Rinse Aid

[liberatordeluxe]

Is there much difference in quality between using Finish Rinse Aid as compared to Aldi's Magnum? Finish can be expensive if not on offer but just wondered if it was worth buying branded rinse aid when unbranded does the same job for a cheaper price.

 

[combo52]

Store Brand Rinse-Aid

I would try it and see if you like it, generally store brands are as good and OFTEN better than national brands. With store brands they don't have the cost constraints that big brand names have with their crazy advertising costs where they are paying millions of dollars on TV just to sell ketchup, and as a result of all the fancy packaging and marketing the ingredients are often skimped on in national brands more than you would think.

 

[rolls_rapide]

There is a difference

Branded rinse-aids like Finish, sometimes contain a more concentrated formulation, thus giving better drying performance. They might also contain zinc acetate, which is supposed to reduce glassware being etched (glass corrosion).

The shops' own-brands are much cheaper. They still work perfectly well as drying agents, but might not protect glassware. In this case, you could clip a Finish Protector Diamond onto the lower basket.

I have found that the shops' versions are more favourably fragranced, i.e. lemon smells like lemon; other own brands might be lime scented. Lemon Finish has some weird thing going with lemon-cinnamon combinations.

 

[chachp]

Finish Protector Diamond??

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">What is that?</span>

 

[retromania]

Jet Dry

Still looking for Jet Dry in the little basket. No such luck. It was the best for my circumstances.

 

[washman]

On the other hand

Ask yourself why said store brand is cheaper. What are you giving up to get that cheap price besides advertising?

I tried Bottom Dollah my essentials lemon dish liquid. Sure, it was certainly cheaper than the national brands. Problem is, it flat out does nothing,I mean nothing other than smell nice and make nice suds. I have to hand wash a Swiss Diamond skillet and this stuff does nothing at all to remove food or oil.

Same thing with their detergent pods. A total waste of money and an insult to detergents world wide. I dumped the remaining pods (sorry Frig!) and went back to Cascade Plantinum.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I buy my Finish at Sam's club

Can buy a bottle that lasts roughly nine months to a year for $7.89.  Recently as I was entering they handed me the flyer of the featured items that weekend,  Finish Jet Dry was one of those, took another $1.50 off at the register.  I bought two. 

 

Found a great deal on Cascade Platinum at Lowe's,  a 72 county box for $12 and some change.  Couldn't pass it up. 

 

[aamassther]

Andy, you can order the solid jet dry from Amazon.

 

[maytagbear]

Another place for solid Jet-Dry

at least around here, is Wal*Mart. I don't like Wal*Mart, but I like semi-local shopping.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[aamassther]

Meijer also sells it, but that MI, OH, KY and TN. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kind of miss Meijer. Lol

 

[fisherpaykel]

Finish Protector Diamond,Chachp, Rolls_rapide

Chachp, this is a crystallized chemical, I forget what exactly, meant to prevent glassware etching, it is contained in a perforated plastic clip on DW rack Finish stylized diamond case. I used it while it was available here in Vancouver Canada until it disappeared from store shelves about 2 years ago. Maybe pricing scared customers away or marketing was deficient, I think regular price was close to $10.,if IRC lasted 2-3 months and if it performed the job, and I have no doubt that it did, then really cheap in the end especially if you have soft water as we do. I think Pre-measured tabs or pods give too much detergent in modern DW's.

Rolls_rapide,what is your pricing in Scotland? Maybe I need to find an online source and import this glass protector, I feel it is a good idea.

 

[jerrod6]

Dont know about store brands, but there is no difference between Cascade Rinse aid and Finish.  I use Finish because it is cheaper in my area.  Also I have tried Miele Rinse aid - waste of money as far as I can tell.

 

[shantastic81]

I use cheapo white Vinegar.

Works for me!

 

[mark_wpduet]

Dumb question

I've thought about pouring vinegar into the rinse aid dispenser (I've heard some people do this and I did it a couple of times with my old dishwasher and it seemed to work well......but I wondered if the vinegar would do any damage since it's very acidic and just sits in the rinse aid dispenser.....Is regular rinse aid acidic? perhaps it's designed to hold something like this?

 

[combo52]

Vinegar in the Rinse-Aid Dispenser

I can not imagine that the tiny amount of vinegar released by a RAD would do any good.

 

[logixx]

A bottle of rinse aid lasts me almost a year, so I don't care if pay two or five Euros a year for it.

 

Here's what Miele says about vinegar:

 

[whirlcool]

We normally don't use a rinse aid, but this week we noticed that the small bottles of Jet Dry no longer seem to be available. All we could find were those huge 16oz bottles. So we bought the Jet Dry/Finish rinse agent 150 load bottle. I noticed that is doesn't seem to be as thick in viscosity as the original was. It's more like water now.

I find this rather odd as everything now is being concentrated rather than being more fluid and larger(and more expensive!) in size.

 

[launderess]

Just as with laundry

A final "sour" rinse in an automatic dishwasher will deal with any alkaline residue (on both dishes and interior of d/w),assist in removing dulling films and such cleaning power. End result would be dishes and glassware that probably sparkles but will not dry as fast nor as spot free as with a surfactant based rinse agent.

If one has very soft water and or isn't bothered by spots/residue on dishes then vinegar may work. Vinegar does not have the sheeting action of rinse agents so any yibbles left in the rinse water may not slide off. Without said sheeting action dishes may not dry as fast or at all very well without some sort of heat. If the final rinse and or wash temperatures are hot enough to cause flash drying the stuff might work, but still....

There are both commercial and domestic d/w rinse agents with various amounts of acids. These are recommended for "difficult" water conditions (high mineral content). The acid helps cope with hard water minerals whilst the surfactants and other chemicals perform traditional rinse agent functions.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Fisherpaykel

I spied the Finish Protector Diamond in Asda recently, priced at around £5.