[Bill Douglas]

As I mentioned earlier it's the Ph of the detergents you use. I used to work for Unilever in the factory where we made the stuff so It's a fairly educated opinion.

If you use a good quality normal laundry powder such as Persil you will get good results and it won't give the machine too much grief. Other ones like Vanish Napisan, which does a REALLY good job, but are very alkaline and will dissolve paint and cause corrosion.