6 ms·

My kids would routinely put in too much powder, which would gunk up the dispensing mechanism, requiring my time and effort to clean it out and fix it. Eventuall

My kids would routinely put in too much powder, which would gunk up the dispensing mechanism, requiring my time and effort to clean it out and fix it. Eventually the dispenser broke entirely and had to be replaced. We since switched to pods and haven't had any problems with the dispenser. The pods are worth every extra cent.

kurttheviking 11mo ago
My issue is the pods fail to dissolve ~5% of the time and leave a gunk that clogs the dispenser which again requires time and effort to clean. I'm convinced by the video to try powder again but I've had the filming issue with almost every powder I've tried. So, we'll see what happens...
- hackama 11mo ago
  I'm convinced pods broke my dishwasher. I switched to powder years ago and haven't had a problem since.
- lou1306 11mo ago
  I have a pet theory this is due to a wet pod tray: the pod's film partially melts and sticks to the tray before it's released. I made a habit of wiping the tray dry with a piece of paper before loading the pod and this stopped happening to me.
  - conorcleary 11mo ago
    How do you wash the piece of paper?
yumraj 11mo ago
My process is to use cheap Walmart powder for prewash and Kirkland pods in the dispenser. Avoids any over filling issues. I used to just use the Kirkland pods and they worked fine too. The reason I started using powder in prewash is to get any loose fat dissolved so that it doesn’t clog over a period of time, not sure if that’s a valid concern. And yes, I do run hot water before starting the dishwasher.
bombcar 11mo ago
I just want a dishwasher and washing machine that I can load with gallons of soap once a month or whatever, and let it do the detail work for me. I know they exist in the commercial realm, but I'm not 100% certain the wife is ready for a Hobart machine in the kitchen ...
- shalmanese 11mo ago
  Miele has home dishwashers that do this now. But like all things consumer, it's a proprietary system that's designed to keep you locked into a subscription relationship with the company.
  - edb_123 11mo ago
    True for their dishwashers. But to their credit, Miele's washing machines actually come with two additional cassettes that you can fill with your (liquid) detergent of choice. You don't have to use Miele's proprietary ones.
  - amluto 11mo ago
    I have one of these. The detergent gizmo is a hard plastic shell with an interesting shape, powdered detergent inside, and a plastic film cover that looks like it’s heat-sealed on. It contains no electronics whatsoever. You can refill it, and the only limitation is that it’s kind of awkward to open, fill, and re-seal. The easiest way IMO is to cut a large flap in the hard plastic on the sides, then tape it down after refilling. It works fine. Also, the Miele powdered detergent, in my personal opinion, sucks. And it leaves some residue behind. Yuck.
  - JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
    PowerDisk? As long as you load salt and rinse aid, it works like a charm. As you said, if you want to save a bit of money, you can 3D print a replacement. But they last long enough that I don’t mind the cost.
    - amluto 11mo ago
      What do salt and rinse aid have to do with it? Those have been things you load into a reservoir when prompted for years. And for those of us who live in HN’s homeland where the water is very soft, you may get better results by not loading rinse aid (there’s some moderately compelling evidence that rinse aid is rather toxic to digestive tracts, and it doesn’t even have much rinsing benefit if you’re rinsing with soft-enough and low-enough-TDS water), and the salt is also unnecessary with soft water. You do need to poke at the dishwasher settings to make it happy without rinse aid and salt, but this is well documented in the manual.
Mistletoe 11mo ago
Is it not possible to teach your children to put the proper amount of detergent?
jkern 11mo ago
He says that having the ability to tailor the amount of powder for the size of the load is one of the selling points of powder. But I'm guessing most people would much rather waste the few cents of savings in exchange for not needing to think about their dishes even that tiny bit extra.
- lou1306 11mo ago
  Or just, you know, wait till the machine is filled before running it. If that takes too long you can just run a soaking cycle midway through.
  - mavhc 11mo ago
    Get 2 steps of the dishwasher shelves, then when it's done swap them, and you never have to put the dishes away
    - jannyfer 11mo ago
      Do you actually do this? I’ve thought about this but don’t have the space for it.
- tguvot 11mo ago
  amount of water used in washing cycle is +/- same, not dependent on size of load. reducing amount of powder will create weaker concentration and reduce cleaning capabilities of machine/detergent. in reality, reducing amount of powder won't change much most of the time, because majority of cleaning happens due to physical action of (hot) water. there were multiple times when I was forgetting to put detergent and dishes went out clean. it mostly makes difference for some very dry/backed on stuff.
jonathanlydall 11mo ago
Yep. I (as is common for many middle-class South Africans) have a domestic worker who cleans the house, and in general you just have to accept that domestic workers will tend to use quite a bit more cleaning products than is necessary. At least with tablets, they will always use a set amount. It's not their money that they're needlessly wasting and the thing not being clean is a more immediately noticeable problem with their work than you finding you're spending a lot more than usual on cleaning products. It also wouldn't work to try give them a budget on cleaning products as then you're encouraging them to skimp on using enough so they get more money in their pocket. Although our domestic worker is a lovely person who I help out as much as I can, at the end of the day she has limited skills and education, so can't demand very much of a salary, hence why she and many others in her position is a domestic worker. When you're the one who does all the cleaning yourself and pay for the products you use, you'll try find the amount to use that definitely gets the job done, but isn't needlessly wasteful. I also like the convenience of the tablets, you don't have to think about the amount or possibly making a mess or pouring too much powder in, etc.
- locao 11mo ago
  Interesting enough, where I live we also can have domestic workers without being filthy rich. But we've seen the exactly opposite problem: people trust a single product for everything and will use the least amount of it because "it's good enough". The current person working at our place uses dish detergent to clean the entire house unless we tell her everyday to not do it. The previous one used bleach, and ruined most of our bath and hand towels.

kurttheviking 11mo ago

My issue is the pods fail to dissolve ~5% of the time and leave a gunk that clogs the dispenser which again requires time and effort to clean. I'm convinced by the video to try powder again but I've had the filming issue with almost every powder I've tried. So, we'll see what happens...

hackama 11mo ago
I'm convinced pods broke my dishwasher. I switched to powder years ago and haven't had a problem since.
lou1306 11mo ago
I have a pet theory this is due to a wet pod tray: the pod's film partially melts and sticks to the tray before it's released. I made a habit of wiping the tray dry with a piece of paper before loading the pod and this stopped happening to me.
- conorcleary 11mo ago
  How do you wash the piece of paper?

yumraj 11mo ago

My process is to use cheap Walmart powder for prewash and Kirkland pods in the dispenser. Avoids any over filling issues. I used to just use the Kirkland pods and they worked fine too. The reason I started using powder in prewash is to get any loose fat dissolved so that it doesn’t clog over a period of time, not sure if that’s a valid concern. And yes, I do run hot water before starting the dishwasher.

bombcar 11mo ago

I just want a dishwasher and washing machine that I can load with gallons of soap once a month or whatever, and let it do the detail work for me. I know they exist in the commercial realm, but I'm not 100% certain the wife is ready for a Hobart machine in the kitchen ...

shalmanese 11mo ago
Miele has home dishwashers that do this now. But like all things consumer, it's a proprietary system that's designed to keep you locked into a subscription relationship with the company.
- edb_123 11mo ago
  True for their dishwashers. But to their credit, Miele's washing machines actually come with two additional cassettes that you can fill with your (liquid) detergent of choice. You don't have to use Miele's proprietary ones.
- amluto 11mo ago
  I have one of these. The detergent gizmo is a hard plastic shell with an interesting shape, powdered detergent inside, and a plastic film cover that looks like it’s heat-sealed on. It contains no electronics whatsoever. You can refill it, and the only limitation is that it’s kind of awkward to open, fill, and re-seal. The easiest way IMO is to cut a large flap in the hard plastic on the sides, then tape it down after refilling. It works fine. Also, the Miele powdered detergent, in my personal opinion, sucks. And it leaves some residue behind. Yuck.
- JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
  PowerDisk? As long as you load salt and rinse aid, it works like a charm. As you said, if you want to save a bit of money, you can 3D print a replacement. But they last long enough that I don’t mind the cost.
  - amluto 11mo ago
    What do salt and rinse aid have to do with it? Those have been things you load into a reservoir when prompted for years. And for those of us who live in HN’s homeland where the water is very soft, you may get better results by not loading rinse aid (there’s some moderately compelling evidence that rinse aid is rather toxic to digestive tracts, and it doesn’t even have much rinsing benefit if you’re rinsing with soft-enough and low-enough-TDS water), and the salt is also unnecessary with soft water. You do need to poke at the dishwasher settings to make it happy without rinse aid and salt, but this is well documented in the manual.

Mistletoe 11mo ago

Is it not possible to teach your children to put the proper amount of detergent?

jkern 11mo ago

He says that having the ability to tailor the amount of powder for the size of the load is one of the selling points of powder. But I'm guessing most people would much rather waste the few cents of savings in exchange for not needing to think about their dishes even that tiny bit extra.

lou1306 11mo ago
Or just, you know, wait till the machine is filled before running it. If that takes too long you can just run a soaking cycle midway through.
- mavhc 11mo ago
  Get 2 steps of the dishwasher shelves, then when it's done swap them, and you never have to put the dishes away
  - jannyfer 11mo ago
    Do you actually do this? I’ve thought about this but don’t have the space for it.
tguvot 11mo ago
amount of water used in washing cycle is +/- same, not dependent on size of load. reducing amount of powder will create weaker concentration and reduce cleaning capabilities of machine/detergent. in reality, reducing amount of powder won't change much most of the time, because majority of cleaning happens due to physical action of (hot) water. there were multiple times when I was forgetting to put detergent and dishes went out clean. it mostly makes difference for some very dry/backed on stuff.

jonathanlydall 11mo ago

Yep. I (as is common for many middle-class South Africans) have a domestic worker who cleans the house, and in general you just have to accept that domestic workers will tend to use quite a bit more cleaning products than is necessary. At least with tablets, they will always use a set amount. It's not their money that they're needlessly wasting and the thing not being clean is a more immediately noticeable problem with their work than you finding you're spending a lot more than usual on cleaning products. It also wouldn't work to try give them a budget on cleaning products as then you're encouraging them to skimp on using enough so they get more money in their pocket. Although our domestic worker is a lovely person who I help out as much as I can, at the end of the day she has limited skills and education, so can't demand very much of a salary, hence why she and many others in her position is a domestic worker. When you're the one who does all the cleaning yourself and pay for the products you use, you'll try find the amount to use that definitely gets the job done, but isn't needlessly wasteful. I also like the convenience of the tablets, you don't have to think about the amount or possibly making a mess or pouring too much powder in, etc.

locao 11mo ago
Interesting enough, where I live we also can have domestic workers without being filthy rich. But we've seen the exactly opposite problem: people trust a single product for everything and will use the least amount of it because "it's good enough". The current person working at our place uses dish detergent to clean the entire house unless we tell her everyday to not do it. The previous one used bleach, and ruined most of our bath and hand towels.