I'm a little confused by all the laundry products marketed for use on whites - are any of them actual bleach? I've only looked in the cleaning sections of several Coop and Migros locations, but the threads on this forum mentioning "bleach" also seem to hint that real bleach is hard to come by.
Any advice?

This is what you want

Excellent! And can I find this in any ol' Coop or Migros?

yup, both should have it.

Down my way, the pharmacy sells all the potent (=effective) cleaning products. It took me a while to realise this. Is this due to a hazardous substance regulation or something?

I've seen these comments as well. Javelwasser smells and works like bleach as I know it. So what is the difference between it and "real bleach"?

That is to clean FLOORS and TOILETS!!!

They don't use bleach here to wash clothes as we do in America. For clothes you have to buy detergent for white clothes.

Read the instructions and you'll see.

We either use highly diluted floor bleach or, if that bothers you, Ace bleach.

um, it's for textiles too (link in German only):

http://www.eau-de-javel.info/info_usage_a.php

But I think what the OP was saying is he's confused despite looking at all the stuff. nzuelzke, I use this as bleach:

http://www.vanish.ch/produkte_vanish...powerweiss.php

Sorry, I should have been more explicit: I have tried several of the white clothes products and the results have not been comparable to that of bleach. But perhaps I just haven't used the right one. Any recommendations?

Still, in the States one often uses bleach to clean floors, toilets, AND laundry. All from the same bottle. Any reason that isn't true of the Javel product? Or is it that Swiss machines use less water and therefore may leave chlorine residue that could damage other (non-white) clothes?

I tend to use VANISH (UK product) to get stains out from whites and coloureds. It works for me instead of resorting to bleach which damages clothes over time. Pretty effective if you soak clothes overnight in a solution of VANISH and water; then throw it in the washing machine along with a spoonful of VANISH. The quicker you soak your clothes in the VANISH solution after they become stained the better the results.

yes, it is because some of them are classified as hazardous substances. The last time I got something at the pharmacy it was "Giftklasse 5," the highest, and I had to sign for it .

nzuelzke, Javel can indeed be used for floors, toilets, laundry, like bleach in the US. I don't use it for laundry though because it seems to wear out the fabric and I don't find it particularly effective at making white stuff white again.

The thread is a bit old now, but Giftklasse 5 had the lowest toxicity. Everybody was able to buy class 5 and 4 substances, they were marked with a red bar on the label. The class system has been replaced with square symbol categories.