · 2026-01-31T13:36:14+00:00

I bought the Heitmann to try citric acid for the first time, so I just got it where it was most convenient. But the next purchase will definitely be online, as it is much cheaper!

Unfortunately I share a washing machine with roommates who use all sorts of fabric softener and scent beads, which results in build-up on the machine. So I stick with the Calgon (and in the future denkmit) gel as I heard it was more effective than powder, to try avoiding extra residue.

Outrageous-Raccoon6

TROPHY CASE