Let's talk dishwasher detergent

[msomnipotent]

I shop Costco, the local grocery store, and Amazon and will buy whatever is cheapest between the major brands. I just had to start buying again and I'm surprised at the prices. Costco had a BOGO offer two or three years ago on Cascade tabs and I bought what I thought was a year supply but they lasted much longer.

I use plain white vinegar instead of the Finish rinse and it works the same. I have noticed a difference when I don't use any rinse, otherwise I wouldn't even bother with the vinegar.

[~bs]

As I said, we hand wash items that can't or shouldn't go in the dishwasher. All of the above items fall into that category in my opinion.

We use the dishwasher for the normal dishes, flatware, and regular everyday glassware. That's enough to fill it every 2-3 days.

Cookware, knives, specialty glassware, china, and other more delicate items get hand washed. I'm not ruining a $150 knife or a $100 saute pan or a $25 wine glass in the dishwasher.

I suspect that a lot of the complaints about the dishwasher ruining things happen because people put things in there that they shouldn't have.

IDK, it's been my experience that they don't even do normal dishes particularly well, depending on what it is you're eating. If you have to pre rinse/prewash, it kinda defeats the purpose of the dishwasher. What's the point of taking a car to a carwash if you have to prewash it yourself first? Maybe I've just had bad luck with crappy dishwashers, IDK.

lol as i said, i'm not afraid to pay for convenience. Nowadays I dont bother with any of that. I run with paper plates and cups. Paper and plastic utensils costly and wasteful? Probably, but $500-600 (cost of a dishwasher) will buy you A LOT of disposable utensils from costco, maybe 10-15000 in total? Will the dishwasher break before you wash that many utensils/dishes? i really dont know.

In the event we're drinking alcohol, washing glasses is probably the easiest part of handwashing. So moreso dishwashers have little use for me unless I convert back to regular dishware and utensils. Pretty much everything I use for cooking can't or shouldn't really go in a dishwasher especially since I'm a fan of cast iron cooking, and use it whenever it makes sense to do so. Bt even back when I used to use stainless (dishwasher safe), I tested cleaning them with the dishwasher, to poor results. Worse, after doing a poor job of cleaning the food off, the dishwasher drying cycle baked the residue on, making it even more difficult to clean off (by hand).