Mari, I too try to be green wherever possible. Does the Seventh Gen have enzymes? I know little but have read here many times that today's DW need enzymes to clean. Just a thought.

I seem to recall a number of posts in the past that mentioned that using the Seventh Generation DW powders in the Euro or Euro-style DWs seemed to cause problems - ss_someone and jerrod, both of whom had tried it on their respective Mieles and later someone else remarked seeing similar cleaning or residue or something problems in the Bosch when using this stuff.

That's the only precedence I can recall on this 7th generation detergent matter.

I don't like it in my Miele. It does not clean fully and leaves a lot of grit behind. Almost like the powder did not dissolve fully. I use it for other purposes but the Miele DW powder works best for me.

Good luck!

I use Seventh Generation in my Miele DW. It works best when I really cut the amount, like 1/2 or even 1/4 the amount of powder recommended for a load. Then my dishes/glasses come out perfectly, and there is no residue. I made BBQ ribs the other day; there is nothing greasier or messier, and I am not a "pre-rinser", but my dishes still came out great. Frankly, though, I am not sure how "green" Seventh Generation DW powder is, since it does indeed use enzymes, if that is a criterion for green-ness. But it does not have chlorine or phosphates. And the box is from recycled paper.

Homepro1 - I was not aware Miele made a DW powder, so after reading your post, I did a search on the 'net. The only thing I could come up with was the Miele Dishwasher Tabs - is that what you mean? If so, holy cow, $33 (plus shipping)! Although that is for 80 washes. I don't know how many loads a box of supermarket DW powder does. I tend to go back and forth between Cascade (definitely NOT green) and the Seventh Generation (if I happen to be in Whole Foods and needing DW powder, I'll buy it). They seem to clean equally well in my Miele. Of course, for me at least, the Jet Dry is a necessity. Before I used Jet Dry, I had trouble with spots and residue.

Here is a link that might be useful: Miele DW Detergent Tabs

We get great results with the Miele tabs and break them in half. They don't seem so expensive that way.

I do the same thing as chipshot - use half the amount. Half is very very sufficient; everything and I do mean *everything* is perfectly and completely clean. So $33 (or whatever) for 160 washes. I bought ours nearly a year ago, I do believe, and I've still got 20 TABS left (so 40 washes to go) and at this rate it'll be another 4 months before I need to worry about replacing 'em. Not too shabby.

The 7th Gen detergent didn't do well for me either. Even with soft water. The cleaning results were so-so and there was grit & sand like deposits on upper rack glassware & flatware. I actually thought my dishwasher was giving trouble.

After a few loads with an Electrasol or Cascade tablet, the machine was cleared out and my dishes were clean and shiny again. If the 'green' products don't work right, what is the savings and/or benefit?

I do the same thing Chipshot and Mindstorm do. I bought a box over a year ago and have about 8more tabs left. It's sort of like Persil, it really goes a long way. I will preface this with the fact that I only do dishes four times a week rather than daily so your mileage may vary.

Good luck!

I've used 7th Generation powder, but usually use the liquid. I have a 6 year old Bosch dishwasher. I haven't had any complaints about the quality of the cleaning, certainly no deposits of grit or whatever.

I'm surprised at the poor results some are getting

I've had good luck with BioKleen dishwasher powder...for the last week, since my Asko finally got repaired and the service guy warned against using the compressed tabs...said its too hard to get the right amount.

So I've been using about 1/2 tbsp split between the prewash and wash cups and been getting very good results. I also have my Jet Dry in the rinse aid dispenser. Is there a green rinse aid out there??

I like the little screw top jar...stays dry and no spills. I just keep a spoon measure in the jar.

Hope you find one you like!

Anne

I use half the amount of powder they recommended and still have residue.

May have to switch back to Cascade.

Regarding the rinse aid, I've had a good experience with the Ecover Rinse Aid in a Bosch dw.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ecover Rinse Aid

I used to use Cascade, but tried Electrasol because my warehouse store had a BOGO deal on it, plus I saved even more w/coupon. The Electrasol is a 3-in-1 tablet which includes prewash, detergent, and Jet-Dry. Wow, what great cleaning power! I wish I'd been using it all along, as it saves me so much money. I go green if it's feasible, but it's not always practical for me.

This is a post from last year but I wanted to say that I bought a box of Seventh Generation dishwasher powder for my KitchenAid dw and threw it away after using half the box. It left a gritty residue on my glassware and the stainless steel interior of my dw was coated with a white film. Plus, the wheels on my dw racks started squeeking! So I ran a vinegar rinse (per the instructions in my dw manual) to clean the interior of the dw and am now back on the Wal-Mart brand dishwashing powder. I have tried to use the environmentally friendlier products - dish detergent, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, window cleaner, etc - and I am finding that none of the products work very well. I used Shaklee dryer sheets for a year and every single load that came out of my dryer was full of static cling. I finally bought some Bounce sheets last weekend and was so happy to pull the first static-free load of clothes out of my dryer.

try_hard

I finally finished a bottle of the Seventh Generation liquid dishwasher detergent. It was really quite awful and ineffective, but I forced myself to use it up.

I just bought a box of the Ecover tabs, but I haven't used them yet. They have good online reviews, so I'm crossing my fingers.

So weird. I've been using the Seventh Generation powder with no rinse aid in my old DW for a decade or more and the dishes come out sparkly clean. Less often than a blue moon I'll get a little undissolved powder on a top rack item when the machine is overloaded. I take that as operator error. I sure hope my new DW does as well!!

Just an update on the Ecover tabs. I used one for the first time last night and it was markedly more effective than the Seventh Generation liquid.

FWIW, we use the Trader Joe's house 'eco' detergent in our office without problem. That's on a lot of lightly-soiled stuff.

And we just finished up our supply of free Electrosol tabs from when we bought our KA (3+ years later). I picked up a box of Costco's Kirkland 'eco' detergent but haven't used it yet.

The Electrosol does a good job, but my recollection (from a link posted here a year or 2 ago) is that it has about the highest level of phosphates in a DW detergent. With the free stuff gone, we're going for something greener.

Costco has an "eco friendly" dish washing powder. Quite a bit cheaper than Cascade.

I can also vouch for Biokleen dish powder. I use less than a tablespoon to fill the dispenser to the bottom line. Everything comes out great. Thull mentioned Trader Joe's brand and that's what I was using before I tried the Kirkland brand. I'll definitely get it again. I've also had good luck with Ecover dw powder but it's made in Belgium. The Biokleen products are made on the west coast.

I probably shouldn't admit this, but our 2004 Bosch dishwasher recently overflowed, the first time ever. I had used Costco's Kirkland environmentally friendly detergent. The control board was replaced earlier in the same week due to the dishwasher recall. I was worried the overflow was related but the repairman said it was most likely the detergent. It was the first and last time I'll use the Kirkland powder. He also saw that I had some Electrasol tablets and scolded me for using them. He said they're too concentrated and hard on the machine.

As for the rinse aid, Seventh Generation was on sale so I tried it. It works well. Plus, they have coupons on their website!

You know, I wonder. Could the reason some people are getting poor results with the eco brands is the fact they may have hard water? I wonder if adding citric acid along with the eco powder would help improve results. Is citric acid even environmentally friendly? Not sure...But I'm beginning to think that it's not the dishwasher, its the detergent that matters when it comes to cleaning performance.

Mark40511: I have very hard water. So I used more detergent, as suggested by the KitchenAid manual, plus I use JetDry. I am one who had the white film on my dishwasher and dishes.

try_hard

While it isn't held out for dishwashers, and results depend on how hard the water is, we've been using Charlie's Soap (powder) successfully in our Bosch for all our 30-minute washes, as long as the detergent is put in loose, not in the detergent cup. (Longer washes require the cup and it doesn't dissolve well enough for that.)

Obviously, this doesn't clean really dirty things, but it does degrease them effectively. Aside from being green, we avoid caustic cleaners for our antique china -- if we had to handwash it, we'd probably never use it. While a 30-minute cycle isn't as hot as the longer ones so it may not sanitize as well, it is hotter than handwashing.

We haven't broken out the new Kirkland powder yet (might now, though, read on). DW bought a small box of the "Finish" brand tabs, which I guess is Electrasol's new name. We have super soft water, but these are leaving grit on the dishes. Should I just chuck the rest of the tabs, or is there something I can do about the grit? I generally run a hot wash w/ hot rinse (no heat dry), which worked great with the old tabs.