Features

• Because HE washers use less water, HE detergents are designed to produce less suds than traditional detergents. If you were to use regular detergent in an HE machine, you might get detergent build-up in the laundry because it would not rinse clean. HE detergents can also be more economical because they are ultra-concentrated, which means you use less detergent per load of laundry.
  
  

Brands

• Most top-selling detergent brands produce a high-efficiency detergent. Just look for the HE symbol. Tide, Purex, Gain, Woolite and Wisk are just a few of the choices in HE detergents. They generally cost a few dollars more than traditional detergents, however, they are double or sometimes triple concentrated so you use less per load and get more loads of laundry out of each container.
  
  

Tide Detergent

• Tide's HE detergent costs about 30 cents per load, as of 2010. The majority of users report clean, fresh-smelling laundry and are happy with its stain removal effectiveness.
  
  

Gain HE Original Fresh

• Gain HE detergent is a bit cheaper, at about 19 cents per load, as of 2010. In addition to Original Fresh, it comes in other fragrances that produce fresh-smelling laundry, including Island Fresh and Spring Lavender. Gain users were not as happy with its effectiveness of stain removal as compared to Tide HE users.