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Costco dishwasher detergent?


Lostinabook
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Does anyone use Costco's Kirkland Signature Premium Dishwasher Pacs? I thought I needed a new dishwasher, but decided to try Cascade Platinum Packs first & they are *amazing*. They're also expensive though, so I'd like to switch to something cheaper if possible. I've read mixed reviews on the ones from Costco so am interested in others' experiences.

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They don't work as well as the Cascade packs in our dishwasher. The discussion about having to rinse dishes before you put them in the dishwasher is annoying to have for the length of time it takes to use up the Costco detergent, so the extra money for the Cascade is worth it for me.

I hate discussions about the dishwasher- rinse or not, tines up or down, what goes in the top, etc. Somehow my dh finds it a worthwhile discussion...

I get Cascade to save my marriage.

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6 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I haven't tried the cascade ones but do use the finish all in one tabs (which are currently on sale at Costco).  I don't use rinse aid but I find they do a much better job than the kirkland ones.

 

This is good to know--finish tabs were the ones I was using that had me thinking I might need a new dishwasher. Maybe I should stick with the Cascade after all.

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13 minutes ago, Lostinabook said:

 

This is good to know--finish tabs were the ones I was using that had me thinking I might need a new dishwasher. Maybe I should stick with the Cascade after all.

Have you always used finish tabs with this dishwasher?  If so and the cleaning has deteriorated, I would check the spray arms in  your dishwasher.  Mine have clogged several times over the year making me thinking the dishwasher was dying but when I cleaned out the bits of food that occasionally get stuck in there, it was like I had a new dishwasher again.

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We use the Kirkland pacs with rinse aid and a water softener. I am totally pleased with our combination. We rinse our dishes (well, I do and then I "encourage" other family members to do the same) and then I also run empty dishwasher with LemiShine once a month. I think we have a Kenmore dishwasher, about a year old. 

My mom uses the Cascade pods and one of her gaskets around her filter is going mushy. They have hard water and they do not rinse dishes. When I visit, I often wonder why their dishes aren't coming totally clean. They have a ~5 year old GE, so I'm not sure if the gasket plastic is degrading due to chemicals in the Cascade, poor design, age, or the hard water. 

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I do use the Costsco Premium Pacs and they work great. I haven't used the Cascade packets much - the one time I tried them, the packet didn't melt all the way. This was years ago when they first came out. I used regular Cascade powder for years and changed to the Kirkland brand just a few months ago. I haven't had any problems and really haven't noticed a difference between Cascade powder and the Kirkland pacs.

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I chickened out & got the Cascade. I may try the Kirkland ones next time, but I am loving having my dishes be *clean* without me having to soak & scrape them before putting them in the dishwasher.  I should check the spray arms in my dishwasher too since it sounds like that may be a problem.

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We have hard water. I alternate between the Finish Powerballs and Cascade. I find that alternating keeps things cleaner. Im guessing that it is because one is better at dissolving one type of mineral and one is better at the other. 

I also use the Glisten dishwasher cleaner periodically to clean the hard water deposits. 

I barely scrape my dishes and put them in the dishwasher. I expect my dishwasher to wash my dishes, not me.

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15 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

That’s us.  It’s just not enough of a cost difference per load that I’d be willing to deal with less clean dishes or gunking up my dishwasher.  We have had far better results with our water and Bosch with Finish tabs, and my kids can’t overdose or melt them together in the package quite as easily as cascade 😑

 

I buy the huge bucket of them when they go on sale at Costco.  I usually stock up and buy the 2 allowed at the discounted rate and it lasts until the next sale.  And they are on sale now!  $11.99 for 150 tabs.  

I am not stocking up on anything right now though as I am trying to keep the house uncluttered, so I will use what we have and if we need more, buy smaller amounts.

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10 hours ago, Tap said:

 

I barely scrape my dishes and put them in the dishwasher. I expect my dishwasher to wash my dishes, not me.

 

This is what I'm doing with Cascade. With Finish I had to nearly wash stuff--especially oily things like chocolate--before putting in the dishwasher. I'll have to try alternating Kirkland & Cascade. Dh acted like I was nuts when I was waffling between the two--"Um, the difference between the 2 is $2.50/month so who cares?"

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1 hour ago, DawnM said:

I buy the huge bucket of them when they go on sale at Costco.  I usually stock up and buy the 2 allowed at the discounted rate and it lasts until the next sale.  And they are on sale now!  $11.99 for 150 tabs.  

 

1 hour ago, Arctic Mama said:

(Pretty sure we just bought two tubs....)

I don't know if the limits are the same at all Costco's but our limit was 5 (I'm certain on that because I bought 5).

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1 minute ago, Arctic Mama said:

Us as well. That takes us to the next time they’re on sale, pretty much without fail 🤔

 

We do (roughly) one load per day.  Now that 2 kids are away, it is sometimes 2 days.   So, that might actually last closer to a year now.

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I use costco dishwasher pods, have a cheap dishwasher, only half-halfheartedly prerinse, and I'm never sure if I have rinse aid or not.  My dishes get clean.  Honestly, I think I just have good water for this.  I also have luck with homemade detergent or costco detergent for my top loading washing machine.  It must be one of the perks of living where water just falls from the sky every other day. 

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16 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

Oh man that’s my someday dream!  Dishes are still firmly in the 3x per day category. I’ll miss the kids but I won’t miss the volume of cooking and mess 😩

 

 

Actually, it was better when all the boys were home.  They rotated who was on dishes for the day and I rarely did them.  I now share with my 14 year old and do them half the time.

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8 hours ago, DawnM said:

 

We do (roughly) one load per day.  Now that 2 kids are away, it is sometimes 2 days.   So, that might actually last closer to a year now.

Um, Yeah I actually need a lot more than 2 to get from one sale to the next.  If we our home(which is all but a few days a year), it's a minimum of 2 loads a day with most days being 3 loads and my baking days are 4 load days. 

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I use Kirkland pacs in my newer Bosch dw. I have never used a rinsing aid in my life ever. I have always been convinced the rinse aid is just marketing. 

My dishes are always clean. (But I am a pre-rinser and I wouldn’t put, like, a lasagna pan in there.) 

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1 hour ago, Quill said:

I use Kirkland pacs in my newer Bosch dw. I have never used a rinsing aid in my life ever. I have always been convinced the rinse aid is just marketing. 

My dishes are always clean. (But I am a pre-rinser and I wouldn’t put, like, a lasagna pan in there.) 

I'm the same way & with the same assumption about the rinse aid. I pre-rinse really gross stuff (like the lasagna pan) and sticky stuff that tends to dry on (like rice), and if there's a glob of something in/on a dish, but that's it.

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I absolutely love the Kirkland Pacs. I didn't have to use rinse aid until I moved to a different part of town, but I think it is because the water is harder out here. Either way, not complaining about that since Costco either has the Rinse Aid as a BOGO offer or discounts it down to $4 a bottle which lasts about 2-3 months here. But we also do anywhere from 3-4 loads of dishes a day. I don't do much in scrubbing before throwing it in the dishwasher. On the rare occasion it hasn't cleaned it effectively, I just let it run again with the next batch of dishes. Always plenty to do!

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