Which dishwasher gel to use?

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helicaldrive

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I never use pacs because I like to dose less to avoid etching and dulled dishes. And I have a water softener so I need to dose less than pacs.

Cascade powder started etching and clouding my glasses so I switched to Finish powder and it was fabulous. But my box is getting old so it isn’t cleaning flatware quite as well, and I have not been able to buy a new box because no stores have it anymore. I called Finish and they said they discontinued it last year.

SO, which gel would be less likely to etch? Finish, Cascade Complete, Aldi, Diamond Brite?

I noticed that Finish gel is chlorine bleach based, whereas all the others use enzymes.

So what’s the verdict?

Or should I buy Finish Classic tabs and cut them in half?
 
Cascade Complete gel is enzyme based (dark green bottle).

Cascade gel is chlorine based (light green bottle).

 

As to what type of deterrent is less like to etch, I don't really know.  But what I can say is that fine china manufacturers always recommended chlorine-based gel detergents rather than powders.  But that is somewhat out-of-date now.  

 

What dishwasher do you have and what cycles are you using?  

 

Mark
 
Thanks!

I did not know that fine china manufacturers advise chlorine based gel. Fantastic to know.

I wondered why Finish gel is still chlorine based and maybe that answers my question. It would be consistent with my experience that Finish is easier on dishes than Cascade. The NYT Wirecutter said that Finish powder did the best job on glassware. Thank you I agree. So sad it’s discontinued.

My DW is a Maytag, maybe 5 years old? I bought it because it still had a soft food disposer and no unsanitary manual-clean filter. I always use Power Blast cycle without Sanitize or Hi Temp options because I know that etching results from water that is too hot. I use Power Blast because it has a few more rinses, which makes all,the difference over the Norrmal and Auto cycles. The Maytag is an OK dishwasher. Before it I had a pre-Whirlpool takeover Maytag, and always used Cascade powder on the longest cycle, and never had any problems. The current Maytag, well, it’s quieter and in some ways it cleans slightly better, maybe, especially when I switched to Finish powder, but Cascade was awful in it, and I have to dose more detergent to get dishes clean. The real Maytag I filled the cups 1/4 full. This current Maytag I have to do almost 1/2.

I tried the Cascade Platinum sample pods that came with it and my glasses got etch lines with just one use so that was that.

Photo of current DW model number attached. Thanks again.

helicaldrive-2024012809340709523_1.jpg
 
I had a Maytag very similar to yours.  The PowerBlast cycle always did 4 rinses whereas Auto varied between 3 rinses and sometimes just a purge and a rinse, depending on the sensed soil level and options selected.  Thorough rinsing is thought to help prevent etching.

 

Are you loading the machine with dirty dishes?  Are you pre-rinsing the items before loading?  The PowerBlast cycle could be too aggressive on glasses with extremely soft water and very little food soil in the load.  Do not pre-rinse anything before loading.  At least it sounds like you are not overdosing the detergent.

 

By selecting PowerBlast, it seemed to do a main wash for about 1 hour, heated to 63 ºC / 145 ºF.  The Auto cycle would sometimes do the exact same main wash if it sensed soil, otherwise it was sometimes only 30 minutes and only heated to 48 ºC / 118 ºF.  A less aggressive wash can help protect glasses.

 

Are you sure the glasses are permanently "etched" i.e. damaged?  Have you tried cleaning the glasses by hand with vinegar?  If vinegar removes the etching from the glasses, then they are not actually etched and it will be a different problem that we need to solve.  Etching cannot be reversed.  I would be surprised if Cascade Platinum could etch glassware in just one wash!  

 

If it is etching, it's usually a combination of unpredictable bad fortune regarding the type of glasses (some are far more prone to etching while others are fairly immune), very hot water, very soft water, insufficient food residue on the load, long wash times, too much detergent for the conditions.

 

Mark
 
Hi

I never pre-rinse but I do wipe off excess grease or oil with a paper towel because my kitchen and laundry are the same stack, and laundry lint and grease/oil in the same wastewater pipe in an 85 year old house is not a good thing.

One exception. When I have a party everything goes in filthy dirty no matter how heavy the sauce and dressings are. After the dinner plates are in I will run Rinse Hold one or two times before the dirty dessert plates and glasses etc go in. Without running Rinse Hold first, the glassware, at the end of the full wash cycle, does not rinse clear of all the gook that was in the wash cycle.

Same was true using Auto and Normal cycles even on an everyday basis. Glasses were sometimes getting etch lines and etch cloudiness sometimes, and also sometimes were cloudy with crap that vinegar would remove, so that was insufficient rinsing. And the tub base by the door would get a buildup of gunk too. So I switched to Power Blast cycle and with its extra rinses dishes and machine were clean.. I’ve never used Quick.

All these problems occurred with Cascade Powder no matter what cycle I used, even Power Blast.

Never had all these problems with my prior Maytag dishwashers. This one has been fine once I finally figured out to use Finish Powder, and in what dose and with what cycle. But when I run out of Finish Powder it’ll probably be here we go again experimenting. Sigh.

Thanks for the link Whatsername. I noticed someone selling two boxes together for a fairly reasonable price, and I think that’s actually where the Finish I have came from. But Finish stated they discontinued the product last year, so at some point the product you buy from them will be stale.
 
Oh and one other thing

When the machine was new I tried both Cascade and Finish’s TOL packs that claimed to protect dishes. Shine shield and all that rot. In both cases the pods caused an oversuds condition and the machine sounded like it was totally choking on suds. No spraying was occurring. And no cleaning took place either.

As I said, I never had all these problems before and every GE and Maytag dishwasher I’ve had was perfectly fine. — perfect cleaning with minimal doses of Cascade powder and no dish damage. Until this latest dishwasher. Maybe I should forget the DW and start washing dishes by hand and be done with it.

Maybe at some point either it’s just not worth the aggravation. That, or just buy dishes every year or so and the heck with it.
 
None

Because they caused massive oversudsing that choked the machine.

I’m going to try several gels and if there are problems, just give up on a dishwasher. Not in the mood to work through all the complications I went through to get to a solution with Finish Powder.
 
When I have run out of Finish in the past, I have had good results using Cascade or Target store brand powder in the main compartment + LemiShine booster in the prewash compartment. Have you tried it before? I get it at the grocery store but included the amazon link below as an example.

https://a.co/d/a5s4rlJ
 
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Tried Aldi Radiance gel first

It’s great! Better than Finish Powder. Tea stains came out of mugs. Everything was shiny and clean. Dishwasher even seemed brighter. So there. Seemed like the end of the world that Finish discontinued their powder and it turns out there’s a better sub. Yay
 
staying on topic (kind of)

I also have a Maytag (2014) model.

this post just made me think of something. A few weeks ago I started using Finish Quantum (pods). Prior to that, I had been using the Costco pods.. I was so glad when I finally used up the costco pods, right? I mean, they were fine I just figured I better stay with name brand detergent...Well..Wrong. Would you believe that the costco pods actually did a better job than the finish quantum? I was shocked too. I have to use STPP with the finish quantum. I didn't with the costco packs. Shocking!

I too wondered how well the chlorine gel would work but I haven't tried it in ages. I didn't even think about trying the Finish powder.
 
Off brand Detergent/Pods.

To mirror the sentiment above, I find that Great Value advanced pods work better in my Ultra Wash then Cascade and Finish pods do.
 
Brand-name products compared to store brands

Quality store brands are almost always better performers than brand names.

This also includes foods, brand-name, mayonnaise, ketchup, etc. etc. are usually not as good as a quality store brand ,brand names are always at a disadvantage because they’re overhead is so high.

John
 
Finish quantum vs powerball. Quantum is supposed to be their TOL product, isn't it? I always had the BEST LUCK with the individually wrapped powerball tablet...but I can't find them at my Costco. It's only finish Quantum or Cascade or store brand.. Back when Finish Quantum was introduced years ago as their best dishwasher detergent... I got a sample. I used it and could hear the dishwasher struggling from foam... I remember thinking, wow, so glad I only have a sample. I'll never buy this stuff... Fast forward >>, I gambled and got the Quantum again and it no longer foams like what I experienced years ago.

It does get the dishes clean but what I notice is that the interior of the stainless dishwasher has a slight coating of white (mostly on the bottom)... Not horrible..but I didn't notice this with the costco brand pods OR the Finish powerball that I used it in the past.

As for rinse aid... I can't use it. My dispenser leaks so I stopped using it... Even when NOT using rinse aid, the interior was much cleaner with Costo pods vs quantum... so it's NOT the fact that I'm not using rinse aid.
 

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