Calculator
Laundry Detergent Calculator
Most people buy detergent by feel — grab a new bottle when the old one runs low, guess at how long it’ll last. This calculator turns your actual laundry habits into real numbers: how many doses you use a year, how many packs that adds up to, and roughly how often you’ll need to reorder.
Once you know how much you go through, our guides cover which detergent to buy: the best detergent for cold washes and the best detergent for HE machines.
Published
- Doses per year
- 286 doses
- Packs per year
- 4.5 packs
- Reorder interval
- about 81 days
Would rather not track any of this?
STUD is the home reordering system that lets you reorder your exact household products in seconds. Learn more
How we calculate this
- Loads per week (default)
- We start from ENERGY STAR's figure that the average American family runs about 300 loads a year (≈5.8/week), divide by the Census Bureau's average family size (3.15 people) to get a per-person rate, then multiply by your household size. That derived rate is our own arithmetic, not a figure either source publishes directly — the loads-per-week field is what actually drives every number below, so change it to match your real laundry. ENERGY STAR, "Clothes Washers".
- Average family size
- Used only in the per-person calculation above. US Census Bureau, "America's Families and Living Arrangements".
- One dose per load
- We count one measured dose — however your detergent defines it (a capful, a pod, a scoop) — per load. This is how "dose" is defined for this calculator, not an external claim.
- Machine type
- This doesn't change any number here. HE machines typically call for less detergent per load than standard machines — check the HE fill line on your own product's cap or pods — which is exactly why "loads per pack" is a field you set from your product's label rather than something we assume for a generic HE or standard machine.
- Loads per pack
- Defaults to 64 loads, a common bottle size, purely as a placeholder. Pack sizes vary widely by product and concentration, so there's no figure we could source that would be accurate for your detergent — replace it with the count printed on your own label.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does changing household size sometimes do nothing?
- Household size only sets the suggested default for loads per week. Once you edit loads per week yourself, it stops following household size — the loads-per-week field is what the math actually uses.
- Does machine type change the result?
- No. HE and standard machines typically call for different amounts of detergent per load, but that ratio varies by product, so we don't bake in a number for you. Set "loads per pack" from your own detergent's label instead, and the result will be accurate for your machine and product either way.
- What if my pack size isn't in loads?
- Convert it first. If your label gives ounces or a fixed dose count, divide the total by however much you use per load (in the same unit) to get loads per pack, then enter that number.
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