Coming in January: Cascade Platinum

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supersuds

supersuds

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Last week, Procter & Gamble's CFO, Jon Moeller, spoke to investors in a conference call about the company's new product plans and dropped this tidbit:

"Looking forward we'll be launching Cascade Platinum in U.S. in January. This follows the successful share of building launch of Fairy Platinum in Western Europe earlier this year. Cascade and Fairy Platinum not only do an excellent job of cleaning dishes but they remove hidden grease in the dishwasher."

I'm among those who didn't know he had hidden grease in the dishwasher.

The first question that occurs to me is, can this possibly be a serious problem if the dishes themselves are clean?

Second, if the grease is hidden, how would you know if Cascade Platinum did anything about it?
smiley-tongue-out.gif


 
Cascade Has Lost So Much Market Share

To Finish after formulas were changed to non-phosphate so one assumes this is P&G's attempt to get back on top. Same thing with Tide "Vivid" attempting to right declining sales of that laundry detergent.

If one is using the proper dosage of dishwasher detergent then there shouldn't be grease left in the machine, hidden or otherwise.

Thankfully have enough older phosphate laden Cascade to last a long time so won't have to bother with this nonesense.

L.
 
I have so much phosphate Cascade I won't need to buy anything for about 10 years!

 

Gong through the Super forum archives, I see our UK/Ireland/Euro members have mentioned Fairy Platinum and Dreft Platinum (the name in Holland) and several mention that it is too foamy for good performance. It also seems to be the most expensive (big surprise).

 

Finish Powerball is very foamy for me, but it does perform well.
 
Fairy Platinum

is on sale here and I have given it a try but It causes over sudsing and the Simpson Silencio shuts down , anyone know why it would cause over sudsing ? (the formula does contain a healthy dose of phosphates)
 
Over Foaming

One is assuming it is caused by heavy doses of surfactants to compensate for lack of phosphates.

No one chemical does what phophates do in their own in terms of acting as a detergent builder. However there are plenty of surfactants that are mostly immune to the affects of hard water thus in theory reducing if not eliminating need for water softening agents.

The other culprit could be the built in "rinse aid" many of these new DW detergents have especially the tablets.
 
The Finish Powerball tabs I have are actually the old phosphate variety. I think it was a problem before the change to the non-phosphate formulas.

 

Using them in my very old (1990-ish) Hotpoint, which uses a relatively large amount of water and has a large space between the highest water level and the wash arm, the sudsing is noticeable but doesn't slow things down.

 

Using them in my mom's newer Amana, with limited space below the wash arm, you can hear it laboring. I don't know the exact cause, but it might be the wash arm getting bogged down in all the foam. Still, dishes come out clean. Must be a different story in the newest dishwashers that use a cupful of water.

 

I've considered cutting them in half, but you'd have to cut the powerball, too. Seems like a lot of trouble when I have a cabinet full of phosphate Cascade that causes no problems.
 
True, True.

Even as Electrasol and later Finish "Powerball" those tablets tended to cause excess froth. After one used up a stash purchased when Electrasol PBT went on clearance (one supposes to make way for the Finish variety), never bothered again.

In our 18" Frigidare would break the tabs in half and use 1/2 of each part in the pre and main wash cycles. That seemed to cut down on excess frothing a bit. As for the "Powerball" would just either store them away for future use, and or mash up and place in the final rinse. Since one has Jet Dry or other rinse agent in the dispenser there isn't such a strong need for them.
 
John,

I don't know if you've ever felt under the bottom edge of the d/w door where the baffle is or not, but there is usually a nasty build-up of a gray substance. I don't know exactly what it is, but I would guess it a combination of grease, detergent, dissolved food and maybe hard water. Sort of like the grey ring one gets when one tries to do laundry with soap and hard water.

Maybe they think this "Platinum" will help that, though I doubt it. The only thing I've found that removes it is scrubbing. We have softened water and still have some problems with it. And if one adds too much phosphate to the machine with softened water, glass will develop a permanent "rainbow haze" or etching. I believe it's referred to as "distressed glass".

Brian
 
Hi Brian,

 

I checked and you're right. It's kind of chalky like a bathtub ring, calcium I guess?

 

I just think of "grease" as wheel bearing grease, or something like bacon fat. Maybe we'll find out more when they roll out the advertising campaign.
 
I use Fairy Platinum and nothing else now. Whenever I check the filter it's clean each time, no greasy gunk all over it as there used to be with other detergents (including the standard Fairy dishwasher tabs). It's also meant to keep the inside of the spray arms free of any build up of grease or other residue, so that it doesn't get re-deposited on dishes. Most importantly, everything comes out perfectly clean after every wash. We have soft water and have never found it to be over-foamy, so all in all it's a product that - gasp - actually lives up to its claims!
 
I have a stash of the old Electrasol 3-in 1 tabs and since I alternate detergents each week(Miele tabs, Finish Quantum, Finish red ball, Finish powder, Electrasol 3-in 1 tabs, Finish Gel pacs) I  used the 3 in-1 tabs this week.  The non phosphate Quantum, the red ball tabs and even the new version of Finish powder with enzymes seems to clean very well.  Never seen any left over greasy  film in the filter or the tub, so I suspect Cascade Platinum is nothing more than a P&G advertising gimmick.

 

I tried using Cascade pacs for one load but they left the DW and dishes smelling of strong perfume.   The pacs cleaned but I really don't like drinking water from a scented glass so I sent the rest of the pacs to the trash.  I might try Cascade again if they made a version without scent.

 

 
 
Fairy Platinum

Well I have tried them several times, and to me, they definitely cause my Bosch to labour in the wash, with a thick head of foam on the water. The perfume used is rather overpowering too - which is why my mum doesn't use them.

Lidl, Aldi, independents and supermarket brands perform better with no froth. Finish is a bit frothy too.

Oh, and depending on the Finish tablet, the powerball has different functions:

The hard red powerball is a cold water pre-soaker. It dissolves in cold water.

The waxy pearl powerball (possibly now discontinued) was a rinse-aid. It only dissolved when the water alkalinity and temperature were right.

The earlier Quantum powerball was a white powder bleaching agent (oxygen bleach).

The current Quantum powerball is a red gel rinse aid.

And the Quantumatic automatic 12-shot dispenser (which was expensive rubbish, I might add), had a small pack of white powder hidden within the detergent column. I presume that this was a bleach, but I'm not sure.

I tried the Quantumatic dispenser (also apparently discontinued), on offer at local discount stores for £2. It worked fine for the first four washes, but then I noticed that some articles were left with detergent on them. They had a soapy feel to them. Plates and cutlery situated beneath the Quantumatic had streaks of detergent on them.

I opened up the dispenser and discovered that the remaining detergent shots had become wet, gooey and were leaking out. (I had suspicions that this might happen when the product was first released onto the market). Anyway, I popped them into a poly bag, and when I needed to wash a load of dishes, I took a pair of scissors to one of the shots and tipped the contents into the dishwasher's regular detergent dispenser. It seemed to wash fine. Had to rinse hands thoroughly though after handling them. I could not justify flinging damp detergent into the bin, let alone the thought that some wild animal might come into contact with caustic detergent at the rubbish tip.
 

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