By Zach Pozniak, VP of Operations at Jeeves of Belgravia New York and fourth-generation dry cleaner · @jeeves_ny
Last updated June 2026 · based on hands-on testing of 70+ detergents through 2025
Quick answer: Across 70+ detergents lab-tested on stains, Ariel 2X powder scored highest for raw stain removal (and is the cheapest per load), but it is heavily fragranced. For most people the easiest great choice is Tide Odor Refresh (the best-performing liquid, free of dyes and perfume), with Kirkland as the best value. The single most underrated stain remover is simply rubbing a little liquid detergent into the stain first.
Most "best detergent" lists are guesses. This one is not. As a fourth-generation dry cleaner, I tested between 70 and 80 detergents using the AATCC industry-standard method that the big testing labs use. In short: stain cotton swatches with 18 different stains across five categories, dry them, then measure the exact color of each stain with a spectrometer before and after washing. No eyeballing — I treat my own eyes as unreliable. Every product is washed in cold, warm, and hot water, including artificial body oil (the most common stain on your clothes), and the results are scored on a 1–100 scale where plain water is 1.
One thing to keep in mind: the score below is pure stain-removal performance. It is not my blanket recommendation. The right detergent for you also balances price, ingredient safety, and packaging — a product can top the performance board and still be wrong for you (the #1 finisher, for example, is heavily fragranced).
| Detergent | Form | Best for | Score (/100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ariel 2X | Powder | Raw performance & budget (~$0.07/load) | 102.4 |
| Tide Hygienic Power Pods | Pods | Top all-out cleaning | 100 |
| Tide Odor Refresh | Liquid | Best liquid; free & clear | 96.9 |
| Tide Original | Liquid | Affordable daily driver | 92.7 |
| Persil Advanced Clean | Liquid | Cold-water cleaning | 87.2 |
| Tide Ultra Oxi | Powder | Whitening & oxidizable stains | High |
| Tide evo | Tile | Most innovative; travel | 84.5 |
| Dropps Odor & Stain | Pods | Eco packaging; cleaner ingredients | 66.4 |
| Kirkland | Liquid / pods | Best value | 80–97 |
Scores are stain-removal performance from my own testing. Higher is better; plain water scores 1. Kirkland is Costco-exclusive — its liquid scored 80 and its pods an excellent 97.4.
It topped the board at 102.4, almost certainly because it's loaded with bleach that rips color out of stains, and it's astonishingly cheap at around 7 cents a load. The catch: it's heavily perfumed with dozens of fragrance ingredients, so if you have sensitive skin, skip it. It's also a messy plastic-bagged powder. Buy it for performance and budget, not for gentleness.
This is P&G's replacement for the old Tide Hygienic Clean liquid, and it's the best-performing liquid I've tested at 96.9. It only comes free and clear — no perfume to mask odor — which is rare for a top performer, and it's priced at the average. My ingredient-safety consultant said they'd actually buy it, which almost never happens.
Kirkland cleans almost as well as the premium names for far less — the liquid scored 80 and the pods an outstanding 97.4 (the third-best detergent overall I've ever tested). Both run about 15 cents a load, and there's a free-and-clear version. It's Costco-exclusive, but if you're a member it's the easy money-saving pick.
Powder has one trick liquids and pods can't match: sodium percarbonate, which releases hydrogen peroxide (oxygen bleach) in water and lifts color out of stains. We dry cleaners use it by the barrel. It's one of the best powders I tested. The only downside is that powder is heavy and a bit messy.
If your skin reacts, switch to free and clear, which by definition has no dyes or perfumes (the usual irritants). Tide Odor Refresh, 7th Generation Easy Dose, and Dirty Labs are my top picks here. Important: "unscented" is not the same as free and clear — unscented products often add more perfume to mask the base scent.
Don't confuse this with detergent sheets — it's a concentrated tile that actually cleans (84.5, sixth overall) because it carries a real dose of detergent. It dissolves fast, comes in cardboard, has a free-and-clear version, and works out to roughly a third the cost of sheets per wash. A genuinely good travel option.
Dropps cleaned well enough to land in my top five (66.4), and its packaging can't be beaten — a lockable cardboard box with petite pods that are great if you carry your products to a laundromat. The ingredients are milder than most, too. The catch is price: about double the average per pod.
If your real question is "what gets stains out," the single best tip I can give you isn't a special product at all: rub a high-quality liquid detergent directly into the stain before washing. Liquid detergent already contains the same surfactants and enzymes as standalone stain sprays. In my own side-by-side, an untreated swatch released 53% of its stains while a detergent-pretreated swatch released 67%. Let it sit at least 15 minutes — the longer the better, up to about 8 hours.
By form, pods clean stains slightly best (84%) over liquid (82%) and powder (74%), because their chambers keep the cleaning agents concentrated. But for oxidizable and colored stains — coffee, tomato, wine, curry — a powder with oxygen bleach (like Tide Ultra Oxi) wins, because that's exactly the chemistry those stains need.
If you want a dedicated stain remover on the shelf, I tested ten of them. The best were Miss Mouth's Messy Eater, Dad Mode, and — again — a high-quality liquid detergent like Persil or Tide Stain Release. OxiClean Max Force was the standout for makeup stains. The two to avoid: The Pink Stuff and Grandma's Secret Spot Remover (a stain remover with no enzymes is like bread with no flour).
Each form has a real strength, and the right answer is often to keep more than one on hand:
Detergent sheets look like the sustainable dream, but I've tested about a dozen brands and they all clean poorly. The reason is simple math: a sheet is about 4 grams of detergent, while a proper dose is about 24 grams — roughly one-sixth of what's needed, so the chemistry barely gets to work. They're also deceptively expensive once you use enough to actually clean, and most still use PVA plastic. If you want sustainable packaging, buy a powder in cardboard; if you want portability, use pods or the Tide evo tile.
For the strongest clean at the lowest price, Ariel 2X powder — unless you have sensitive skin, in which case its heavy fragrance rules it out. For most people, the easy great choice is Tide Odor Refresh (best liquid, free and clear). For value, Kirkland. For whitening, a powder with oxygen bleach. And remember: performance isn't everything — weigh price, ingredient safety, and packaging for your own situation. For delicate fabrics, specialty finishes, or a stain that's already set, professional cleaning is the safer move.
Or ask about any laundry or garment care question
Zach Pozniak is VP of Operations and co-owner of Jeeves of Belgravia New York, the Madison Avenue dry cleaner serving New York since 1979, and the fourth generation of his family in the trade. Zach posts garment care techniques as @jeeves_ny on TikTok to over 900,000 followers, and his book The Laundry Book, co-written with his father Jerry Pozniak, was featured on Good Morning America in October 2024. Jeeves NY's clients include the Metropolitan Opera, the Met Museum, and FIT, and the business has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine.
