Earth Breeze Liquidless Laundry Detergent Sheets Review

• Biodegradable: Earth Breeze Eco Sheets feature some tongue-twisting ingredients, like glycerol and primary alcohol ethoxylate, but their manufacturer says they’re still hypoallergenic, vegan, and free of parabens, phosphates, bleaches, and dyes. Strips come in a pamphlet-sized compostable paper pack, taking up little space in your laundry cabinet. Added to the drum with your laundry, these low-sudsing sheets dissolve during the wash in cold, warm, or hot water.

• No mess: There’s no measuring, dripping, or overdosing. Just load your clothes and toss the appropriate size sheet directly on top. (That’s a half-sheet per medium load, one sheet per large load, and two sheets per heavily soiled load.) For front-loaders, tear the sheets into smaller pieces and insert them into the detergent dispenser.

• Carbon neutral: According to the company, carbon emissions generated by producing and shipping Earth Breeze are offset by native tree plantings, energy upgrades for low-income families, urban agriculture, landfill diversion, and environmental education.

• Subscription option: Earth Breeze Eco Sheets are mostly available online, by the pack or by subscription. At press time, subscribing could earn you a 40 percent discount via the Earth Breeze website, and $1.60 per order on Amazon. For every pack sold, the company says it donates 10 Earth Breeze loads to nonprofits, shelters, and charities.

We scrutinized Earth Breeze Eco Sheets in our scientific labs and at home. Hold onto your hat—here’s what we concluded:

In our strict labs, engineers use a colorimeter to analyze how well the laundry detergents we test clean tough stains on fabric swatches. Earth Breeze Eco Sheets earned only fair scores for removing body oils, salad dressing, and chocolate. The sheets removed dirt better, but their poor performance on tannin stains (coffee) and protein stains (blood) dragged down their Overall Score. As CR laundry expert Rich Handel says, “In our lab tests on tough stains, liquid and pod detergents clearly outperform these sheets.”

Expecting the worst, I tried out these eco sheets at home. I relied on an unscientific method: a skeptical eye, a keen nose, and a Frigidaire compact top-load washer.

On the normal cycle, Earth Breeze Eco Sheets seemed to do a fair job of eliminating odors and sufficiently cleaning my colored shirts, removing olive oil, raspberry syrup, and soy sauce stains (hey, sushi and chopsticks can be tricky) without any pretreatment. If you’re faced with tougher stains, though, you might want to supplement with stain remover sprays like the top-rated OxiClean MaxForce Spray.

The Earth Breeze sheets also purged odors and adequately cleaned my sweaty workout clothes and soiled towels, though the hot water I used probably helped. (We use cool water in our lab tests.)

Even so, I found that the sheets lacked the fragrance and brightening power of liquid detergents, whose ingredients include surfactants, enzymes, chelators, oxidizers, color, and fragrance. My white cottons looked dull, and despite the “fresh scent” claim on the packaging, the fragrance didn’t break through (even with two sheets) after the wash.

A big appeal of laundry detergents is that fragrant after-wash “fresh” scent, which is psychologically tied to perceived cleanliness. You won’t necessarily get that with Earth Breeze; it’s just not as strong. That’s not all bad. It could mean that Earth Breeze doesn’t leave residue on your clothes like other scented detergents can. Earth Breeze is touted as being safe for sensitive skin. Though probably unnecessary, the brand also offers a fragrance-free pack.

Earth Breeze Liquidless Eco Sheets are made for consumers who shudder at the thought of how much traditional detergent is dumped down washing machine drains and how many plastic bottles are piling up in our landfills. If you want to take a small step to protect the environment, these detergent strips may be for you.

And making the switch from liquid detergents to eco-friendly sheets like Earth Breeze will surely cut down on detergent overdosing, a common consumer mistake.

Per medium-sized load, their cost is in line with liquid detergents, pods, and packs. You can find a package of Earth Breeze Eco Sheets for $15 to $20, which will wash 60 loads. (We paid $15.99 at Amazon.) Consumer Reports estimates Earth Breeze’s cost at 40 cents per load, but you may find it for less if you shop around (or subscribe). Be wary when ordering: Some sites like Amazon rope you into a “subscribe and save” default. (You can switch to a one-time purchase.)

It’s clear from our tests that the cleaning performance of laundry detergent sheets doesn’t match that of liquid and pod-type detergents. But if your environmental concerns take priority over superior cleaning, bright whites, and fragrant fabrics, the sheets could be for you.

In lab testing, Consumer Reports’ engineers weigh the effectiveness of detergent formulas, washing machines, and specific cycles to determine which cleans clothing stains best. They test each detergent by laundering fabric swatches saturated with blood, body oil, chocolate, coffee, dirt, grass, and salad dressing using cool water and two identical washers. After washing, testers use a colorimeter device to measure the color intensity of remaining stains on each dry swatch, then compare it to stained swatches laundered in only water. Lab swatches are air-dried because dryer heat can alter the stains. The engineers also test cleaning performance in hard water, because its high mineral content can reduce the effectiveness of some detergents.