What is your choice for Dishwasher Detergent?

[~sudsshane]

I am currently using Sunlight powder which is a decent product.
I also have a box of Electrasol 2in1 tabs with the "jet dry" ball.

GadgetSwitch recommended Wal-Mart's Great Value Dishwasher Powder..any thoughts on this?

What does everyone use?...Powder,Gel,Tabs or gelpacks??

 

[zipdang]

Hey Shane! Usually I use Trader Joe's Next To Godliness powder or Whole Foods 365 powder. Both work quite well for me and are very reseaonably priced. Lately I've been using Bi-O-Kleen powder with oxygen bleach, and it does a decent job, too. (Plus it comes in a plastic canister which keeps the moisture out and prevents clumpiness when stored under the sink.)

Oh, and I have a Bosch, very soft water (1/2 grain), and I use rinse aid. I'm not sure how well the eco-friendly detergents perform in hard water.

Several months ago I participated in a product test for Ecover tablets. They worked really well, but are very expensive, and I think equally good detergents are available for much less.

 

[oxydolfan1]

"GadgetSwitch recommended Wal-Mart's Great Value Dishwasher Powder..any thoughts on this?"

Yep, and it works perfectly for me! Much happier with it than the Electrosol 2 in 1 tabs. I also use a small amount in with my white laundry after Venus' recommendation, and it excels there as well. Definitely my favorite dishwasher detergent powder, and affordable too!

When I use a gel, the only one I've had luck with in my soft water is the Palmolive with Vinegar gel in the purple bottle.
Bear in mind, I have an old-school GE dishwasher that uses water by the oceanful, though, and that might more to do with the good results than anything else.

 

[bellalaundry]

I go between,

two. I use Citri-Solve, a non clorine brand, and Somat (german brand) tabs. Does anyone else use any format of Somat?

I find both brands do a great job (so far) with anything that I throw at them.

Guy

 

[~sudsshane]

Hi David!

I too have a Bosch.. Wish I could remove this glare on the pic, but my camera phone sucks! =)

 

[~sudsshane]

pic 2

 

[~sudsshane]

pic 3

 

[~sudsshane]

Hi David!

Do we have the same model dishwasher?

 

[joeekaitis]

Target's house brand or Stater Bros. house brand. Any house brand that's confident enough to list a "compare to" brand.

And I have one thing to say about $1 Sunlight dishwasher powder from Walgreen's:

Don't.

 

[~sudsshane]

$1.00 Sunlight Powder??

I was ripped off!! I paid $3.99 for mine at Publix. =)

 

[zipdang]

Do we have the same model dishwasher?

Yes, I think we do! Mine's a SHU66C05UC/14.

 

[zipdang]

I think yours might be newer (mine was installed in January 2003), as the top rack in mine doesn't have the hand-grip like yours.

 

[sudsmaster]

Great looking Bosches, boyz. I have a MOL model, works great.

Been using the Kirkland enzyme powder. Works well enough, except for the occasional enzyme (I think) odor at the end of a wash. Generally doesn't happen if I go light on the detergent amount.

Consumer Reports consistently gives the Walmart Great Value powder top marks. I have tried it but didn't see that it cleaned any better than the Kirkland stuff. But when I run out of the Kirkland (somebody keeps on buying it in two-packs) I'll give the Wally World stuff another go.

 

[zipdang]

Kirkland stuff

Sudsmaster, I'm not sure I know of the Kirkland version that comes in a two-pack. Have only seen the one that comes in the huge bucket. Do you know if they are the same formula?

I'll bet your MOL Bosch cleans every bit as well as the ones Shane and I have. Seems like typically the differences are rack design and cycle choices, which shouldn't really affect overall performance.

 

[panthera]

Walmart, definitely

When I am in Germany, I use Somat. That 30% phosphate formula + enzymes + oxygen bleach = 100% clean, no pre-rinsing or scrubbing of anything.
But when I am in the US the best of the castrated stuff is one with tons of enzymes. And the cheapest is from Walmart.
Ecover, by the way, has improved a lot over the years. It is the alternative/natural, 'organic' cleaner of choice for wealthy people who like to think they are 'saving' the environment.
Their first automatic dishwasher detergent caused several breakdowns and equipment failures back in the early 90's. They learned from it and their detergent today is ok.
Funny, some folks just have to have something 'exclusive'...
European detergents, unless they are the 3in1 or 5in1 (or now, 7in1) tabs, are made to work in the softened water of European dishwashers. They might not work as well as expected here in the US.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

Here comes the Sun(light)

Joe,the 1.oo product is SUNsations poder,not Sunlight,and yes the 1.00 stuff is horrible.

 

[joeekaitis]

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

That was the brand. I couldn't remember the second and third syllables.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

Nice 'n' Bright with Calgonite

As I mentioned in another post,Calgonite powder,fully phosphated was far and away the VERY,VERY,VERY best stuff ever.The glassware in particular glistened and sparkled as if an electric buffer was taken to them.Today's enzymatic detergents may have an edge on baked on,super encrusted globules of soil over those old chlorinated varieties,but they ,overall are NOT good at disinfecting or at coffee and tea stain removal or at tomato stained plastic tubs,and still cannot produce that level of gleam.Besides,the RCA Whirlpool FP50 one level wash action could get virtually any dish clean.It was a 1959 TL portable that I had in the late 70s when this Calgonite was out.But I still saw lower performance with any other brand of soap,especially Palmolive Crystal Clear.

 

[logixx]

For years, I have been using Somat exclusively. Now, I'm trying different detergents. Since we got our new dishwasher, I've tried Calgonit powder (cleans just a good as Somat), Calgonit PowerGel with enzymes (again, no cleaning complains), Calgonit Quantum (great cleaning but causes sudsing due to the built-in rinse aid) and finally Claro 7-in-1 tabs (not overly impressed with it's cleaning but didn't cause sudsing).

I'm also using the new Calgonit Turbo Dry "drying agent", which seems to work but I'm not fully satisfied yet. (see link below)

FYI: Calgonit is made by Reckitt Benckiser and Claro is the same company that also makes the Miele tabs.

Claro 7-in-1, PowerGel, regular powder, Quantum

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg0815491010478.html?6

 

[logixx]

Suds

Here's the amount of suds Quantum caused at the end of the main wash. :-/

Alex

http://finish.co.uk/quantum/

 

[sudsmaster]

David (Zip),

I'm surprised you haven't seen the two boxes of Kirkland powder bundled together with a plastic wrapping. The price is considerably less than that of the similar size single box of Cascade Complete (that is, 1/2 the price per oz). I haven't seen any buckets of the Kirkland powder, but, then, I haven't had to buy any dw detergent for some time now so I haven't looked recently.

Boyz, most of the major DW detergent powders sold in the US still contain lots of phosphates. All they have done is to substitute enzymes for chlorine bleach - which seem to work better at removing food particles than the chlorine did. The removal of the chlorine probably has something to do with environmental concerns, I suppose. I can still find chlorinated dw detergent at my local Mexican grocery. It's the "Power House" brand, made by Personal Care Products in the USA. The price was $2.29 for a 30 oz box. I use this on the rare occasions when I fire up the '58 KA top loader dw, as I feel the short wash cycle probably doesn't give enzymes enough time to do their thing. I've also tried some of those little rubbery packets of enzyme detergent plus rinse aid and haven't noticed a whole lot of difference in the KA results. The trick is to keep them from getting wet and leaky during the prewash part of the cycle.

 

[gyrafoam]

As described above, I use the "Kirkland" brand of powder sold in the double-box plastic wrapper from Costco.
Great stuff and inexpensive.

 

[selectomatic]

I don't think the removal of chlorine had much to do wit

I'm assuming that they took it out because plastics tend to permanently take on the smell of chlorine. My family had a set of melamine dishes and glassware in the early '70s, and it all ended up smelling strongly of chlorine once we got a dishwasher. We ended up replacing them with Corelle ware.

 

[maytagbear]

That's interesting....

I've had good results with Sunsations.

However, I usually use Cascade powder, either Complete or Pure Rinse (less expensive). I prefer their current scents to the original, vaguely pine scent of years ago.

I have used the Wal*Mart Great Value powder, and it does work well, however, I just have trouble giving Wal*Mart any money at all. Just do not like the place.

I am very glad to hear that the Target dishwasher detergent has improved. Next time I am at Bullseye Boutique, I am sure a box of it will leap into my cart.

I've had a flirtation with the Electrosol 3-in-1 tablets, but they suds so fiercely in my GE Nautilus.

When I'm through with the box, I won't get another.
Other than the sudsing, they work pretty well.

I tried the Cascade packets, and they were perfectly ok, but I went back to the powder.

As I said before, I miss the original American Calgonite of years ago.

I've thought of giving the Seventh Generation powder a try, but the store here in Kent that has it wants nearly 8.00 USD for the 45 ounce box. !!

As for rinse aides, I just get whichever is on special, or whichever I have a coupon for. I have a strong guess that they are more alike than different.

The Jet Dry basket ones are cute, however. Ater a few years, the dispenser on our first Maytag went, and I just used the Jet Dry baskets.

Kent City Water is just hard enough to make a rinse aide desirable, though not strictly necessary. Last I knew, it was around 4 grains per gallon.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[petek]

I like the Electrasol 2 in 1 tabs except for having to remove the little wrapper and discard it each time. I buy the 75 tab round container whenever I find it on sale like 2 weeks ago at Costco, $8 each which will last me for months. I tried the Cascade Gel with Dawn tabs a few weeks ago and they worked well though I saw no difference except that you don't have that little wrapper to remove and toss.

 

[hoover1060]

I like Electrasol too!

I have some of the 2-in-1 tabs, used those in the old Kenmore... since I put the KDS17a in use last year I have been using regular Electrasol powder, and I am pleased with the results.

 

[sudsmaster]

I think the age of Melamine dishware came and went long before mfg's removed chlorine from dw detergent. Melamine tends to absorb odors and stains from many different things. It may have kitch collectable charm but as a material for dishes it left a lot to be desired, in my humble opinion. Corelle on the other hand is great stuff and so far none of it has made its way into pet food .

 

[~sudsshane]

David, my soul sista.....

Mind me asking what you guys paid for yours?..We got ours for about $1100 at Southeast Steel...

 

[coldspot66]

Walmart Great Value is excellent for the $$$...Cascade paks with Dawn are the best I have ever used. They are great for dirty, greasy dishloads. I have used the Sunsations brand as well, and it works well also...can't beat it for $1.00. I agree that chlorinated detergents are better for coffee stained cups, but they are not recommended for stainless steel tub dishwashers...they will dull the finish after a while. Electrasol gelpacs do poorly, unless they have changed the formulation.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Chlorine versus Oxygen Bleach & Enzymes

Chlorine is a very effective bleaching agent and activates at low temperatures. The downside is that it is somewhat aggressive on certain metals, decoration and glassware. It has also been linked to the formation of toxic dioxins in waterways.

The enzymes used in dishwasher detergents are typically Amylase for starchy residues, and Protease for protein based remains. The function of enzymes is to 'crack' the adhesive stains' bonds, so that other components in the detergent can 'sweep' the remains away.

Oxygen bleach is typically percarbonate. It has poorer bleaching effects than chlorine bleach. It works best in hotter temperatures, though a bleach activator is usually added to allow the bleach to work to a certain degree, in cooler phases of the wash. Tea stains, and in particular tomato sauce stains on plastic, can be virtually impossible to remove with oxygen based bleach. They do fade with chlorine based detergents; but may take several cycles for there to be a noticeable improvement.