I Tried the Bestselling Dishwasher Detergent on Amazon — Here’s What I Thought

A few years ago our Editor-in-Chief, Faith Durand, introduced to me to what would become my new favorite dishwasher detergent. I had been using liquid detergent that disappointed me load after load, but I always avoided powder detergent because I irrationally worried that the chalky stuff would leave my glasses even cloudier than they often were (which is largely a result of the hard water in my town). Faith recommended Grab Green Natural Automatic Dishwashing Detergent Powder and it’s been a game-changer.

Recently, though, I’ve been wondering about pods. People like pods! Maybe I should try pods? Just for the sake of trying something new? And then I logged on to Amazon to see what most shoppers were buying. At the time, these Cascade Complete ActionPacs ranked as the bestselling dishwasher detergent. (As I write this, they’ve been replaced by these pods, but they’re still from Cascade, which I think says a lot about the brand, in general.) I threw them in my cart and figured I’d give them a shot.

First, the convenience of pods is not to be overlooked. No, it’s not hard to squeeze in some gel or scoop out some powder, but pods make things even easier: You just grab one and pop it in. I especially like that pods take the guesswork out of how much detergent you actually need. No figuring out halfway on a scooper — pods are portioned out perfectly.

But how do these pods work? Pretty darn well! Which explains why they have more than 58,000 five-star reviews from Amazon shoppers, many of whom say these work even better than other pods! My dishwasher is pretty old (it came with the very old house when we bought it) so I was worried it wouldn’t be able to handle the technology that is pod detergent, but I haven’t had any issues with leftover pod residue or anything like that. I’ve been using these pods for more than a month now and my glasses have been coming out crystal clear and even my flatware seems to sparkle.

I recently had to leave a very full dirty dishwasher to sit for a full week while we had some urgent plumbing work done (the joys of owning an old home!) and, when I finally got to run the cycle with one of these pods, everything still came out perfectly clean. Will I give up my Grab Green Powder? Honestly no, because that stuff really is great, but I think I’ll regularly reorder both just to change things up when I’m in the mood. It’s funny what we consider fun these days, eh?

Are you Team Pod, Powder or Gel? Tell us in the comments below.