I contacted Fisher-Paykel whose representative declined to give an answer to your detergent question.  Instead he suggests that you call and they will answer the question directly to you.  I spoke to a rep in Southern California who said the number I used is fine and he supplied a second one, both of which he said will get you an answer 24/7.  The numbers are:

(888) 936-7872

(800) 863-5394

Try it and please let us know what you learn.

Thank you for posting and keeping us up to date. I'm so glad you seem to be resolving this.  It's bad enough that the laundry pile seems endless, it would be nice if the job was uncomplicated, wouldn't it?

I'd suggest using only about a tablespoon of super (3x)concentrated detergent.  When  using other brands, I find that half of the smallest amount usually works best.  That's about 2 tablespoons more or less. You can  add bleach or an "oxy" type booster.  Those don't effect the wash time. 

It does take a while to figure out what works for each individual machine.  Water hardness, detergent type and load size will be factors as well.

Jo-Ann

Jo-Ann

I also found that cutting back on detergent helped.  My clothes still come out perfectly clean.

I do have a couple suggestions to try.  First, you can use less detergent than the bottle suggests. Maybe your machine is trying to rinse out excess soap. Second, even if the load is not too large, having a mixture of clothes somehow helps.  For example, mix towels, socks and t-shirts rather than do a load of just towels.

If you can tell us what brand of washer you have, I can try to find out more information for you. You can also try this yourself by contacting customer service for the company, or even the store where you purchased the machine.

I hope this is helpful.