Fun thread, favorite dishwasher detergent?

[maytaga806]

Hello all I decided to throw a fun twist into today’s threads, what has always been you’re go to detergent for laundry and the dishwasher?

Mine has always been Tide and Cascade, I love the classic powdered Tide but currently I wanted to use something that has a strong scent so I bought the liquid Botanical Tide and it reeks beautifully, and does the best job as always in my Whirlpool direct drive. I’ve tried All it’s very unsudsy, not my favorite but it cleans very well.

As far as the dishwasher goes I’m kinda trying everything out, from Finish to all of cascades current products. My favorite cascade product is the gel, that comes in the dark pine green bottles which contain NO bleach like the classic lemon scented clear gel does which is honestly disgusting, why would you wanna wash you’re dishes with bleach? Yucky, not to mention how awful it smells as it’s running thru the cycle. Cascade now offers a free and clear variety, non scented gel and lemon essence gel and three varieties of new pacs, unscented, orange blossom, and again lemon essence which all received a 10/10 in my Whirlpool powerclean. But my go to is always the fresh scent or citrus breeze gel, works perfect plus the scent is so delicious as the cycle runs. I’ve tried finish and it does just of good of a job.

My opinion on pacs are simple, they offer no prewash and are such a waste of money unless you’re going to add liquid or powder for the pre wash like I do sometimes while trying the pacs. They are so expensive for a little bit of them when the gel and powder are much cheaper for much more bang. There is no difference in cleaning power in pacs compared to gel & powder. I highly recommend the dark green bottles of cascade. They also have an OXI variety which I’ve not tried but it’s the same gel just turbocharged I believe.

 

[nmassman44]

My fave dishwasher detergent has been that new Palmolive PowerPacs. They perform quite well with the water we have here in Florida where I live now. The second fave is Somat Excellence. It’s Persil for your dishwssher. Third fave is Cascade Platinum +dishwasher cleaner. Fourth fave is Claro Multi. These all perform quite well without needing a water softener. The worst by far that I have in my stash is Finish PowerBalls Max in One. This detergent leaves a lot to be desired and don’t get me started on the white film all over glassware and that is using a rinse aid , too.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

nmassman44

I am shocked nobody else has reviewed the Palmolive pacs yet. I have been curious.
However, where did you get those Somat tabs? I have been dying to try some for a while.

 

[rolls_rapide]

"why would you wanna wash you’re dishes with bleach?"

Two-fold action: to remove tannin stains, and sanitise the dishes.

Older powder detergents were highly caustic (sodium metasilicate) and had a chlorine based bleach (sodium dichloroisocyanurate). Good cleaning power, terrible fragrance, detrimental to fine china, delicate glazes and glassware.

Then came the liquids: less caustic, (sodium disilicate), still used chlorine. Decent action, gentler on dishes.

Then the compact powders arrived in various forms: at least one was based on the chlorine formulation (Finish Ultra Plus, I think it was).

But the majority were based on the biological enzyme formulation - with an oxygen based bleaching system and a suitable bleach activator, such as tetraacetylethylenediamine. Less effective on tea stains than the chlorine versions. These were the ones marketed as being kind to fine china and glassware.

Modern tablets/pods are based on the biological enzyme formulation, with oxygen bleach - and a bleach activator such as TAED, or a bleach catalyst - usually of the manganese variety - sometimes both.

Modern liquid-gels might not have any bleach system whatsoever.

 

[DADoES]

 
Walmart powder for an enzyme product (occasional use, on loads with scrambled egg residue).  Always add a little STPP to it.

Cascade Fryer Boil Out for everything else.

Tried one pod product, Cascade Platinum.  Can't use it, being an overdose and causes too much sudsing/foaming.  Haven't tried any others.

Have been using Lemi Shine liquid rinse aid.

 

[nmassman44]

The Somat Tabs are available on Amazon. Claro as well. Amazon has a few flavors of Somat detergents to choose from and they all work quite well I might add. I also use thier rinse aid and love the
bottle for ease of refilling the dishwasher dispenser without spillage...

 

[chestermikeuk]

Claro Dishwasher Powder, Rinse Aid & Salt

Having tried a range of dishwasher powders, liquids & pods over the last 35 years from Finish , Sun and a range of own brands in a variety of dishwashers we tried Claro a few years ago and is the best to date , only need a small amount but it has every washload sparkling clean .

No messy liquids and I think I'm too old school to still understand why you would need to use a geletine type stuff to hold an amount of whatever in a pod etc ha ha

Claro also produce Laundry Powder which try as we have we can't find and faults with either , it's one of those brands that
" Does what it says on the tin"

claro - Grün. Aber gründlich.

claro is an Austrian manufacturer of dishwasher tab and detergents, which clean radiantly and at the same time protect the environment.

www.claro.at

 

[askolover]

I miss the Cascade fragrance from the 70's

 

[chaskelljr2]

My Arsenal Line Up, When I Finally Get My Dishwasher

Hopefully, a vintage Hobart Built KitchenAid Dishwasher (with a Stainless Steel Front Door Panel), or a More Modern Whirlpool.

If I can stretch the budget, maybe a Miele.

But anyway, here’s what will be my lineup.

But ignore the link in the post.

—Charles—

Dishwashing Lineup

 

[lovestowash]

I have a year-old Maytag, and it has a strange detergent dispenser design...I can't use liquids or gels, as they will dribble out of the dispenser before the main wash...powders will be partially diluted as water enters the dispenser during the prewash...Cascade pods create suds...so, I use Finish Powerballs...they don't suds, and I can hear the tablet drop intact at the start of the main wash...

 

[maytaga806]

Even though I’m no fan of pacs all that much, I LOVE the new Finish activblu. It smells amazing and cleans at a superior level.

 

[jakeseacrest]

Cascade Platinum and Finish Quantum are my go to for a full or heavy wash. I also use Cascade Complete powder for when I use the one hour wash cycle.

 

[yogitunes]

sometimes its a toss up....

an excellent machine can use a cheap detergent.....

a poor machine would need something more heavy duty detergent....

Dollar Tree powder or Vista from Aldi work very well for the cost....but then again, I am working with a superior UltraWash machine...

I add extra bleach to a number of loads if needed....

for the most part, dishwasher detergents dont need a fragrance....my kitchen or dishwasher doesn't smell from lemons when running or complete....

if I did want a lemon scent in my kitchen, I would toss a lemon in the disposer and pour a pan of boiling water in there, and flip the switch...

noted too....dishwasher detergents, mainly powders, work wonders in washing machines 'clean washer' cycle...as well as pool chlorine

 

[nmassman44]

While it true that if you have a dishwasher that is excellent to begin with performance wise, one can get away with using a cheap detergent except the water conditions need to be there as well. If not as in my case where the water here is naturally hard and using a Bosch Ascenta dishwasher, results can be wanting in many ways. The Cascade Platinum pacs do suds up some in our water but nothing like I was used to when we lived in Massachusetts. My LG dishwasher would almost choke on the suds that the pacs produced. I had to use Cascade Complete powder to get the best results from that dishwasher. When we moved to Florida I still had some powder Cascade left that I brought down and it was a disaster. White film on everything and the the glassware showed it dramatically. I had rinse aid in the dispenser as well and the filters cleaned before using. I had to switch to the Cascade Platinum pacs with dishwasher cleaner and it took care of the issue right away.
The Palmolive Powerpacs are new and I have been using it for well over a month. I came across them at , of all places, Dollar General, now it can be found at Publix and Target. I have not seen it at Walmart or Winn Dixie, yet.

 

[maytaga806]

Even though I’m no fan of pacs all that much, I LOVE the new Finish activblu. It smells amazing and cleans at a superior level.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

Currently in the line-up

 

 

[retro-man]

Changed recently from Cascade powder to Finish powder. Have tried a bunch of different pods but those foam up to much. Finish works so much better than the Cascade did for me. I now can run a normal wash with a heated dry and everything comes out clean. Was always running a pots and pans cycle with heated final rinse with heated dry to get mostly clean dishes. It has brightened up the interior of the dishwasher along with the door. It is a Whirlpool power clean. It has also gotten rid of the stains and crud that would accumulate along the bottom interior where the door closes over the tub.

Jon

 

[dustin92]

We use Cascade Platinum pods (I prefer the OXI version) and I use store brand gel (Meijer) in the prewash. Haven't found anything else that cleans in our hard water.

 

[frigilux]

I used Member’s Mark Ultimate Clean pacs from Sam’s Club for years, but they’ve been unavailable since soon after the pandemic hit. There’s been no explanation; they just disappeared.

Now I use Cascade Platinum Pacs + Dawn, which are available at the local grocery store.

Cleaning is top-notch from both, but the Member’s Mark pacs are only 10 cents apiece—compared to Cascade Premium + Dawn’s price of about 35 cents each.