By Zach Pozniak, VP of Operations at Jeeves of Belgravia New York and fourth-generation dry cleaner · @jeeves_ny
Last reviewed October 2026 · based on my lab testing through 2025, with the score as it stands on my board in September 2026 · As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Some links here go to brands directly, and I may earn a commission on those too.
Tide Odor Refresh liquid is out of stock on Amazon, so its links go to the pods version; the score is for the liquid I tested.
Quick answer: Molly's Suds Super Wash powder scored 18.9 in my lab test, against Tide Hygienic Pods ↗ at 100 and plain water at 1. It made my list of the worst detergents I tested in 2025, and I would call it more of a laundry booster than a detergent.
If you chose Molly's Suds for a short, gentle ingredient list, these are the two free and clear detergents I rate highly for cleaning: 7th Gen Easy Dose ↗ and Dirty Labs ↗.
| Product tested | Molly's Suds Super Wash (powder) |
|---|---|
| Performance score | 18.9 |
| Measured against | Tide Hygienic Pods ↗ at 100, washing with water alone at 1 |
| What I would call it | More of a laundry booster than a detergent |
| Year-end lists | Worst performing products of 2024, worst detergents of 2025 |
| Water temperature | Molly's Suds' own instructions for their powder call for warm or hot water, or dissolving it in hot water first |
| What the score covers | Stain removal, and nothing else |
When I named the worst detergents I tested in 2025, I put Molly's Suds Super Wash powder next to Nellie's on the list for the same reason. Nellie's four ingredient formulation just is not enough to get your clothes clean, so I would treat it as a laundry booster rather than a good detergent, and Molly's Suds has a very similar issue. I said the same thing at the 2025 award show: more of a powdered booster than an actual laundry detergent.
Earlier that year I went through what is in their basic powder: washing soda, baking soda, essential oil and epsom salt. It completely lacks a true surfactant, which is the fancy word for soap, and depends on the washing soda to do most of the heavy lifting. When I tested it, it did really poorly, which is not surprising. Some of the DIY recipes on TikTok are better than that. The score on my board is for the Super Wash powder, and the four ingredients above are how I described their basic version, so I am not claiming the two formulas are the same.
None of that makes washing soda a bad ingredient. I rate water softeners like washing soda, borax and Calgon 8 out of 10, and they are a must-have if you have hard water. They work as boosters next to a real detergent. My guide to homemade detergent explains what washing soda can and cannot do without a surfactant.
I run every detergent through the AISE laundry detergent testing guidelines, the industry standard method. Cotton swatches get stained with 18 stains across five stain families, washed, dried, and then read with a spectrometer that measures the color before and after, so I can see how much of each stain actually came out. The result is averaged across cold, warm and hot water. I do not judge results by eye, because eyes are unreliable. In 2025 I put about 78 detergents through this.
This is purely performance. Price, formulation, ingredient safety and packaging all belong in your decision, and none of them are in the number.
In April 2025 a lot of people tagged me in a video where sludge was being emptied out of part of a washing machine into a bowl. The person who came to fix it had told the owner that Molly's Suds ruined their machine. I looked into it with Renee, an appliance care and maintenance specialist with six years of experience as an appliance repair technician.
Renee's theory was that the sludge clogged the drain pump, which stopped the machine draining, and that is why someone had to be called out to fix it. She could not say for sure what the sludge was, because she was not there. She did notice that Molly's Suds' page for their powdered detergent says you must use warm or hot water with it, or dissolve the powder in hot water before adding it, and in her opinion not following those directions could potentially lead to a blockage like that. She also pointed out that the machine might simply have been installed incorrectly.
I was inclined to agree with her. My view was that the product was not dissolving as intended and caused a traffic jam of soil, lint and detergent. But the short answer is that there are a lot of possibilities. Neither of us was there, so this is our best theory, not a finding about Molly's Suds. What it does point to is the warm or hot water instruction on the powder, and Renee's concern about what can happen when it is not followed. My washing temperature guide covers what each temperature is good for.
In 2023 I made a video about whether DIY laundry detergent is worth it. My fix for most recipes was to swap the shredded laundry bar for a real powdered detergent, and for a simple and safe powder I suggested Molly's Suds, Ingredients Matter or Nellie's Washing Soda. In the same breath I said that if you are going for straight performance, you should try a Tide powder or an Ariel powder.
My lab testing since then has answered the performance question. Molly's Suds was on my list of worst performing products for 2024, then on the 2025 worst list, and the board I showed in September 2026 has Super Wash at 18.9.
You want your detergent to remove stains. At 18.9 it sits much nearer the water-only control at 1 than the Tide Hygienic Pods ↗ benchmark at 100.
Use it as a booster alongside a real detergent, and follow Molly's Suds' own warm or hot water instructions for the powder.
If the short ingredient list is why you chose Molly's Suds, my best free and clear products of 2025 were 7th Gen Easy Dose ↗, Dirty Labs ↗ and Tide Odor Refresh ↗. The Tide Odor Refresh liquid scored 96.9 and only comes in free and clear. My free and clear picks and non-toxic picks go through them, and there is a full Dirty Labs review too.
If you want to stay with a powder, Nellie's POW Powder ↗ scored 55.9. Nellie's describe it as their laundry soda plus their oxygen brightener plus an added enzyme, and my Nellie's POW Powder review has the full story. For straight performance in a powder, my 2023 advice still holds: a Tide powder like Tide Ultra Oxi ↗ or Ariel 2X powder ↗, which tops my board at 102.4. Neither of those Tide powders comes in a free and clear version, and Ariel 2X is heavily perfumed, so skip it if you have sensitive skin.
Everything I have scored is in my tested laundry detergent rankings.
Not for stain removal. Molly's Suds Super Wash powder scored 18.9 in my lab testing, against Tide Hygienic Pods ↗ at 100 and washing with water alone at 1, and it made my list of the worst detergents I tested in 2025. I would call it more of a laundry booster than a detergent.
Because of what it is built from. When I looked at their basic powder in 2025, it was washing soda, baking soda, essential oil and epsom salt, with no true surfactant, so the washing soda does most of the heavy lifting. Washing soda is a good booster, but it needs a real detergent alongside it.
I cannot say that it does. In 2025 I looked at a widely shared video of a clogged machine with Renee, an appliance repair technician. Her theory was that sludge had blocked the drain pump, possibly because the powder was used without the warm or hot water its instructions call for, but she also said the machine might have been installed incorrectly. It was a theory, not a finding.
Molly's Suds' own page for their powdered detergent says to use warm or hot water, or to dissolve the powder in hot water before adding it to the machine. If you use it, follow that.
On my board, Molly's Suds Super Wash powder scored 18.9 and Nellie's Laundry Soda scored 18.8, and I put both on the 2025 worst list for the same reason. Nellie's POW Powder ↗, a different Nellie's product with an added enzyme, scored 55.9.
For a short, gentle ingredient list, my best free and clear products of 2025 were 7th Gen Easy Dose ↗, Dirty Labs ↗ and Tide Odor Refresh ↗. For straight performance in a powder, a Tide powder or Ariel 2X powder ↗, though Ariel 2X is heavily perfumed.
Molly's Suds Super Wash powder scored 18.9, and I would treat it as a booster rather than a detergent. It has been on my year-end worst lists in 2024 and 2025. If you like it for its ingredients, 7th Gen Easy Dose ↗ and Dirty Labs ↗ give you a gentle formula that cleans well. If you already have a tub, use it alongside a real detergent and with the warm or hot water its instructions call for.
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 featured in The Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine.