Too Many Suds in the Washer

Too many suds in your washer can lead to poorly washed clothes and the need to wash them again. What causes this, and what can you do about it? Why are too many suds a bad thing?

Why Are Too Many Suds a Bad Thing?

Too many suds prevent a good wash by cushioning the clothes from rubbing against one another – it’s this rubbing that helps the clothes get as clean as possible.

Your high-efficiency washer continuously senses water and suds levels within the wash, and may also have the ability to adjust the duration of the rinse cycles. If you use a detergent that creates a lot of suds, it may trigger more rinse cycles that could add up to 25 minutes to your cycle, while wasting up to 10 gallons of water.

Too many suds in an HE washer can also reduce the cleaning power of your machine, according to the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA). Not only does over-sudsing affect your washer’s efficiency, but excess suds can also prevent some of the impurities from being completely rinsed out of the machine properly. This means that impurities can redeposit onto your clothes, resulting in odors or machine malfunctions.

Too many suds can also block up the system, which can prevent the washer from pumping out water and, in turn, cause more suds.

So What is the Cause?

The most common cause of excessive foam is using too much detergent or not using a quality detergent like Tide HE Turbo Clean. Tide HE Turbo Clean is specially formulated to deliver the right level of cleaning power when using the recommended dose for your load. Its added ingredients ensure the suds are also controlled at an optimum level.

How Can You Reduce the Amount of Sudsing?

The best thing you can do to prevent excessive suds is to add just the right amount of a quality detergent. The easiest solution is to use a pre-dosed detergent such as Tide PODS®, or use the cap or scoop that comes with your Tide detergent to measure out the correct dose.

Avoid using non-HE detergents with HE washers. Regular detergents are designed to be used when there is more water in the machine.

So you can end up with too many suds when you use a regular detergent with an HE washer. This extra sudsing can interfere with the HE washer’s tumbling action by “cushioning” the laundry, reducing soil and stain removal. These excess suds can also lead to residue buildup because they are not easily rinsed away.

Tide HE Turbo Clean Laundry Detergent is formulated to be low sudsing, so you can use the recommended dose for your load size without having to worry about over sudsing in your machine. Check your detergent's instructions to know how much detergent to use in order to minimize washer foam.

How Can You Reduce the Amount of Sudsing?

What Else Can You Do?

It’s also important to check your water's hardness. If your water is softer than you think, you could also be adding too much detergent, so check with your local water authority.

Anti-limescale products also soften the water, so stop using them if you have too much foam. Also check for any other water-softening system.

For an instant fix in a single wash, adding a cap of fabric conditioner to your dispenser drawer can help. It's best to add it when the machine takes in water for a rinse to prevent concentrated fabric conditioner from getting on the clothes. This should help reduce the amount of foam.