Dishwashing Detergents

[cleanteamofny]

What are you using today and are you adding anything else to make your glasses sparkle?

 

[animasinsulinpu]

Wal-mart

I just use that cheap great value stuff. Works very well. Then I use Sunlight with chlorine bleach to remove coffee and tea stains.....Bill in Az....

 

[rayjay]

Hi Larry. Using Cascade Complete Powder. I was never a fan of gels but......The new Cascade Gel All in One , meaning Complete, Advanced bleach, etc. (the one in Cosco) really, does a fantastic job. My7 new Electrolux diswasher is great, and the flatware and glasses come out sparkling. I also use Jet Dry.

 

[davek]

Don't buy Members' Mark tablets (Sam's Club) if you have hard water. I bought a huge box of that and it sucks. Leaves white spots all over everything and doesn't clean well.

 

[whirlcool]

We use Cascade powder regular for normal loads, Finish Power Tablets for heavy duty loads and Walmart powder for light loads. It seems to work just fine for us.

 

[dj-gabriele]

FINISH all in one tabs all the time!
I bought to 90 tabs box each and I have a reserve for the 2 months to come. They do a fantastic job at cleaning and don't leave any kind of smell in the dishwasher, plus this way I use only the low setting on the salt and rinse aid dispenser as the tablets are supposed to make up for them (but here the water is really hard so a little helps).
When these will be over I'll wait for the next sale and in the mean time use Carrefour (a chain of supermarkets) dishwashing powder as it works as nicely as Finish and a 3 kg box costs like 15 tabs.
I'm also curious to try those Lidl tabs as once Carlo told me they clean very well.

 

[rayjay]

I also like the Wal_Mart, Great Value detergent and also the A & P brand. These detergents work fantastically. I believe at one time the both of them were rated #1 by Consumer Reports.

 

[danemodsandy]

Cheep! Cheep!

ALDI's Reeva gel in the lemon scent.

Does a great job, no hassles, and very inexpensive.

 

[dogboy44]

I hate the scented dishwasher soap!

I wish they could make unscented like they do for everything else.

 

[variomatic]

Somat

I´m using Somat powder in my Bosch. It does a good job but I prefer finish powder. I´m also using Claro7in1 tabs and they work well too.

 

[laundromat]

Electrosol

Now known as Finish.This product has been the ONLY dishwasher detergent I will ever use.I had to replace so many pieces of my favorite Pyrex cookware,drinking glasses and other clear or see thru glass that Cascade had left permanent streaks and clowded marks on.I am sure my incoming hot water is at least 150F.I worked in restaurants where Electrosol was used in professional/comercial set ups and got great results using it along with its partner,JetDry.I remember that Economics Laboratories originaly made Electrosol,Finish and JetDry for comercial and domestic use.They had the list in alphabetical order of the 20+ brands of dishwasher manufacturers that recomended these on the side of the boxes they came in.

Admiral
Bradford
Caloric
Chambers
Coranado
Crosley
Firestone
Frigidaire
Gaffers and Sattler
General Electric
Gibson
Hotpoint
Insinkerator
JennAir
Kelvinator
KitchenAid
Ling Tempko
Magic Chef
Maytag
Modern Maid
Norge
Penncrest
Philco
Preway
Roper
Sears Kenmore
Tappan
Thermadoor
Waste King Universal
Westinghouse
Whirlpool

Now that Electrosol and Finish have merged again,They are dropping the E'sol and JetDry brands and focusing more on Finish as their sole line of dishwasher solvents.

 

[mysteryclock]

In my KitchenAid....

The Cascade Complete funky green and blue gel + powder tab pack, with about a teaspoon or two of LemiShine in the main dispenser too. Nothing on the prewash side. The LemiShine has really helped keep the inside shiny and bright, and all our glasses are not grey any more.

One word of caution though -- when LemiShine says on the package (in too-small type) "Don't use on porcelain enamel cookware..." they really are ~not~ kidding. I found that out the hard way after our big blue LeCreuset came out matte finish on the outside.

Ouch!

 

[maytagbear]

I'm currently

using the Target brand powder in my GE Nautilus.. does a very good job.

I switch off with Cascade Complete Powder.

However....my all time new favourite is SOMAT tablets!

I don't know what I am going to do next year when phosphate is banned in dishwasher detergent. I guess I'll try what they come up with, and then maybe start adding phosphate separately.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[cleanteamofny]

Water Softener/Lime

The reason why I've asked this question is because, Cascade has been doing its job with Jet-Dry
and the results been good but leaving angel halo on glassware bottoms. The only way to combat this problem
is with a tablespoon of Citric Acid in the main wash and glasses are shining like new!

I will buy a box of finish to see if it would leave any residue like Cascade without using Citric Acid.

Thanks everyone!
Larry

 

[maytagbear]

PS-

My glassware comes out fine, as long as I add a rinse agent.

L/Mb

 

[autowasherfreak]

I use Dollar General powder and it works great! It's $2.50 for a 2 lb box, and I usually buy two boxes and they last about 3 or 4 months.

Every other month I run half a cup of it through my Frigidaire front loader, it really makes that stainless steel drum shine.

 

[frigilux]

Here's my arsenal. I use the 2-in-1 Action Pacs with Dawn for most loads. I use the liquid/gel for my toughest pots/pans loads, because I can add more product to handle the grime. I bought the Complete Pacs just to try them. They don't seem to clean regular loads any better than the cheaper 2-in-1 Action Pacs, and they don't handle super-grimy pots/pans as well as the liquid.

 

[gyrafoam]

Finish Powder, and in spite of the hard water here in Roanoke, spots are never a problem.

 

[yogitunes]

also to ocassionally clean your dishwasher...add a tablespoon of "TANG" orange drink makes my dishwasher shine

 

[petek]

Normally always Electrasol now Finish tabs of some sort but I did just buy a little pouch of Sunlight tabs on sale cheap and they seem to be working ok

 

[tlee618]

For me it's Cascade Complete with Bleach. Does a great job and never a spot even without using Jet Dry but I do have soft water so I am sure that helps..

 

[xraytech]

Here I use Sunlight lemon scent gel, does just as good as others and is cheaper. Also use Jet-Dri, still get some spotting, our well water is very hard with lime.
Cant use powders or electrasoll tabs because they wont disolve.

Sam

 

[gansky1]

I bought a Rubbermaid one-gallon pitcher with a tight-sealing pour spout a couple of weeks ago and mixed some STPP with two boxes of Electrasol (now being called Finish) that contains chlorine bleach. The phosphate content has been dwindling in recent months and the Electrasol is down to 3.1% from a high of nearly 18%. I brought the level back up to around 12-15% in my mixture and it works wonderfully. The next time at at Target, I'll pick up another identical pitcher and mix some STPP with an enzyme detergent for the same effect. Many times, I use the enzyme detergent for the pre-wash and the chlorinated detergent for the main wash as it's hotter and better suited to bleaching action.

I do keep Somat rinse-aid in the dispenser but haven't added it to the KDS-17 since I installed it a month or so ago. I must confess that I've hadn't thought about it until now. Obviously, I haven't missed it ;-)

 

[appnut]

Cascade Complete powder.

 

[whitekingd]

The best for me is.

Cascade with Pure Rinse Shine, or Cascade Complete. I also like Par/Safeway brand.

 

[logixx]

My favorite detergent is Miele powder. It really cleans the heaviest stuff -> see link! Am currently using Turbo Dry rinse aid and Somat salt. I never use any additives but I do add detergent to the pre-wash.

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f142/Meine_Fotos/?action=view&current=2eef4deb.pbw

 

[mayguy]

I've used the basic Cascade for a long time.. Last Nov, I tried Norwex, and Not happy with the results of that on my newer Maytag. I have to wash my pans by hand after I use the Norwex.

Today, I was getting grocery, and they had the Finish on sale for $3.17. So I will try that as soon I use up the Norwex.

 

[gregm]

bleach and SS

I was told that DW dets with bleach are bad for stainless steel interiors; is this true ? I know bleach and/or chlorine is corrosive with anything repeatedly over time .......

 

[favorit]

LCB & stainless steel

Hi Greg,
clorine is an strong oxidant, anyway the amount of CB used in washers and dishwashers isn't an issue, even in the long period

Here in Europe we have only stainless steel DWs since the early seventies and all our detergents were CB based till mid 90s .... despite of chlorine dishwashers lasted much longer (and thanks to CB they washed better)

Commercial DW use LCB based detergents, yet never heard of damaged sumps/tanks

Even our washers had (have) the bleach compartment and had stainless steel cylinder and tub.

Have a 20 y.o. Candy FL in the garage. I was given it by my aunts, who are LCB addicted. I use it to wash wetsuits or rags/mops (with LCB). Despite it's a cheap/bad quality machine and the LCB abuse its SS tub and cylinder are still new

 

[aquarius1984]

Seems American shop brands are far better than what we get over here.

Made the mistake of stocking up on Sainsburys Lemon Dishwasher powder a few months ago when it was an amazing £1.24 for 1kg.

Now on the 3rd and last bottle and cant wait to get back to my old Finish powder, While it cleans plates and glasses to a reasonable standard it struggles so badly with roasting tins and casserole dishes and wont even touch tea and coffee stains.

Il admit now that I got sick of bleaching our mugs and gave up until the powder runs out.
Now have a cupboard full of mugs that are of varying shades of black and brown inside waiting the next week or so until I get some Finish.

Will load the lot into the DW and run them through a cycle with a good glug of LCB, then start again.

Wont ever use tablets, feel they are a total waste of packaging - much prefer the Finish in the 2kg refill bag.

Always use seperate rinse aids and salt.
Not any specific brands either, been using Tesco Naturally Rinse Aid recently and just replaced it with Finish.
Only thing with the Naturally one was I had to notch up the Rinse Dispenser from setting 2-5 and it still worked out cheaper than Finish.

Salt is whichever I can get at the supermarket im in the week I need some.

Currently finishing the last of some from Waitrose.