Question from andreawk
I was thrilled to discover Maggie’s soap nuts after reading about them on your website.
After about a month of use, I reluctantly gave up. I had a few problems, and maybe you can help me figure out a solution.
I have a new HE top-loading washer. What I found was that the brown from the soap nuts made my water slightly brown–not a dark, gross color, but still it changed the color of the water. This happened in cold as well as hot water.
I tried using fewer nuts, but it didn’t change this and then there were zero suds. I know that soap nuts are low-sudsing, but it’s my understanding that there should be some suds, right?
I tried adding a few nuts (in the cloth bag) to a small amount of hot water first and then adding that to cold water, but the small amount of water turned brown too. Hasn’t anyone else noticed this?
It seems to me that the reason that the soap nuts don’t work so well with whites isn’t because there aren’t any whitening additives in the nuts but because the water is discolored! And I’m not too thrilled with the idea of washing dark clothes in discolored water either.
Debra’s Answer
Well, I’ve been using Maggie’s Soap Nuts since they first came out and I’ve never had that problem. I’m stumped too.
Readers, any ideas about what’s going on here?
