As the Dishwasher Man, but not necessarily known here for being the Dishwasher Man, here's a short thread to explain my whole thing about detergent pods:
Dishwashers are simple machines. They fill with a small quantity of water, use a pump to force that water through spray arms, and those arms spray your dishes with the water. That's really all that's happening at a very basic level.
Key to making this actually clean your dishes is chemical detergents to break down food stuff.
Now, over the course of a cleaning cycle, your dishwasher will fill with water, pump it around for some time, then drain it several times. Every time it drains, it's getting rid of food debris the water picked up.
But it's also getting rid of whatever detergent is in the water.
This is why your dishwasher has a detergent dispenser: it wants to wash for a short while to get the big food chunks off and pumped away before it spends the bulk of its time washing with soapy water.
If it didn't have a way to hold detergent back and release it later, it would all be gone after the first fill and drain (which is known as the pre-wash).
Now, because the people who made dishwashers are smart folks, they know that ideally there should be at least some detergent in that pre-wash. That's when the plates/cookware is at its very dirtiest, after all, and adding a little soap to break down those oils would help.
That's why this dispenser has a divot in the lid. It's for that.
This dishwasher spends 10 minutes washing, then drains and fills again before it opens that dispenser.
So if you use a detergent pod, those first 10 minutes of washing will be done with nothing but water.
Now, that can still do a lot! And you may be having fine results with your pods. But by not tackling the fats and oils in the first fill, the detergent has to work harder in the main wash cycle. Encapsulating oil particles uses it up and makes it less effective.
So this is why I have a beef with pods/tablets/what have you.
They're more expensive for a product that only kind of respects how dishwashers work. A product that explicitly prevents you from experimenting to see how far you can stretch your detergent. A product which encourages mindless consumption with extra packaging, to boot.
Or you could just get a paper box with some powder in it for $5 and it'll last you months.
Fin
Pods don't even fit in our machine's dispenser mechanism.
@gocu54 accessibility re: pods is the only angle I respect.
However, I wouldn't put weight on the notion that the pods ensure you're using the "correct" amount. It's possible to use too much detergent, especially if your water is soft and your dishes aren't very dirty.
Every pod has to run right up against that line and go no further. It's one-size-fits-most, and definitely not optimal.
One of my favorites of your videos:
https://youtu.be/_rBO8neWw04
@aymm since you're based in Germany, I don't know if this would apply - but over here the recommendations that are given in dishwasher manuals are paid for. It even says on the packaging of the detergent products that the recommendations are part of co-marketing agreements.
I would not put it past them to recommend the most profitable-for-the-detergent companies product and not the actually best one.
@aymm @TechConnectify I only learned last year when I bought a new dishwasher in the USA, that it's standard for European dishwashers to contain an onboard water softener ("dishwasher salt"). That isn't a thing here - you either have a whole-house water softener (sometimes with a separate tap for drinking water), or you don't.
I actually switched to pods last year and have been impressed with the cleaning power. To me it's hard to figure how much detergent to use in any particular load.
@shastao that can make a huge difference depending on how long of a run it is between your water heater and the dishwasher.
I really should have stressed this more in the video!
@TechConnectify @shastao
I live on the third floor. First hot water of the day takes a measured two minutes to arrive from the water heater in the basement.
(And to those about to recommend a recirculator, the cold water is shared plumbing among the apartments, so my recirculated hot water wouldn't necessarily return to my water heater.)
I'm considering an on-demand electric water heater just for those two minutes to avoid the water waste.
@TechConnectify I agree with everything that you've said.
And yet, for whatever reason, our dishwasher _refuses_ to clean anything with powder.
It's bothered me for months. It doesn't make sense. But literally the only thing that gets us clean dishes is pods.
I've tried replacing parts (there were some that were in sore need of it when we moved in), flushing out the arms, I even cleaned out the pump.
Nothing, unless we use pods. It's ridiculous.
@b4ux1t3 there are bad powders out there. And, funnily enough, Cascade powder is (for me, at least) consistently worse than Walmart brand.
Does make me wonder why...
@TechConnectify We even tried a few different powders! And gels!
I've honestly considered replacing the dishwasher out of principle. It's like it's _trying_ to waste money.
@b4ux1t3 to be honest, this does smell to me like your dishwasher is either terrible or on its last legs.
You may have a weird flavor of water with a certain hardness profile too, though. Hard to say.
But in all my time on this Earth I've only had one dishwasher in my life that didn't wash dishes well. All others, including some really shitty ones, did fine with the cheapest powders you could get.
@TechConnectify I wouldn't be surprised if the water were the culprit. I'm not overly enthused about our local water company.
This thread has made me come to terms with the fact that I need to just be on the lookout for a good holiday sale on dishwashers in the coming months
@b4ux1t3 We had a problem with our water and the dishwasher that was completely solved with a water softener. Before we got the water softener, we only had success with liquid detergent. (We had a powdery residue on our dishes every time with other detergents; kind of looked like soap scum or something.)
🦇
@TechConnectify Back on your soapbox again, eh?
Love the show. Keep up the good work.
"They're more expensive for a product that only kind of respects how dishwashers work."
Do you think this is a prevailing issue in current innovations with common household products? Is there is a disconnect between how things work and the 'fancy' version of consumables for the product?
No need, i've seen those videos multiples times, and have sent them to family members to prove arguments :p
@TechConnectify I go with some sort of compromise
Use powder as pre (my DW had a section in the detergent holder whose lid section has a grille so to drop it as soon you close the door), and liquid/tab as main
So far it worked, before the 20-yo Candy decided to piss itself (leakage)
@TechConnectify I only read the last toot and pondered if you started dishwashing ipods and ipads..
Wouldn't be surprised, honestly ;)
@TechConnectify I’m due for a new dishwasher, and I wish I could find one with a detergent reservoir that lasts several loads and dispenses the right amount at the right time without me having to think about it.
(My clothes washer does this, and it’s fantastic. Might be more important there with the variable water use)
@ShadSterling @TechConnectify
I used to have a GE dishwasher with a tank in the door that was good for 30-40 washes before it needed a refill.
This was great until I ignorantly switched brands of detergent and found that gel detergent and enzyme detergent don't mix; it created a semisolid sludge that clogged the tank and dispenser tubing. I was able to eventually clear it with lots of hot water and a coat hanger.
@TechConnectify What are you’re feelings about people who wash the dishes by hand before putting them into the dishwasher?
Im not one of those people, but I know a few.
@jdechko I understand why they are doing it but they are unadventurous and should try just loading the dishwasher with dirty dishes once in their lives to find out if it actually works or not.
It probably will!
@TechConnectify i switched to powder (on your recommendation) a while ago and I think it has been better
Biggest problem is finding powder detergent
@V_Mags_Fox yup, in my previous home I had this exact issue (even with powder!) so I switched to gels.
In that case it was a design flaw of the dispenser lid combined with how I loaded dinner plates. If I were careful it wasn't a problem but I found I just wasn't that careful!
@TechConnectify While I’ve gotten better results with cleaning in my dishwasher thanks to your previous video on this, one thing I can’t figure out is how my dishwasher will do a pre-wash. It has a pre-wash cup next to the dispenser door thingy. But literally less than a minute after starting, I hear the dispenser door open. I’ve not found any settings to modify this behavior.
I need to look up the manual some time, I guess.
@TechConnectify besides the usual shrinkflation i have noticed that the boxes of powder here claim they yield significantly fewer number of loads, and when you do the math the suggested amount per load is comically huge...like over double what would fit in the soap hole! The instructions say to fill the hole COMPLETELY then dump the rest in the bottom of the washer for pre-wash!
The soap itself doesn't seem any weaker so my (conspiracy) theory is that it is done to get around the "per unit" price tag regulations in many places and make the "per wash" cost look less appealing next to the tablets that Big Soap *really* want to sell.
I'm on to your reindeer games, Big Soap 
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