Instead, a niche market of biodegradable laundry sheets (also known as detergent strips) are greening up laundry aisles as an eco-friendly choice. How about powders? Sales have dissolved, and you’ll find very few brands on store shelves. Some pods are more expensive per load, too. (See our cautions about detergent pods, below.) Also, even the best pods, also known as packs, can’t match the cleaning power of CR’s top-rated liquid detergents. Although pods, also called laundry packs, are convenient to use, they present very real dangers if you have children in the house. Liquid detergents remain the most widely sold type. Henkel follows and is best known for Persil, and Church & Dwight sells Arm & Hammer and Xtra detergents. Procter & Gamble leads the pack, and its lineup includes Cheer, Gain, and Tide. In terms of sales, three manufacturers clean up, tallying up almost three-quarters of the money consumers spend on getting their laundry clean, according to IRI, a market research firm. A vast range of products come with promises that they’ll fight stains, keep colors vibrant, brighten whites, eliminate odors, or be gentle on your skin and the environment.

When you’re shopping the detergent aisle, though, there’s no easy way to tell which formulas deliver.

Our tests of dozens of laundry detergents show that there are real differences from one formula to the next-and that some detergents barely clean better than running a cycle with water alone.

Oxiclean laundry detergent