Tandil Premium Island Breeze Laundry Detergent

This post contains affiliate links. 

At this point, I feel like a bit of an Aldi laundry detergent connoisseur. I’ve been using their various Tandil house brand laundry detergents for years. There are three of them, and they’re color coded as follows, in order of least expensive to most expensive.

The three house brand laundry detergents at Aldi.

• Blue bottle: equivalent to Purex Mountain Breeze
• Green bottle: equivalent to Gain Island Fresh Scent
• Red bottle: equivalent to Tide Original Scent

The Aldi laundry product line, Tandil, is not a company, and Aldi can be secretive about who makes their private label products. At the time of writing, the Aldi detergent bottles specify that they are not manufactured or distributed by The Dial Corporation (which makes Purex) or Procter & Gamble (which makes Tide and Gain). We do know, though, that all Aldi house brand laundry detergent is a product of Canada.

Years ago, I started out primarily buying the blue bottle Purex equivalent detergent at Aldi because it’s the cheapest. It doesn’t have quite the stain-fighting power as other detergents, but it gets the job done, and when it came to cleaning up messy baby or kid clothes, I could always supplement by dumping some BIZ or OxiClean in the washing machine.

Then, a couple of years ago, I began buying more of the red bottle Tide knockoff detergent, which is great at cleaning stains and has a nice scent.

One Aldi laundry detergent I don’t buy as much of — but which is good in its own right — is the mid-priced green bottle detergent that is comparable to Gain Island Fresh. Name-brand Gain is probably most well-known for its pleasant scent. It generally does a decent, if not excellent, job at getting stains out. If you want a detergent that really transfers scent and leaves a strong fresh smell on your clothing, you can’t beat Gain.

Here, I’m taking a closer look at the Aldi imitation of Gain Island Fresh detergent.

Price Comparisons:

Tandil Premium Island Breeze Laundry Detergent cost $6.99 for a 100-fluid-ounce bottle (3.12 quarts, or 2.95 liters) at the time of publication. That comes out to about 7 cents per ounce. A bulk 154-ounce bottle of name-brand Gain Island Fresh costs about 10 cents per ounce at Walmart at the time of writing, so you are getting a better deal with the Aldi detergent.

This is a Regular Buy, so you should find it at Aldi any time of year.

As mentioned above, this is the medium-priced Tandil detergent at Aldi. If you want the cheapest Aldi detergent, the stuff in the blue bottle that is a Purex knockoff costs about 6 cents per ounce, while the stuff in the red bottle that is a Tide knockoff costs about 8 cents per ounce.

One a side note, the cheapest detergent I’ve seen at any store is from Dollar Tree, where they sell LA’s Totally Awesome detergent for about 3 cents an ounce, but most of the bottles are on the small side at 42 ounces.

Using Tandil Premium Island Breeze Laundry Detergent:

Directions. (Click to enlarge.)

The bottle instructs you to use this like you would any laundry detergent. Sort laundry, separating colors from whites and lightly soiled items from heavily soiled. Select an appropriate wash cycle and temperature setting.

Measure detergent using the cap. For regular loads, fill to line 1 in the cap. For large or heavily soiled loads, fill to line 2. Add the measured detergent to the machine’s dispensing drawer, or for top loaders, add to the wash water and then add clothing. Check for colorfastness by applying detergent to an inconspicuous area of the garment, then rinse and dry. Look for color fading or bleeding. For tough stain removal, wet the stained area and apply a small amount of detergent directly to the stain and gently rub the fabric together. Let stand for 1 minute, then wash as usual. The bottle contains enough detergent for 64 loads, as measured to line 1 on the cap.

Ingredients include cleaning agents, enzymes, suds reducer, solvent, stabilizer, buffer agent, opacifier, brightener, water softener, colorants, fragrances, and water. This contains fragrance allergens. It includes biodegradable cleaning agents and contains no phosphates. It is safe for septic systems, and it was not tested on animals.

The bottle has the usual warnings. Don’t get it in your eyes. Keep out of reach of children. Don’t swallow it.

This detergent works just fine, and my family likes the scent. If you like Gain detergent, this is well worth trying. Its spot in the mid-range price point among Aldi detergents is also nice, if you want to feel like you’re splurging just a bit.

The Verdict:

Tandil Premium Island Breeze Laundry Detergent is the mid-priced house brand laundry detergent at Aldi. It’s sold in a green bottle, and it’s comparable to name-brand Gain Island Fresh detergent. It will cost you less than the name-brand stuff, and we think it works as well. This has a pleasant scent like what we expect with Gain detergent, and it’s decent at getting stains out.