Whirlpool Launches Laundry Detergent Line

By Alan Wolf, YSN

Whirlpool is looking to clean up the laundry business, and not just with its popular front- and top-load washers.

This month the appliance manufacturer is entering an ancillary market — laundry detergent. According to the company, its new Swash line of liquid laundry detergent was designed to address a common problem in American laundry rooms, that of over-sudsing the load, which can leave a soapy residue on clothes and a gummy buildup inside the washer.

The remedy, according to Whirlpool, lies in the Swash bottle. With just one squeeze, its “precision pour cap” dispenses a pre-measured amount of detergent for regular size loads. The product itself is an ultra-concentrated formula that cleans four times more loads than the same amount of standard detergent, or up to 83 regular loads per bottle, the company said.

Swash can be used in all model washers and is offered in two scented and one unscented variety.

It is currently available exclusively on Amazon, where it sells for $16 for a 30-ounce bottle.

“We’ve found that many people wash clothes with the idea that more detergent means cleaner laundry, when in fact using more detergent than you need can leave residue on clothing as well as build-up in your washer,” said Danielle Antonelli, Whirlpool’s senior brand manager for Swash. “We saw a real need to provide consumers with a product that makes it easy to get the right amount of detergent for every load while also helping boost your washer’s ability to fight stains … It’s a new way of washing based on a revolutionary idea to use what you need.”

In naming the new product, Whirlpool reached back to 2014 when it introduced a Swash clothing care system with Proctor & Gamble that freshened and smoothed wrinkled clothes.

In selling the detergent exclusively through Amazon, Whirlpool continues a partnership that includes Alexa-enabled smart appliances and the e-tailer’s Dash replenishment service, which can determine when supplies of detergent are low and automatically reorder more.

It is unclear whether Whirlpool intends to make Swash available to its dealer channel as an add-on accessory item.

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