What type of dishwasher detergent do you use?

[Kassia]

I love pods because they are premeasured.  DH doesn't like them because he's concerned about the plastic from the pods getting on our dishes/silverware/glasses.  He's okay (but not crazy about) pods for the washing machine but not the dishwasher.  I used to use powder but always ended up overfilling the little cup.  I'm thinking about trying liquid/gel and was wondering what everyone here uses or recommends

 

ETA - I also forgot that powder tends to clump when opened for a long time and we don't run our dishwasher frequently when it's only me and DH at home.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Kassia

[Amethyst]

I use pods for dishwasher. Convenient. No overfilling like with the powder. The only downside is if your hands are wet and the water gets on the pods, they can stick together. 
 

I have tried pods for washing machine and hate them because they never fully dissolve. 

[regentrude]

Used pods a long time but am trying to cut down on plastic waste and am not convinced the much higher expense translates to much cleaner dishes.
I am back to powder. Comes in a cardboard box and is much cheaper than the pods.
I don't have any issue with overfilling the cup.

Edited April 29, 2023 by regentrude

[Katy]

I use pods, usually the costco generic brand. I just ordered Cascade Platinum Plus after I saw an instagram account try it with 12 hour dried on baked mac & cheese without pre rinsing. I think she was using a high end stainless Bosch.  

[Kassia]

9 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I am back to powder. Comes in a cardboard box and is much cheaper than the pods.
I don't have any issue with overfilling the cup.

One other thing I forgot about with the powder is that it doesn't store well when opened for a long time.  When it's only me and DH at home we don't run the dishwasher often so a box of powder would be open for a long time before we finished it.

[regentrude]

6 minutes ago, Kassia said:

One other thing I forgot about with the powder is that it doesn't store well when opened for a long time.  When it's only me and DH at home we don't run the dishwasher often so a box of powder would be open for a long time before we finished it.

What happens to it???
We're only two people in the home, and I run the dishwasher only when completely full. I close the pour spout between uses and store the box in the cabinet under the sink. Have not had a problem

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, regentrude said:

What happens to it???
We're only two people in the home, and I run the dishwasher only when completely full. I close the pour spout between uses and store the box in the cabinet under the sink. Have not had a problem

It clumps when opened too long from humidity I guess.  Maybe I need to buy the smallest container.  When it's just the two of us at home (most of the time) we only run it 1-2 times/week.  I don't store mine under the sink and put it in the pantry but it still gets clumpy after a while.

[MEmama]

I use pods because the other types create gross black gunk that clogs up my dishwasher. Idk why it happens,  but I'm not going through the time and yuck factor dealing with that level of grossness again.
 

I don't like the plastic waste either, but it's nothing compared to the waste that throwing out a functional dishwasher would have been. 

[MEmama]

3 minutes ago, Kassia said:

It clumps when opened too long from humidity I guess.  Maybe I need to buy the smallest container.  When it's just the two of us at home (most of the time) we only run it 1-2 times/week.  I don't store mine under the sink and put it in the pantry but it still gets clumpy after a while.

Oh yeah, humidity will do that for sure. Is it worth transferring the powder into a reused plastic or glass container that might have a tighter seal than the boxes do?

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Oh yeah, humidity will do that for sure. Is it worth transferring the powder into a reused plastic or glass container that might have a tighter seal than the boxes do?

lol, not to me- I want pods!  It would be such a hassle to pour after transferred.  But it would be worth it to make DH happy I guess...  😛

[Pawz4me]

9 minutes ago, Kassia said:

lol, not to me- I want pods!  It would be such a hassle to pour after transferred.  But it would be worth it to make DH happy I guess...  😛

I'd find a small scoop to use, like a coffee scoop or something similar. I'm also fond of these shot glass measuring cups for scooping small amounts of stuff like powdered dish detergent. I'd make a use mess if I transferred it to another container (which I think is a good idea to prevent clumping) and then tried to pour it.

[Clarita]

I like liquid. I've never tried anything else because liquid works. If I were to try something else perhaps I would try powder. The thing that I don't like about pods is that my dishwasher has a dispenser for the liquid/powder so it will insert the liquid soap at the right moment. Plus I can add a little soap during the pre-rinse to help make things clean.

[Lecka]

I put pods, but price is a consideration, and I also use powder.

 

While I have no problem using powder, others in my family do overpour, or they spill and it can make the little door gum up and not open when it’s supposed to.  We have a new dishwasher recently and it has a different door design that would make that a lot less likely to happen.

 

I’m honestly thinking right now I want to try powder with this different dishwasher and see how it goes.  

 

I also think our new dishwasher is doing a better job, maybe we will be fine with generic powder.  
 

 

We are using Kirkland pods right now, though.  

[Lecka]

I have never tried liquid.  Now I’m interested in trying liquid, too.  

[prairiewindmomma]

53 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Used pods a long time but am trying to cut down on plastic waste and am not convinced the much higher expense translates to much cleaner dishes.
I am back to powder. Comes in a cardboard box and is much cheaper than the pods.
I don't have any issue with overfilling the cup.

Same.

[wisdomandtreasures]

We get the powder made by Azure Standard. 

[Clarita]

20 minutes ago, Lecka said:

I have never tried liquid.  Now I’m interested in trying liquid, too.  

If you like powder though I think liquid is less environmentally friendly because the big jug. 

[sweet2ndchance]

When we had an automatic dishwasher, I liked pods or tablets (I have no idea if tablets are still available, it's been so long since we had a dishwasher) I also had a coffee scoop at one time when we used powder so the kids wouldn't overfill the soap cup when they did dishes. Liquid or gel was ok but sometimes left a slimy feel to the dishes/didn't rinse completely for some reason.

Now that we don't have a dishwasher, I use just plain blue Dawn. It's the only thing that works every time no matter what for me. Dh's grandma recently bought me this kit when she asked me if I need more dish soap and I have to say, it is awesome! Smells good too lol.

[Heartstrings]

I Have both pods and powder right now. I keep a scoop in the powder to measure   It out so I don’t overfill and waste.  I think I’m too cheap to keep up with the pods going forward. 
 

Pods in the washer are worth it to me because it keeps my laundry room less grimy.  

[Bootsie]

We use Cascade pods.  I go for the cheapest alternative available for almost every item, but this is one area which I have found that nothing else does as well as the Cascade pods.  Living in a very humid climate may be a reason why powders tend to clump for us; and they have not always fully dissolved, leaving a messy, powdery residue on the dishes.  DS moved moved into a house a couple of years ago and after a couple of months asked how much a new dishwasher costs, complaining that his wasn't working.  After asking him about the problems he was having, I sent a few Cascade pods home with him to try; suddenly his dishwasher was "fixed".  We have fairly hard water, which may make a difference in what tends to work well.  

[MercyA]

Cascade Liquid is the only thing that gets my dishes really clean. I've tried less expensive brands and they just don't work. I tried a cheaper one again the other day, figuring my new Bosch dishwasher might do better with it, but nope. 

I stopped using the powder about 10 years ago when I read that it's rougher on dishes. My dishes were getting a lot of edge wear just from being washed in the dishwasher. No more problems since switching to liquid.

The liquid is not messy for me. I was told when I bought my new dishwasher that there was no need to fill the cup all the way and that it would work fine with just a little bit of liquid. I need to experiment with that. 

I've never tried the pods.

[prairiewindmomma]

4 hours ago, Kassia said:

lol, not to me- I want pods!  It would be such a hassle to pour after transferred.  But it would be worth it to make DH happy I guess...  😛

You can reuse a plastic container like the big plastic nut jars from Costco and then find a little scoop. We have soft water so 1 T is sufficient. For hard water, I would use 2T. A coffee scoop would be the right size. 🙂 

[Kassia]

@sweet2ndchanceblue Dawn is the best! It's all we use and I think it's all that my adult kids use too.  

@Bootsiewe have hard water too. I didn't think about the powder not dissolving.  I forgot about that happening to us before we used pods.  I'll remind DH of it and see if he changes his mind about the pods.  

[73349]

Tabs. No plastic layer. They're individually wrapped and the wrappers go in the trash. https://www.finishdishwashing.com/products/detergents/classic/

I haven't found anything that works perfectly for us.

[Kassia]

23 minutes ago, 73349 said:

Tabs. No plastic layer. They're individually wrapped and the wrappers go in the trash. https://www.finishdishwashing.com/products/detergents/classic/

I haven't found anything that works perfectly for us.

I forgot about the tabs.  Thank you! 

[Ellie]

I use Amway products mostly, and they changed from powder to pods, so I had not choice except to change. I've been happy with them.

[Scarlett]

Do and I recently experimented with how many loads we could wash with one container of liquid.  Turns out name brand pods were double the price.  We did find an off brand pod that was just slightly more expensive. 
 

 

[Kassia]

2 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Do and I recently experimented with how many loads we could wash with one container of liquid.  Turns out name brand pods were double the price.  We did find an off brand pod that was just slightly more expensive. 
 

 

have you been happy with the liquid?

[Scarlett]

Just now, Kassia said:

have you been happy with the liquid?

Yes, no problem.  I do get gunk in the bottom near the door but I figured it was my old dishwasher.  I practically wash my dishes before I load them so there should be no gunk.  

I really  want a new dishwasher.  

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Yes, no problem.  I do get gunk in the bottom near the door but I figured it was my old dishwasher.  I practically wash my dishes before I load them so there should be no gunk.  

I really  want a new dishwasher.  

Thanks.  I do the same with doing a thorough rinse with dishes.  I hope you get a new dishwasher soon.  We love ours.  I grew up without one (and a washer/dryer) and I am so delighted to have all of these appliances!  

[fairfarmhand]

There is a pod…Finish???! … that’s more like a brick and doesn’t see to be encased in the plasticy pod thing. Only problem I have is that some o their boxes have each brick individually wrapped which is annoying. But some of their packages are not individually wrapped.

[katilac]

I couldn't answer, bc you can only choose one and we use pods and liquid. 

Pod in the main compartment, more or less liquid in the prewash compartment based on dirtiness of dishes. We used to use just the pods, but I saw something (on the internet, of course) saying that of course having detergent in the prewash is helpful. So I tried adding a a bit and it is most definitely helpful in our dishwasher. It gets off the stubborn stuff like peanut butter, jam, egg, and chocolate that we used to rinse off beforehand. 

dh is a pod and tab purist; he must have those. When he is out of town, I will often use liquid in both compartments, and that seems fine as well. 

[appyonthebeach]

pods - finish quantum.  I tried cascade powder before this to try to save some money, but the dishes didn't come out feeling clean and it left a strange reside, which I could taste, on our glasses