Laundry Cost Calculator: Cost Per Load, Month and Year
The Love Brands laundry cost calculator turns any detergent into a per-load number: enter the pack price and the number of loads that pack really delivers, and it returns cost per load, per month and per year at your own weekly load count. Use the same load size for every product you compare. For Love Paks, loads equal paks, because one pak washes one standard load.
Two inputs decide the answer, and one of them is usually wrong. The pack price is easy — it is printed on the shelf or the checkout page. The load count is the one people guess at, and a load count that is off by 20% moves the per-load figure by roughly 17% to 25%, depending on which way you guessed wrong. Most of this page is about getting that second number right.
The calculator: enter price, loads and your weekly load count
Fill in your household's load count once, then add one or two detergents. Leave Detergent B blank if you only want a single figure.
The arithmetic is deliberately simple, so you can also run it on paper or in any spreadsheet. If the calculator does not load in your browser, the three formulas below return exactly the same figures by hand. Every formula the calculator uses is written out under the method behind the calculator.
The three formulas, in one place
| Figure | Formula |
|---|---|
| Cost per load | pack price ÷ loads the pack really delivers |
| Cost per month | cost per load × loads per week × 52 ÷ 12 |
| Cost per year | cost per load × loads per week × 52 |
A worked example, using placeholder numbers that belong to no real product: a pack costs $24.00 and delivers 32 loads, so cost per load is $24.00 ÷ 32 = $0.75. At 5 loads a week that is 260 loads a year, or $195.00 a year and $16.25 a month. Change the pack price and the load count and nothing about the method changes.
Use 4.33 weeks in a month, not 4
A month is not four weeks. Twelve months of four weeks is 48 weeks, and the year has 52. Multiplying weekly loads by 4 undercounts your monthly detergent spend by roughly 8%. The correct multiplier is 52 ÷ 12 = 4.333, which is what the calculator above uses and what the formulas below use. If you are building your own spreadsheet, this is the single most common place it goes wrong.
How to find the real load count on any pack
"Loads the pack really delivers" is not always the number on the front of the box. Manufacturers state load counts in several different ways, and some of them are optimistic. Here is how to convert each one.
| What the pack says | What to enter as "loads" |
|---|---|
| A pak or pod count, for example "39 paks" | The pak count, if you use one pak per load. Adjust it if you routinely double — see below. |
| A stated load count, for example "96 loads" | 96, but only if you dose to the line the label calls one load. If you fill the cap, your real count is lower. |
| A volume and a dose, for example "150 fl oz, 2 fl oz per load" | 150 ÷ 2 = 75. Do this division yourself rather than trusting the headline figure. |
| "Up to 110 loads" | An "up to" figure assumes the smallest dose on the label. If the label gives a dose range, use the larger dose for your own count. |
| A sheet count, for example "64 sheets, 1 sheet per load" | 64, minus any loads where the instructions call for two sheets. |
| Powder by weight, for example "112 oz, 1.5 oz per load" | 112 ÷ 1.5 = 74, rounding down. |
The dose you actually use beats the dose on the label
The calculator assumes you use the labeled dose. If you over-pour, your real cost per load is higher than any figure on this page, and no brand switch will fix that. Liquid detergents are the easiest to over-pour, because the cap has more than one fill line. Pre-measured formats remove the over-pouring variable: the dose per pak is fixed before the pack reaches you. Love Brands makes Love Paks as pre-measured paks. If you are unsure how a pre-measured pak works in your machine, start with how Love Paks work.
Working out the real load count for Love Paks
A pouch of Love Paks holds 39 pre-measured paks. The dosing instruction is one pak per standard load, and two paks for a large or heavily soiled load. So the number to enter depends on your load mix, not on the pak count alone.
- All standard loads. Enter 39. Loads equal paks.
- A mix. Work out your average paks per load — 1 plus the share of loads that take two — then divide 39 by it. If one load in five is a large one, the average is 1.2 paks, and 39 ÷ 1.2 = 32.5, so enter 32 or 33.
- Mostly large loads. If nearly every load takes two paks, the pouch delivers closer to 20 loads, and your per-load figure roughly doubles.
This is the step most cost comparisons skip, and it cuts both ways: a liquid detergent's stated load count assumes a standard load too. Compare like with like. There is more on dosing in how many laundry paks should you use per load.
Because prices move and bundle sizes change, Love Brands does not print a fixed price in evergreen copy. The durable instruction is the division, not the dollar figure: take the current pouch price and divide by the load count you worked out above — 39 if every load is standard, lower if you routinely run large ones. The current pouch price sits on the product pages for Citrus Flower Blossom and Dye & Scent Free.
Comparing two or more detergents side by side
A comparison is only honest if every column uses the same rules. Before you read the difference, check all four of these.
- Same load size. One product's "load" and another's are not the same volume of laundry unless you make them the same. Pick your own typical load and dose each product for it.
- Same price basis. Compare the price you actually pay: after any discount code, before tax, and with shipping either included for both or excluded for both. Do not compare a subscription price against a one-time price.
- Same soil level. If you would pre-treat with one product and not the other, that difference belongs inside the comparison, not outside it.
- Same water temperature. Temperature changes your energy line, and it can change how much product a label calls for. Love Paks are formulated to work in warm or cold water, so changing temperature does not require changing detergent.
Formats are not directly comparable until you normalize them
Pods, liquid, powder and sheets are sold in different units — count, fluid ounces, weight and sheet count. Cost per load is the common denominator that makes them comparable at all. That is the point of running the division first and comparing second. Whatever the format, the same trap applies: check whether the instructions call for a double dose on a large or heavily soiled load, the way Love Paks call for two paks. If they do, the count printed on the box is not your load count, and the conversion table above is where to start.
Bulk and multi-pack sizes
Larger packs usually lower the cost per load, and the calculator will show it — enter the bulk pack's price and its full load count. Two cautions. A bulk pack only saves money if you actually use all of it, so buy a quantity you will get through, and store it where you would store any household cleaning product. And the up-front cost is higher even when the per-load cost is lower, which is a real constraint for some households and worth naming rather than glossing over.
Adding water, energy and drying to get a true per-load figure
Detergent is one line item in the cost of a load. Whether it is the largest depends on your machine, your utility rate and how you wash, so run the other three lines before you assume: the water, the electricity or gas your washer uses, and the dryer. The calculator above covers detergent only, so do these by hand.
Water
The US EPA's ENERGY STAR program states that "Full-sized washers that have earned the ENERGY STAR use 14 gallons of water per load, compared to the 20 gallons used by a standard machine" (energystar.gov, checked September 2026). Multiply your machine's gallons per load by your own price per gallon, which is on your water bill. Check whether your utility also charges sewer on metered water volume — in many US systems it does, which can substantially raise the effective price per gallon.
Washer energy
Take the estimated yearly electricity use in kWh from your washer's EnergyGuide label, divide it by the number of loads you run in a year, then multiply by your electricity rate. Your rate is on your utility bill, and that is the number to use. As a sanity check, the US Energy Information Administration reported an average US residential price of 18.34 cents per kilowatt-hour for June 2026 in its Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.3. Regional rates vary widely around that average, so your own bill beats it every time.
Drying
Run all four lines before deciding which one dominates. For many households the dryer is the biggest, but a hot wash can put water heating ahead of it, and a line-dried load has no dryer line at all. Use the same method as the washer: the dryer's EnergyGuide yearly kWh divided by your yearly loads, times your rate. ENERGY STAR states that heat pump dryers "use around 70% less energy than a conventional clothes dryers" and that a full-size electric ENERGY STAR dryer "saves approximately $210 in energy bills over the life of the product" (energystar.gov, checked September 2026).
Putting it together
| Line | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|
| Detergent | Pack price ÷ real load count, from the calculator above |
| Water and sewer | Gallons per load × your price per gallon, sewer included if metered |
| Washer energy | (EnergyGuide kWh per year ÷ loads per year) × your rate |
| Drying | (EnergyGuide kWh per year ÷ loads per year) × your rate, or zero if you line-dry |
Run the energy lines twice — once at your usual wash temperature and once cold — and the gap tells you what the temperature setting is worth in your own house, at your own rate rather than a national average. Love Paks are formulated for warm or cold water, and Love Brands covers that question in do laundry paks work in cold water.
For scale on how many loads this applies to, ENERGY STAR states that "The average American family washes about 300 loads of laundry each year" (energystar.gov, checked September 2026). That is a national average, not a prediction about your household. The calculator uses the count you enter, which is the number that matters.
What the results mean, and what they do not prove
Cost per load is a cost measurement. It is not a performance measurement, and it does not rank products.
- A lower cost per load is not a better result if the load has to be washed twice. A re-wash doubles the detergent line and adds a whole second set of water, energy and drying costs. Cheap per load and expensive in practice are compatible.
- Product that never reaches the clothes is money spent for nothing. An undissolved pak, an over-poured cap or a residue-clogged dispenser all raise your true cost per load without changing the number on the pack. Love Paks are made for standard and HE machines, and for warm or cold water.
- The figure excludes tax, shipping and any promotion. It is a comparison tool, not a checkout total.
- It says nothing about scent, skin sensitivity, ingredients or packaging. Those are separate questions with separate evidence. Love Brands sells Love Paks in two versions — Citrus Flower Blossom, which is scented, and Dye & Scent Free, which has no dyes and no added fragrance — and the choice between them is not a cost decision. See fragrance free vs scented laundry detergent.
- A price difference is not a quality claim in either direction. A higher per-load figure does not prove better cleaning, and a lower one does not prove worse. Cost and cleaning are separate questions, and this page measures only the first.
Where rose quartz fits, and where it does not
Readers running a cost comparison sometimes ask whether they are paying for the rose quartz. It is worth separating four different kinds of statement that get blurred together.
- Historical fact. Rose quartz is the pink variety of quartz, a silicon dioxide mineral, and has been cut and used ornamentally for a very long time.
- Cultural belief. In a number of crystal traditions, rose quartz is associated with love and compassion. That is a belief held by people, described here as a belief.
- Love Brands brand philosophy. Love Brands states that Love Paks are rose quartz infused, and builds the brand's identity around that. This is the company's own positioning, presented as such.
- Scientifically demonstrated. Nothing in the three statements above has been shown to change how the detergent cleans, or what a load costs. Love Brands publishes that it makes no health, medical or physiological claim about its products, and this page makes none either.
One naming point that causes confusion: the Aura Frequency Starter Pack is the name of a separate Love Brands product, not a description of what is in a pouch of Love Paks. "Frequency" there is a product line name. Background on the mineral sits at what is rose quartz, and the separate product is at Aura Frequency Starter Pack.
The method behind the calculator, in full
Published so you can audit it, reproduce it in a spreadsheet, or disagree with it on specific grounds.
Definitions
- Pack price
- The amount you hand over for one pack, before sales tax and excluding shipping. If you buy on subscription, use the subscription price; if you buy one-time, use the one-time price. Do not mix the two inside one comparison.
- Loads the pack really delivers
- The number of loads the pack washes at your dose and your load size, not the headline figure on the front of the box.
- Loads per week
- Your own count. Count for two weeks and take the average if you are not sure, because laundry weeks are uneven.
Calculation steps
- Cost per load = pack price ÷ loads the pack really delivers.
- Loads per year = loads per week × 52.
- Loads per month = loads per week × 52 ÷ 12.
- Cost per year = cost per load × loads per year.
- Cost per month = cost per load × loads per month.
- Difference over a year = Detergent A cost per year − Detergent B cost per year.
Rounding
Cost per load is carried at full precision through the calculation and rounded only for display, to the nearest cent. Rounding the per-load figure first and then multiplying by 260 loads can shift the annual number by more than a dollar, which is why the calculator does not do that. Loads per month is not rounded to a whole number. If you reproduce this by hand, keep the extra decimal places until the last step.
Stated assumptions
- 52 weeks in a year, 12 months in a year.
- Every load is dosed the same way, at the label dose.
- The pack price holds steady across the period being projected. It generally will not — see the next section.
- No allowance for product wasted, spilled or undissolved.
Known limits
- The calculator covers detergent only. Water, energy and drying are handled by hand, above.
- It cannot verify the load count you enter. Garbage in, garbage out, which is why the load-count section is the longest one on this page.
- It does not model softeners, scent boosters or pre-treatment. If you use those, price each one the same way — pack price divided by the number of loads it covers — and add it as its own line.
- A one-year projection from a single price is a snapshot, not a forecast.
Save your comparison and check it again when prices move
A cost-per-load figure has a date on it. Prices change, promotions end, and pack counts get revised — which is the part people miss, because a pack that looks identical can hold fewer loads than the one you bought last time. Re-read the count on the pack rather than trusting your memory of it.
Write the comparison down in a form you can re-run. Three lines is enough.
| Date checked | Product | Pack price | Real load count | Cost per load | Where the price came from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Re-run it when any of these change: the shelf or online price, the load count printed on the pack, the size of your household, or how you buy. Buying on a recurring basis changes the price you actually pay, so it changes the input — Love Brands offers a subscription option for Love Paks, and the current terms are on the Love Paks subscriptions page.
Two things deliberately stay out of the arithmetic on this page. Love Brands runs a give-back program called Loads of Love, under which a share of net sales from a participating organization's link goes to that organization; the current terms are stated on the Loads of Love page, along with how it works for nonprofits and youth sports. And packaging and ingredient questions belong elsewhere rather than in a price argument — the two product pages list what each version contains, and the Love Brands blog takes those questions on their own terms.
Compare your current detergent against Love Paks
Enter your current detergent as Detergent A. For Detergent B, take the current Love Paks pouch price and divide by 39, lowering that load count if you routinely run large loads. Love Paks are pre-measured plant-based laundry detergent paks made by Love Brands, sold in a refill pouch, formulated for warm or cold water and for standard and HE machines, in Citrus Flower Blossom and Dye & Scent Free. LOVE PAKS is a registered US trademark, USPTO registration number 8371488.
See Love Paks and today's pouch price · How Love Paks work · Love Paks subscription terms
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate laundry detergent cost per load?
Divide the pack price you actually pay, before tax and excluding shipping, by the number of loads the pack really delivers at your dose and your load size. For a monthly figure, multiply cost per load by your weekly load count and by 52 ÷ 12. For a yearly figure, multiply by your weekly load count and by 52.
How many loads does a pouch of Love Paks wash?
A pouch of Love Paks holds 39 pre-measured paks. The dosing instruction is one pak per standard load and two paks for a large or heavily soiled load, so the pouch delivers 39 loads when every load is standard, about 32 or 33 when one load in five is large, and closer to 20 when nearly every load takes two paks.
Why should a monthly laundry cost use 4.33 weeks instead of 4?
Twelve months of four weeks is 48 weeks, but a year has 52. Multiplying weekly loads by 4 undercounts monthly detergent spend by roughly 8%. The correct multiplier is 52 ÷ 12 = 4.333, which is what the Love Brands calculator uses.
Does cost per load include water, energy and drying?
No. The Love Brands calculator covers detergent only. A true cost per load adds three more lines: water and sewer, washer energy, and drying. Take gallons per load from your machine and your price per gallon from your water bill, and take yearly kWh from each machine's EnergyGuide label divided by your yearly loads, times the rate on your own utility bill.
What does Love Paks cost per load?
Take the current pouch price from the Love Paks product page and divide it by your load count — 39 if every load is standard, lower if you routinely run large loads. Love Brands does not print a fixed price in evergreen copy, because prices and bundle sizes change; the durable instruction is the division, not a dollar figure.
Am I paying extra for the rose quartz?
Love Brands states that Love Paks are rose quartz infused, and that is the company's own brand positioning. Rose quartz is the pink variety of quartz, a silicon dioxide mineral, and crystal traditions associate it with love and compassion — a cultural belief, described as a belief. Nothing in that has been shown to change how the detergent cleans or what a load costs, and Love Brands publishes that it makes no health, medical or physiological claim about its products.
