Cascade Platinum

[launderess]

@tolivac

First of all; ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww! *LOL*

Second have never pre-rinsed dishes in my life and never found anything creeping, crawling or otherwise infesting the inside of the machine. This with sometimes not running the machine for days until a full load is reached.

Vermin such as rodents and bugs will only find their way into a dishwasher, range, etc.. if they are present in the home. Otherwise it isn't as if fumes wafting through the air summon them from afar like a vampire to its's victim.

 

[jerrod6]

Or present in the building. The first place I took when I moved out of my parents was in a nice brownstone building with 10 units. I had a very spacious unit advertised with "High End" appliances, stove with two ovens top and bottom, KA dw, side by side refrigerator, two working fire places, crown mold ceilings, french doors to a private deck, parquet floors throughout, I was very happy and I thought I was set. Moved in, cooked dinner in my nice kitchen, eat in the dinning room. I returned to the kitchen to find the roaches sitting there waiting to see what was for dinner.

I was horrified because I'd never seen these things before. They had never seen me before so they scampered away. After a week or so, they got to the place that they didn't even wait for me to finish cooking, they would just come out and sit there waiting.

I had the KA of the 1970's with the air vent in the door, they began walking into it to inspect the dirty dishes. They also decided to check out the clean silverware drawer...you know...just in case anything tasty might be in there too.

I complained to management and they sent the exterminator, but my "friends" returned in short order.

Finally determined that the exterminator was doing one unit at a time, so the roaches would just move between floors and walls from one unit to the next.

After I complained loudly to management again, we got a new exterminator that did every unit in the building at once, every 3 months, then every six months.

END of the roach problem. I can understand how this problem could exist in buildings with multiple units and management that thinks it is common to have roaches walking around greeting company when they arrive.

Took a trip to business trip to Victoria Tx a few years later. The motel I stayed in was loaded with roaches. They mostly stayed in the bathroom area but I could hear them climbing around while I laid in bed. I mentioned this to management as soon as I arrived and they just gave me a funny look. That night on the local news the top story was the roach problem in the area. The roaches were walking through yards and down the street and these were BIG roaches. The news said that it was because of having a lot of rain and the heat. Then I understood why the folks at the hotel just gave me a look.

I never said anything more to the motel front desk, but I brought some food in every night placed it in the bathroom area so that the roaches would stay there and not venture into the bedroom area and crawl all over me. Even now I get the creeps just thinking about that situation.

 

[launderess]

Multiple Unit Housing

Yes, it is quite common that if one has vermin(rats, mice, roaches, etc..) in one unit rest assured they are elsewhere. That is unless things are in the early stages (the odd bug brought in on shopping bags, or rodent that got in), but make no mistake, if they stay long enough to set up housekeeping problem spreads.

So many building owners do things on the cheap and just to keep the complaining tenant or whomever quiet exterminate just that one place. Which of course is no good at all.

Several years back when our building had a mice problem the first exterminator was useless; Moi and others told those in power so and soon they got shot of him. The next service did the entire building every other day and demanded access to every apartment regardless. There were no "but I have pets, I can't be home, I don't see anything...", or some such excuses allowed. That was that and they've not been back since.

Have seen that show on cable television about that one; the exterminator in the South or some such. One home he was called to literally had roaches crawling like a plague over every single surface. Behind pictures, behind appliances, under sofa cushions, etc.. He Hoovered them up with a vacuum cleaner as part of "step one". Cannot understand how people could live like that.

 

[tolivac]

I have always had top prerinse dishes-even when I lived in an apartment that had a dishwasher.My Mom had to prerinse too,when she lived in Florida-otherwise like what I had-a CREEPSHOW scene.The neighborhood where I live has roaches all around-they are outside and everywhere.Don't know how many I have picked up in my collection of vacuum cleaners,Kirby,Royal metals,NSS M1 and so on.The vacuum cleaner place where I go to has em-he is next door to a restuarant.I think it would be impossible to get rid of them.The Gov't building where I worked downtown had roaches-and the exterminators say that type was only in that building-large ones as big as a mouse.When you step on one-it leaves a greenish-yellowish-brown spot on the floor that is hard for the janitors to clean up.You see many spots on the floor in that place in the halls where the roaches got "run over" by people walking the halls.And in that building if you are sitting at your workbench or desk-you see a "shadow" going across-Its one of the roaches in the overhead flourescent ceiling lamp!In that place would freeze them with electronic component freeze spray-those tough buggers would wake up after thawing out.My mouse problem has been solved-traps have been quiet this year.Last winter caught a dozen of the grey "Deedlers".Now-not a single mouse.The roaches in my area seem to hide outside most of the time and then come in when they smell or detect a food source-the dirty dishes in the washer.-or food left out.

 

[washer111]

Cockroaches in the Dishwasher

I imagine if they are entering with a LATCHED door, they are entering via a drain. No other way around it, I'm afraid. 

 

We've got the little ones (size of the tip of a lead pencil), the ones that fly and the small fat ones... The big ones live outside in the watersoftener enclosure... 

The little ones will sometimes end up in the DishDrawer. I don't think they are in the electronics, since there isn't a trail or any mess. They might just be "enjoying" some crud on the back of the drawer from me opening it mid cycle... I've only seen strays so far, so I'm not concerned. Besides, I think the temperature and "length" of washing keeps them at bay in there.

 

The rest of them nosy round the kitchen in the late hours of the day and early hours of the morning. You don't see them till at least 10pm and after 5:30am, they are back in bed. Whenever I see them, they had better run, because I squash as many as I can when I catch them. (Insert evil laugh here). Although, they don't really get anything to eat, since we keep the kitchen pretty tidy

 

[tolivac]

The KA dishwasher i have has a forced air drying fan system-they can get in that way as well-think that is more likely.There is plenty of room for a roach to get in when the fan and heating element aren't running.Otherwise if the fan and element were running-chopped and cooked roach!Haven't seen that.

 

[retromania]

Cockroaches

I have never seen any bugs in any of my appliances, thank goodness. When my cousin and I went in together and bought the 1941 duplex we live in from an elderly woman's estate, there were a few roaches here and there. We both said at the same time that just wouldn't do. I don't do roaches. They're just so nasty. I would be the first one on a chair if a mouse or roach crossed the room. Mac's exterminating comes every three months. Never see any bugs or any evidence of them. Once years ago at the office I walked into the clerical room and all the people that worked in there were standing on their desks. I asked what was going on? Somebidy said: "Oh, Andy...a rat....over there in the waste basket!" I took my place on the top of a desk next to a co-worker.

 

[tolivac]

Mouse in the generator.
At our transmitter site we have a 1.8Mw Caterpillar 3816 genset-used for backup power and "load management".Sometime a mouse was in the generator part-he got caught in the huge cast steel fan in the generator and his rear leg and another part of him are stuck on the fanguard grille-so someone at one point when the genset was run or tested-chopped and cooked the mouse.
At a remote microwave site-The place had one of those small outdoor Onan gensets-2 cylinder engine-12Kw.Fired it up-and a horrible smell-I chopped and cooked a snake!A snake made his home in the gen portion-when started-cooked and chopped him.the gen was OK-you could tell it hadn't been run in a while.

 

[frigilux]

Cascade Platinum: I love it! Cleans crusty pots/pans very well, which is my litmus test for any dishwasher detergent. I use Platinum for tough loads and less expensive Cascade Complete Pacs w/Dawn for light-to-normal loads. Platinum keeps the stainless steel interior of the LG gleaming.

It appears detergent manufacturers are finding solutions to the cleaning ability issues that cropped up in a post-phosphates world. Now if they could just solve the "turns aluminum dark grey" issue. It's not the color that bothers me, but rather the powdery crap that rubs off on dishtowels and tablecloths.

 

[mich]

While I'll admit, the Platinum Sample I received was promising, it struggled to rinse away potatoes on our Corningware, something it's Brother Cascade Complete (Phosphate Powder Version) could easily pull off.

Also, if guys really look well enough, you can find the old Phosphate Detergent still on the shelves.

I picked up a 100oz Box of Cascade with Dawn (6.4 Phosphate) for $4 a few weeks ago, at Big Lots.

For Kicks, I posted my "Platinum" Detergent

 

[rp2813]

I may have to try Platinum when my stockpile of phosphated Cascade is depleted.  Or perhaps by that time they'll have something even better on the market than Platinum.  I'm not inclined to buy a 5-gallon bucket of phosphated industrial or whatever.

 

Water is fairly hard here but I've been getting good results with my ISE Classic Supreme and phosphated Cascade, usually in both cups unless it's not a difficult load.

 

Last night just for kicks I tried a Finish Power Ball tab in the main wash cup.  Never again.  Spots and film on everything.  It was like having the Thundering Thermador back in the kitchen again.

 

[mich]

@RP, when I tried "Phosphate Free" Finish Powerball, in my Dishwasher, many of our glasses came out "etched" (scratch's on the glass) along with the film.

Powerball seems to clean plates and dissolve through food okish, but the Etching is horrible

 

[rp2813]

I got my first clue when I pulled out the glass carafe and filter basket assembly for my coffee maker this morning.  The carafe wasn't too bad, but the black plastic components for the basket were badly spotted.  That doesn't happen with phosphated Cascade.

 

I also noticed some sudsing during the main wash from the power ball even with the hard water situation here.

 

I'm going to give what I have left of the Finish to Dave's daughter.  She's going to be getting a new machine for the house they just bought.  I'll recommend Cascade Platinum to her as well.

 

Meanwhile, I need to investigate last night's results further.  I may have to run the whole batch through on a "Light/China" cycle to correct the sub-par results from the power ball.

 

[mattl]

Based on this thread I bought a pack of Platinum, did fine on some things, not so much on others. My plastic cutting boards came out fine, they only look this good with commercial Cascade, but the bottom of my Farberware stock pot looked terrible. Very discolored and spotty, never came out looking this bad with any other detergent, not sure why. I got a 40 pack so I'll be using it for a while, still think Quantum has done the best overall followed by Commercial Cascade.

 

[washer111]

Phosphates:

Yikes: I didn't realise Finish Powerballs could etch so badly... I know adding 3 tablespoons of Finish PowerUp to your dispenser will take the paint of a Pyrex jug though (Oops...).

 

We're still quite lucky here with our dishwasher detergent mostly containing >30% Phosphates. My Fairy Tablets, Finish Tablets both state this, the Finish powder doesn't (But its safe to assume). 

 

[mich]

The american Finish Powerballs claim to contain 'Etch Guard" however, if you just so happen to have soft water (2gpg here) the Powerball will leave a horrible etching on your glasses, in 1 Wast Load...

Needless, to say, I'll be sticking with Cascade. However, even in soft water, Phosphates provide a amazing cleaning boost, vs Phosphate Free.

 

[mich]

I actually wanted to ask, anyone here get spotting in Soft Water?

 

[roto204]

MattL

+1 here. It's interesting what comes out fabulous with Cascade Platinum--mostly everything. But it does do some odd metal discoloration that I've noticed on our pots and pans too.

 

[mark_wpduet]

I'm on my

fourth box out of six boxes of the institutional Cascade. I have had recurring dreams of Cascade laboratories finding a way to get dishes clean without phosphates by the time I ran out of my stash. I can't believe it came true!

 

[gelaundry4ever]

lemon burst

I just bought the cascade platinum pacs in the lemon burst scent. They have a pleasant smell to them as does the cascade complete citrus breeze gel that I have. They do a decent job of cleaning dishes.