Recently I had a coupon for a couple bucks off Tide AND Tide was on sale at Target. So I decided to give their new detergent for sports apparel (affiliate link) a try.
Tide plus Febreze Freshness™ Sport Liquid Laundry Detergent is supposed to be great at removing sport stains like grass, dirt, clay and blood. Oddly enough, the promotional materials made no mention about how technical materials benefit from different treatment nor did it say it removed sweat STANK.
It has mostly positive reviews online, so I figured it would be safe to make a switch from what we usually use and give it a try. Plus Tide is available at a wide variety of stores, so if it was easier to buy what we need all the better.
When I opened it I was surprised at how strong the Febreze-y smell was. My first reaction was that it was kind of “fruity”. But I measured out the appropriate amount, dumped it in and washed the clothes.
Pulling them out of the dryer I can definitely say they didn’t have any perspiration stink on them anymore… but that Febreze smell was definitely present. And when I went for a run in clothes that had been washed with it, I could still smell that scent AFTER the run. That was actually a little offputting.
Later that day my husband asked, “Did you do something different to my workout clothes?”
“Why?” I asked innocently.
He replied with, “They smelled really strong. I wanted to rip the shirt off because the smell was driving me crazy.”
I then told him that it was the new detergent and he said, “Yeah… don’t ever wash my clothes with that again. In fact, I feel like all of them need to be re-washed to try eliminating that smell.”
So if you like your clothes to end up with a strong, lingering scent this may be good for you. But I think in our household we would prefer our clothes to smell clean but not perfumed.
(And now I have nearly a whole bottle of Tide detergent that probably won’t get used unless I find someone who wants it!)
Jill Will Run 
I actually usually like Tide! Not sure what I would feel about still having that smell hanging around though? I will probably pick up a small bottle of it and try it out too. Thanks for the candid review!
I’m used to washing clothes in detergent with no scent, so a product like that would positively drive me insane!
I bet if you leave the full bottle at your local laundromat, SOMEONE will thank you for it!!!
Thanks for the review I have been looking for Tide Sport to try it out and I was worried that the febreeze smell would be a little overpowering I cannot do any type of strong scents
I would hurl if my clothes smelled! Actually, I’d probably have an asthma attack!!
I really dislike all febreeze products due to the excessive smell, so I would not have tried this one. I never use anything with any scent, since I am pretty allergic and overly smell sensitive. But starting to discover that I need something to wash all my sweat sports things. I think I will try the prowash stuff if I can find it.
thanks
what if you use less-than prescribed, so that maybe it washed out more? i’ve *heard* that you can often get away with less-than the caps recommend, but i’ve never experimented with it. i think that scent would drive me nuts!
…funny though, that we are complaining about too-strong of a fresh scent when you know we all give things the sniff-test sometimes and re-wear it! lol
I bought a bottle and the scent was a problem to me too. I actually haven’t noticed it much once I put clothes on, but I don’t want to use it for sheets because I think it would be irritating to sleep on. It’s the only detergent I have left now, so I need to go buy a bottle of “regular”!
Maybe try using less of it than they say you need?
I’ve never tried the detergent, but there’s a lady at work who likes to spray Febreeze around the office from time to time and I usually have to leave the room while the scent dissipates. Sounds like their products in general are a little overkill on the fragrance.
[…] you read my review of the Tide Sport detergent with Febreze… it wasn’t very favorable. My husband wanted all of his clothes re-washed after they […]
I love this detergent. I bought a shirt on eBay and it smelled so amazing I contacted the seller to ask what detergent she used. I buy laundry detergent based on how scented it is and how much of that scent stays on the clothes, this is a winner to me.
I tried Tide Sport with Febreeze. at first it was nice . The smell was awful and never dissipated.
It smelled like rotting apricots. I gave it to my neighbor she too couldn’t stand the smell
This detergent smells like wet clothes that were left in the washer for to long. It has a sour clothes smell….absolutely drives me crazy.
I thought I would try the Tide with Fabreeze before I even read this post. In fact I did a google search after trying it that read tide with fabreeze is awful. And it is.
I will leave my full bottle at the laundry mat, for someone to take home and buy the regular tide, so I can redo all of my laundry. I can’t stand the smell of it on my soft pillow caes when I sleep, or the smell of it on my socks when I take my shoes off, not to mention my tee shirts. Tide …you should pull this S…t of the market, you do your name a disservice, when you screw over your loyal customers.
I bought the Tide Sport detergent for my husband ‘s gym clothes. He has TERRIBLE sweat odor. He washed his gym clothes and I started putting them in the dryer when I saw that the were still sudsy. There were only a few pieces so I just put in my next load and washed everything with regular detergent. When I was putting that load in the dryer, I smelled my husband’s gym clothes and they stunk with his body odor Again. OK, now I realized the Tide product only MASKED the odor, not eliminated it. So I washed his clothes AGAIN, this time covering them with a cup of Oxyclean. When they were done, I smelled them again. NO CHANGE! Still stunk. Now I want to burn them.
I agree with all of the negative reviews. This is definitely not a sport wash – our gym close really smelled worse after they were washed. Back to Nathan’s Sport Wash for us!
Thank you all for these comments. My husband thought I was crazy that I was so sensitive to the overpowering and lingering smell . He purchased it and I prefer non scented. I have tried using less but the “aroma” is still too strong for me. We all have different body chemistries. I am giving an almost full one away or will leave at our local laundramat.