Cleancult Laundry Detergent Pods Review 2020 | Eco-Friendly, Zero Waste Laundry Detergent Pods
The Top Line: Not a buy. While we love Cleancult’s mission, we cannot justify purchasing the laundry detergent tablets — it’s way too pricey to use in bulk. The glass container is very pretty, beautiful enough to leave out, but tiny at 5”x4” — we recommend it to purchase only if you plan on leaving it on top of your counter.
We break it down for you:
Cost: $14.45 for laundry tablet container with 18 tablets. You can also purchase it as part of a larger “Complete Home Bundle” which comes with all of their products for $77.10 (25% off). Note that you will be signed up for an auto-subscription for the refill whether you buy a bundle or a-la carte.
Products Included: A “forever” glass container that comes filled with 18 fragrance-free laundry tablets. There are no scented options.
Coupons: You can sign up for their newsletter to receive 15% off your order. 20% off ordered on all bundles as well.
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Cleancult appears to have one of the simplest and cleanest ingredient lists, even when compared to other green cleaning products— and they are Leaping Bunny certified (the gold-standard in cruelty-free certification for personal care and household products companies).
Packaging: Everything was either 100% recyclable, refills come in paper cartons.
Good to Know: Their website doesn’t provide a ton of information, you have to go into their Q&A to find out how to use their products.
Purchasing & Shipping: Very easy purchasing experience. Shipping is also free if you purchase more than 3 items. However, be warned that you are automatically added into a refill subscription. You can of course choose to pause or cancel later, but generally a bit annoying to not have the option to just purchase for one-time.
Whats Your Impact? The biggest impact here is a major reduction in plastic due to the refill model. Additionally, Cleancult has a sustainable shipping system (they work with environmental agencies to plant trees to undo any shipping carbon they emit) and partners with Carbonfund.org to be a fully carbon neutral company.
Cleancult appears to have the deepest commitment to being green — from their simple ingredients lists to their Leaping Bunny status and carbon-neutral shipping process.
How Well
Did the Products Actually Work?
Overall the product worked well! But we’re not sure its worth the premium price…
Additionally, a little confusing — each tablet comes wrapped in what looks like a plastic (if you dig into their Q&A on site you find out that it is actually a biodegradeable film that you do not have to remove). Our first time using this we ended up removing the wrapper as it looks as though it is made to be removed. We also didn’t know where we were supposed to leave the tablet (in drum or in the drawer — we had to go to the site and look in Q&A one again to figure this out).
Our laundry came out clean and there was no residue from the tablet leftover in the drum.
We had a similar experience when trying Cleancult’s dishwasher pods.
1 Year Value
Comparison
Annual Value Comparison:
A typical family of four probably generates 8-10 loads of laundry a week — that’s 364 loads of laundry a year!
We took a look at cost when compared with the many options for laundry pods out there: Public Goods, Dropps, Method, Meyers, Tide, Persil Pro Clean, Grab Green and Grove Collaborative.
Money thoughts: Cleancult is prohibitively expensive if you do a lot of laundry—significantly more expensive than the other options. We’re not quite sure it’s worth it.
What We Liked:
✔ Drastic reduction of plastic—though the refill milk carton containers are larger than tablet based refills
✔ The glass bottles are beautiful and shatterproof. Especially important for items that stay out in plain view (eg. dish soap)
✔ Packaging is all recyclable
✔ Non-toxic, kid-safe, pet-safe, cruelty-free, hypoallergenic, vegan, gluten-free, Leaping Bunny status
✔ The most committed to being carbon neutral with their sustainable shipping process and partnership with Carbonfund.org
What We Didn’t Like:
✗ The most expensive option out there
✗ Glass container, while gorgeous, are much smaller than you would expect from the photos — they are roughly 5”x4” and fit only ~18 tablets. For a normal family of four, you would have to refill this every 2 weeks. We would want them to disclose dimensions/measurements on the site more clearly, and perhaps offer a larger size.
✗ It was confusing whether you are supposed to unwrap the tablets (turns out you don’t have to, but we had to go to their site and dig into their Q&A section to figure this out…)
✗ Auto-subscription into the refills — no option to just purchase one time
✗ No additional options for scent. Not a huge deal for us, but others may want scented laundry!
Our Recommendation:
Not a buy. While we love Cleancult’s mission, we cannot justify purchasing the laundry detergent tablets — it’s way too pricey to use in bulk. The container is very pretty, beautiful enough to leave out, but tiny at 5”x4” — we recommend it to purchase only if you plan on leaving it out or on top of your counter. It’s much too small for actual storage purposes.
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!
