Consumer Reports, Re-Reviews Dishwasher Detergents

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mich

mich

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 22, 2013
Messages
538
Location
Hells Kitchen - New York
They re-did there testing on the latest Phosphate Free formulations this month, and it's kinda interesting, what they found..

Just look what they wrote...
 
I myself...

Found it very interesting how, Cascade Complete even topped the rating scale, over P&G's new Cascade Platinum, even there Basic, Base line action pacs beat it out..

And Finish Quantum, still couldn't make a top rating.. There Gel Pacs & Powerball Tablets beat them out too..

And it looks as though, P&G has done a better job at formulating there Complete Powder, as it also earned a high score for cleaning results.

Another Shocker.. Palmolive's Eco Gel (Which is Chlorine Based) received a fairly good score as well. Even beat out the Finish Gel (not really a surprise) but for a brand that started off as Phosphate Free, I think they've really gotten it down.
 
You know..

It's a crappy camera, however, I don't appreciate the tone. It took me like 7 tries to finally get it, to where the text and everything looked clear enough to post, and the flash "cover up" wasn't purposeful.

You know, if your so concerned, you could go get a copy for yourself. I was just trying to be nice, and share. I think one, should probably be a little more appreciative, that someone even took the time to do so.
 
I'm not naming any names

Nor trying to start an argument or tick anyone off but... CR is copyrighted content and not too sure they would be happy with reprints (even if in photograph form) online.

Doing so could put our Fearless Leader on the hook for legal action.

Again, not trying to start trouble just pointing something out.
 
Thanks Mike (reply #4). 

 

As for the OP, being one who owns a non-cooperative scanner, I'm quite aware of the legibility issues stemming from photographing a printed document.  If anything, the fact that I was able to read line 34 should have been received as a compliment. 

 

Apologies for the confusion.
 
Sorry guys, I had to delete the image because the content is copyrighted and posting that is against the law. You are certainly allowed to talk about what they wrote, you just can't scan/photograph and post the actual article.

Doing so could put our Fearless Leader on the hook for legal action.<<<---Actually no that is an incorrect statement...

And just so everyone is clear, automaticwasher.org and vacuumland.org both have been officially registered with the United States Copyright Office. What that means if one of our users posts a copyrighted item and the owner wants to take legal action, the person who posted the item is responsible and not the website owners. It's called the "safe harbor provision" in copyright law (google copyright safe harbor law). If consumer reports saw that image they would contact me and I would be required by law to give the ip address of the original poster. Then Consumer Reports could take legal action against the Original Poster. So do be careful what you post online.
 
Yes, thanks, I found my copy (for some reason the mail carrier decided to let it slip through unread this time)...

I do note that in very last place is a product called "Laundress".

 

smiley-money-mouth.gif
 
I was surprised Cascade Platinum Action Pacs weren't at the top of the ratings! Part of what sold me on them was their superior performance on pots and pans. I'm no longer getting white film on my plastics, either, which was a problem with both Cascade Complete Pacs and Finish Powerball Tablets.

All the user reviews for Cascade Platinum at Consumer Reports Online ask the same thing: Why isn't this stuff at the top of the ratings?

The only explanation I have is that CR tests in very hard water, while I have mechanically-softened water.

Platinum actually bests their top-rated Cascade Complete Pacs for cleaning of dishes; it's the poor performance they experienced with pots/pans that lowered its overall score. Cascade Complete Pacs was awarded an overall score of 84, while Platinum gets a 79.
 
Well

has the phosphate FREE formula of Cascade complete changed in the past year??

I only ask because the last time I used it was about a year ago, and it was just "OK"......not the greatest.
 
So I have a question:

I am currently using German finish Quantum with >30% phosphate as my daily driver. Looking at the results, do you think I should try some Cascade to take back home or would I just be wasting my money? My dishwasher is a Bosch with water softener.

 

Alex
 
Kinda Stingy with the Info:

When I saw this report, I noted that there wasn't information about the actual hardness of the water used, nor the duration of testing - was it given elsewhere?

Consumer Reports used to give a lot more information about their testing methods, which helped you decide if their testing results applied to whatever real-world conditions you were dealing with.

Here in Northeast Iowa (Waterloo), water is so hard that many peoples' dishwashers are heavily crusted with lime deposits, and the dishes emerging from them are unspeakable. I have turned a lot of people on to Bubble Bandit, including one TOL KitchenAid owner whose stainless-tub dishwasher was so limed up it looked like an old Plastisol tub. The Bubble Bandit restored the dishwasher after a few uses.

There is nothing in the report I saw that helped me believe that extreme liming could be prevented by the use of the products shown. Maybe normal hard water, but not really bad hard water.

It may well be that these products do work in extreme conditions, but from the info given, I don't know that.
 
Alex, with a water softener, I doubt you'd have any problem using any of the top rated Cascade products. The only one I've used is Platinum, and it's okay if a bit sudsy, but no more sudsy than the Finish Quantum with phosphates I still have. Our water is of medium hardness, about 120 mg/L, and I have no softener.
 
When...

P&G released the initial formulations of Cascade Complete, (there wasn't Platinum around then) the complete pacs, and powder, were just horrible. They wouldn't clean even lightly soiled plates, let alone, pots or pans. Everything would come out covered in film, and one, just basically thought it was a lost cause...

Shortly around the time, Finish (formerly Electrasol) starting touting themselves as better than Cascade, major improvements were made. The Cascade Action Pacs themselves gained Sodium Citrate (a lemon based, salt) which, dramatically improved cleaning performance, especially in hard water.

And that wasn't all... Shortly around that time, Cascade Gel gained a Rinse Agent (Which, pre-phosphate ban, was P&G's best seller, and the most purchased automatic dish washing product) and also, did a fairly better job then the initial horrible formulations..

Cascade Complete Powder, itself, still doesn't have all the water softening agents, as the Cascade Regular Action Pacs, or Complete Pacs, but it does do a much better job then the 2010 formula. It has much more Enzyme Content now, (a big boost in dishwashing performance)and has much less filler, with more Sodium Citrate & Sodium Carbonate (so it does a much better job at keeping dishes film free.

The only thing.. that leaves me unimpressed with P&G . Is Regular O'l Cascade Powder. The Regular Cascade Powder, hasn't changed, much at all. It simply doesn't have enough water softening agents in it, to preform well, in even moderately hard water, plus, it doesn't have much enzyme content to do anything either...

It's just a sad lost little cause, imo. I remember Packaging Labels, that said "The #1 Automatic Dishwasher Powder" and at the time, it could do well. It had enough Enzymes & Phosphates to really get dishes clean, and I mean, Really clean. Maybe not enough to scrub dried on food, but it was a powerful detergent...

Oh, Memories. Gotta love the State we live in...
 
I can't remember how long it's been

I'm guessing a year (maybe more) since I purchased the case of institutional Cascade which has six big boxes and I'm currently on the fourth box which is almost gone and will be on the fifth box soon..........So it was just prior that I purchased the Cascade Complete phosphate FREE powder and Action Pacs....Both of which were just OK......This COULD have been late 2011.....I'm just guessing....I just remember at that time everyone was still complaining

I was hoping that by the time I finished the Phosphated Cascade, that the formula's would improve.......In the past year, someone gave me some samples of Finish Quantum, which, in my opinion, is BETTER than the institutional Cascade!! But it foamed (even with me having hard water) not softened.....When the dishwasher ran, you could hear how it sounded full of suds.....almost like it was working harder? But the dishes came out really clean. I finished the Quantum off and am back to finish the Cascade. I also tried a sample of the Finish Powerball and couldn't tell a difference between that and Quantum.....I don't think the powerball foamed as much.
 
When non phosphate DW detergents were released Cascade products had major issues. The P&G Cascade web site was full of complaints, so much so that P&G removed some of them.

Meanwhile there was Finish with Quantum non phosphate...performing much better than Cascade. Cascade has played catch up so the product is better...but Finish is still improving. I just used their newest formulation of Quantum without using any rinse aid and everything was dry...everything...even though my Dw does not have a heated dry, and the soil was light and the main wash only lasted 20 minutes.

Why am I going to buy Cascade before Quantum especially when Quantum is cheaper?
Why reward a brand that was late to the game and is now claiming to be the best when it isn't?
 
The Secert...

To Really, Dry Dishes, is to simply add rubbing alcohol. It causes a sheeting action, that makes the water sheet off your dishes, causing them to dry.. :)

Anyone Could fill there Rinse Aid dispenser with some, and get really good results. Although, I prefer to simply add the Blue Bottle, and not mess with it.
 
Are phosphate-free versions now required everywhere in USA?

As I posted several years ago, when a rumor arose here that phosphated DW detergent would soon be banned everywhere in the USA, I went to Costco and bought/hoarded three of their large canisters of Finish Powerball tablets. Each canister has 90-100 tablets. Given that I run the DW about twice a week, each canister represents a two year supply.

About a year later, some friends replaced a very old O'Keefe & Meritt DW (came with the house, built 1970s) with a new KA. Because the detergent door on their KA is very shallow, they can't close the door securely over a Finish Powerball tablet (my parents have a KA of the same vintage and it works fine with Finish tabs, but I digress). So rather than toss the two jumbo canisters of Powerball tablets they could no longer use, they gifted them to me. As a result, I am sitting on a 6-8 year supply of Powerball tabs, and have no plans to buy new ones any time soon. ;)

As a result, I haven't even bothered to check the packages in the market or at Costco. As a result, when my hoard runs out, I will need to re-research what is available for sale at that time in the future. In the meantime, can phosphated Finish be had anywhere in the USA, or is it all phosphate-free now? I am in California, which was not one of the states with early phosphate bans.
 
Regarding Consumer Reports results:

I suspect that water chemistry and the type of dishwasher they used favors one type of detergent over another. If you watch the video, the dishwasher they use looks like a whirlpool manufactured model. The Hi-Temp Scrub button is activated, too.

I have been betting perfect results with the older version of Finish Quantum (before they added the gel) in my Bosch dishwasher. I also have tried the newest version of the Finish Powerball Tablets. They do a great job too, but I think the glasses seem to sparkle a bit more with the Quantum. Just about every detergent I have tried results in clean dishes, so I think that is a function of the dishwasher itself. The differences between detergents for me are determined if stains are removed from white cutting boards, or how shiny the load appears.
 
I no longer subscribe so I guess I don't get to see the video ...no matter...but I wonder why they were testing using the high-temp power scrub option. Did they use this option the last time they tested.

I thought they only performed tests using a standard cycle and hi temp power scrub is not it.

Can't trust them as far as I could throw them.
 

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