Dishwashing Detergent Review

Today are going to be doing a review for dishwasher detergent; we've done multiple loads using our Frigidaire stainless steel dishwasher, and we have a favorite of the two we used. The two products we use were Finish Powerball Tabs and Cascade with Dawn Gel. All loads included Finish Rinse Aid. The cycles were set to normal/hi temp/heat dry.

Cascade with Dawn Gel

We started with Cascade with Dawn because we are big fans of Dawn dish detergent, it seems to be one of the best detergents to cut grease. However, when we utilized Cascade with Dawn in the dishwasher, we had multiple problems with our dishes getting clean.

Relatively greasy or dishes with a bit of stuck on mess, did not get as clean as they could have been. Cascade with Dawn did okay when it came to stuck on messes from frying or baking. It removed the "crispies" and just left remnant marks of them. However, when using greasy dishes like pans with remnants of butter or oil, they were still greasy in many areas after the cycle.

This particular dishwasher detergent also has a problem regarding wet spots. Dishes and glassware do not have wet spots after you take them out, however, pots and pans do have significant amounts of wet spots, which you have to rinse off before you start cooking again the next time; overall result of this product wasn't up to par to what we needed.

If you have a habit of rinsing clean your dishes to the point where they're almost already clean before you put them in the dishwasher, than this dishwasher detergent would be okay for you. It does a good job with dishes that have minimal to no visible dirt, grime, or food remnants.

Finish Powerball Tabs

This dishwasher detergent was a winner wins the Powerball tabs which have a blue, mildly abrasive side and a white soap side with a red Powerball in the center. We found that when we use the dishwasher detergent for pots and pans, it adequately cleaned all the dirt and grime and grease from the pan and left relatively no wet spots whatsoever.

The detergent worked well on dishes that had remnants of butter, which many dishwashing detergents have an issue with. The abrasive side does a good job of cleaning out the stuck-on messes on casserole dishes and pans.

Tip: We initially used the finish tabs that were encased in a plastic-looking exterior. These gel packs had liquid detergent on one side and powder detergent on the other. These also did an amazing job on the dishes. These gel packs seem to have been discontinued.

Many things can affect the efficiency of dishwashing detergent. Please keep in mind that we used a gel detergent versus a Powerball Tab, which are two different types of detergent. We plan to do a Cascade gelpack detergent in the future. Our winner in this test was the Finish Powerball Tabs.