Tide Boost Pacs Review: They Don't Work Well

by Taylor

I've now had two opportunities to use Tide Boost pacs (formerly known as Tide Stain Release pacs), both times in the free scent, and as much as I wanted to like this product I'm sad to say I just didn't.

The first time I used them they had the slightly different name and packaging, but as far as I can tell they haven't changed their formula or anything. That time, I received the product from Procter & Gamble when I did an interview about laundry detergent allergies. (See picture below to the right.)

I used them periodically with especially dirty laundry and I wasn't very impressed, because it didn't seem to do much better than just plain detergent alone, but I hadn't tried it on a specific stain, just on rather dirty and dingy clothes.

Things got busy around my house and somehow writing my review of this product just got on the back burner. (Although several readers provided reviews which I published -- you can see them here.)

However, this product caught my eye again at the store recently, so I bought my own bag to try again, hoping for a better result. I also gave it a better test -- my son's mud splattered soccer uniform (see picture below on the left).

After a particularly rainy weekend my son had a soccer game on a rain drenched field that practically squelched mud as you walked on it.

Needless to say throughout play he and his teammates and the opposing players got quite muddy. I took this picture of the back of his uniform when he got home, and as you can see both the pants and shirt needed major help.

I tried one of my favorite methods for removing mud stains -- presoaking. As my presoaker I used hot water, detergent, and one of these packs. I let the yucky clothes soak in the washing machine (I've got a top loader, so I can do this) for an hour with the Tide Boost and other laundry products, and then let the washer run like normal.

I took it out, and it really hadn't made much of a difference again. So, I tried the presoaking method again -- more hot water, more detergent, another of these pacs, and again -- the stains were not completely gone. I had to resort to Shout free stain remover and spray that everywhere, and rub with an old toothbrush and this finally removed the stains.

Needless to say I was unimpressed with the Tide Boost. I can almost guarantee if I'd use BIZ as my presoaker the stains would have been gone.

I've still got quite a few of these pacs in the bag, but I'm no longer trying to save them to deal with stained items, since I have no faith that they'll actually get much out. That's a shame, since they're not inexpensive.

Instead, I've just been throwing them in with my regular laundry, hoping maybe they'll make a slight positive difference, just to use them up and be done with them.

I definitely wouldn't recommend them, and don't think they're worth their high price.

I would love to hear from more people who've used this product, sharing your opinion of them, good or bad. Have you had a much better experience with them than I have? Did you think they didn't work well too? You can share your reviews and experiences here for this product, or any other laundry pretreaters and stain removers (or read lots of other reviews that have already been submitted).

Related Links At Stain Removal 101

{N-Z} Spot Remover Reviews

Tide Detergent Reviews & Information

Laundry Detergent Pacs Information & Reviews

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