He has been schooled. When he's not around, the girls are supposed to just get the chunks off. But they forget, too, since he's SO ADAMANT about it when he's around. LOL I'll hunt for a youtube video to show him that he's wasting water.

The pods are so darned convenient.

Rinsers here too due to many years of older style dishwashers (one d/w was a 1975 GE that required pre-rinsing or it would choke to death on a tiny glob of food, another was a feeble Frididaire) where you had to rinse before putting into d/w. Since I've been reading this board, and at the suggestion of a member here, I've been working at stopping with the pre-rinsing habit. We're just nervous rinsers I've come to realize due to the choking GE from yesteryear. The whole family is having a hard time too giving up the rinse habit. However, we ARE getting there! Your family can too.

I've had good luck with Ecover dishwasher powder (not the pods). I have to order it on Vitacost.com and it's reasonably priced. It seems to work well for us and I can down-dose to what works best for us, which is one teaspoon of powder detergent (we have softish water). I add a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of Lemishine dishwasher booster to the tray (it's a citric acid based d/w additive) and there is never any white film on the black plastic handles--I used to get that with my old d/w and it wouldn't ever come off.

When I have an especially grimy, baked on, or yucky load, I use Finish tablets with the red ball wedged in the tablet on the recommendations of members here. Those are probably too much detergent for our current champ of a Whirlpool d/w for an average load, but they do a great job of yucky loads and no residue that I can see or smell.

I think a visual examination of the wash arm holes is good to do once in a while. On a former d/w, we had a piece Alaskan king crab tendon (or whatever that fiber string stuff would be) stuck in the upper arm spray holes. I thought it was a piece of rice for the longest time. I kept poking at it with an ice pick and I would 'lose' it back into the spray arm. It would always return sticking a millimeter out of the spray hole. One day I got tweezers and pulled it out. It was like 3 inches long! It was blocking much of that spray arm's ability to wash properly. The feeble Fridgidaire d/w worked better at upper rack items after that.

“We live in North Texas, and moved about a year ago...”

Say no more; it’s your water. Worst. Water. Ever.

What city do you live in?

I'm not directly familiar with that area but I'm in the TX coastal area between Houston and Victoria. Private well. A water softener salesman some years ago tested my water at 11 grains (I didn't buy a softener). I've been for 8+ years using a commercial dishwasher powder (Cascade Institutional which is relabeled Cascade Fryer Boil Out - same formula) that has phosphates (and chlorine bleach). Cleans very well for me (no prerinsing) and no cloudy residue. Prior to that I was adding a bit of STPP to Walmart powder which also worked well.

I've posted these pic in the past to support no prerinsing. :-)

CR magazine has never had good cleaning ratings on gel type DW detergents. My father-in-law loved the stuff and when we visited, I had to hand wash out any glass before I drank out of it.

I use the Costco/Kirland's pods and no coffee stains in our cups, very clean dishes, and cost half of the Finish and Cascade pods. You might give them a try. Our water is "moderately hard." (varies 4 - 7 grains)

One of my teens told me that she has been hand washing my coffee cup. Good grief.

Any dishwasher detergent will give black utensils a whitish coating. I never run those thru the dishwasher

MiMi ... that's related to phosphates being removed from detergents, reduced ability to handle mineral content in hard water. I don't have that problem.

Yep. Either use a phosphate detergent or add your own phosphates and you will be surprised at how the white residue disappears. If it's on black it's on every other as well. Just may not see it.

I had that problem with Cascade powder. It was OK for a while and then started leaving white residue on the dishes. Why??? Who knows. I switched to Finish powder, problem went away never to return. Now, I'm using Finish Quantum alternating with Aldi 'Radiance' powder packs. Lemi-Shine rinse aid. Used to use Lemi-Shine, switched to citric acid (cheaper) then switched to Lemi-Shine rinse aid when it became available. Near perfect results in moderately hard water--two YO Whirlpool Gold DW.

Mac, the Labrador does the pre-wash; he's not real good at it. No pre-rinsing by me.

Lately I have been using Method Dishwasher Pods. I break them in half and they get everything clean. I am on city water that I believe is soft.

We love Costco’s Kirkland brand. Bonus is it’s highly rated on consumer reports. Cascade recently changed and I too had same issues you did. I took a shot on Kirkland brand knowing if it didn’t work for me Costco would refund me anyways. I’m on tub 4 now. Great stuff for 9.99 for a tub of over 100.

You should try the Cascade Advanced Power Gel from Costco. It's about $8/9 comes in a huge bottle and is very convenient. It dissolves fast and cleans well.

The pods are too much detergent for your dishwasher, especially if you are pre-rinsing. You should use a Strong Gel Detergent -- like the one above, or a Powder.

Yes definitely stop hubby prerinsing - your detergent needs something to work with (eg soil to remove) if dishes are going in practically clean and free of soil, you may as well ditch the detergent altogether. Have never understood the custom of pre rinsing (it is something that has never been done over here and we get perfect results every time on everything)

Since you pre rinse everything, you don't need those strong pods.

I've been very happy with Finish powder. I use a heaping tablespoon per load along with Lemishine rinse aid and get great results. I just bought a box of Trader Joes powder to try again since it's unscented. I had brilliant results with TJs in the past.

Powder is much more economical than pods or gel detergents and work great for most conditions.

littlegreeny, where did you find Finish powder? I've never seen it in a store here....

I found it on Amazon, also Finish Gel but the gel has mixed reviews... people either loved it or hated it.

MiMi, I buy the Finish powder at Woodman's, a Wisconsin-based grocery chain. I've seen it at Walmart as well.

Thanks littlegreeny. I’ve never seen it in Walmart here or the local grocery

Walmart website doesn't have Finish powder detergent. Only tabs/powerballs and gelpacs. I don't recall if the local store carries it, haven't bought detergent there in years. Target also doesn't show powder. FinishDishwashing.com shows one powder product but the Buy Now link goes to Amazon for Quantum Powerball.

It’s available on Walmart’s app shipped free by a third party.

https://www.kroger.com/p/finish-lemon-automatic-dishwasher-powder/0005170078234

Kroger might also stock it.

Thank you Rolando... I was just really curious about it especially since I’ve never seen it in a store here.

I have Cascade Fryer Boil Out and Finish Quantum tabs and Finish Power Ball tablets already. All three of those do a superb job.

Do you have a place for the rinse aid? Be sure to keep that full, it makes a huge difference.

I too have been using Cascade Fryer Boil Out for the last several years in my Kitchenaid with great results.

I have heard good things about Bubble Bandit Dishwasher Detergent as well-

https://www.bubblebandit.com/collections/frontpage

Jeff

I actually just switched over to Target‘s Advanced dishwashing pacs. They work quite well. Dishes aren’t quite as polished looking as with Finish Quantum, but are still clean and look good none the less.

We also have a prewashmet in the house. Three to be exact. Mom, Riley a 10 yo lab, and Kane a 3 mo lab.

Ooooh, a new baby dog! How happy for you, Dorey!

Rolando, are you ....M????

No folks I'm not Loco yet...if Rolando knows what I mean...ok...if not than that's OK also. LOL.

Rolando, what do you think of Aldi brand dishwasher pods/paks? I think they are called Radiant?

Mama....I have used it in the past and it did clean well but it left an awful white film inside my stainless dishwasher. With some stpp added to combat that it would be a good product

Thank you MiMi, I may try it one day if I ever get a chance to get to Aldi. It's about a half hour drive, not far if I'm going that way for another reason. Lol.

I loved Cascade Boil Out in my old crippled dw, but haven't tried it in this newer Whirlpool. I usually use Cascade Complete powder or Finish Max. Both preform excellently with no STOP added. I do add STPP if it's an expecially cruddy load. I really like Method smarty tabs, the grapefruit ones but I can no longer find them

I use the Finish Max power ball myself. It has always done a fine job and I think you had mentioned them before so I bought some. I just ran out and am using Finish Quantium now, they also do a great job.I go between those two and Cascade Fryer Boil Out.

I’m trying not to become a dishwasher detergent hoarder like the laundry detergent hoarder that I am....which I just added liquid And powdered Cheer too recently Along with a new to me anyway Downy sports fabric softener abd scent beads

Target had a deal going on all cleaning supplies, spend 50.00 and get a 15.00 gift card So I did an order, got the gift card, placed another order used the gift card on it plus got another 1500 gift card I did this 3 times... I won’t need any cleaning stuff for a year Even easier, I did the drive up pick up order they bring it all out to the car

I just ordered 5 lbs of stpp from Pro Supply Outlet, I hope it’s the good stuff and not like from Dafna.

I’ll be going to Aldi in a few days, if they have some I’ll pick some up for you too. They’ve been out the past several times I’ve been there. Our Aldi was recently remodeled and it’s about my favorite place to shop.

Pinky... I really don't understand your question. Who is M?

regardless, I haven't ever tried Aldi stuff beyond a bottle of there laundry detergent many moons ago. I think it was made by Wisk.

My Wal-Mart used to have Finish powder but, the last couple of times I looked, there was none on the shelves. I ended up finding a good deal on the 85 ct. Finish Quantum so I've been using it, alternating w/ Aldi Radiance and some leftover Finish powder. Since I run the DW only about every other day, I don't go through the stash very quickly.

I have used the Finish PowerBall, too, with good results. Was finding it at a really good price in Menard's for a while. Menard's must have gotten a really good buy on one particularly sized package of it. That deal is history, though.

Wow! Y'all are a plethora of information. So I don't use rinse aide. I will get some. I used natural dishwasher detergents for years, and I don't think our stuff was ever very clean, so we started pre-rinsing everything and that helped. I also tried adding in STPP and the Cascade boil out, as well as the Dropps pods with phosphates, but it was all about the same, so I just started using the Cascade stuff from Costco.

Now we've moved, and while our water is still hard, the dishwasher seems to do a better job overall. I loved our KA. It was so very quiet, and it seemed to do fine, but maybe that's because we were pre-rinsing. Anyway, they are not pre-rinsing, and we are getting some sandy stuff on top of the glasses and bowls on the top rack. I'll see if I can hunt up some citric acid. I'm pretty sure we have some here, or do that AND try some STPP. Once we run out of the pods, I'll try some of these other great suggestions.

Make sure the spray arm on the bottom is functioning properly too. I’ve had to replace three spray arms in my dishwasher as they melted and didnt extend to the top rack anymore and nothing was getting clean. Easy 20 fix if so. My glasses thank me :)

Will definitely look at it. Thanks Larisa.

For everyone replying to this who has not mentioned Lemishine, they need to try that. Lemishine can be used to wash the dishes, but it works best to wash the dishwasher. Hard water is insidious. Eventually it coats everything. I could see the calcium clogging the sprayer jets inside my dishwasher before I used Lemishine. After running the dw empty with Lemishine, it was so miraculous I had to do it again. After the second wash, the inside of the dishwasher looked brand new. It restored the shine to all the plastic bins and pieces inside. The screen at the bottom suddenly was clean. Everything was clean. Now I run an empty load once a month with Lemishine to keep the calcium from building up. Love that stuff...could you tell? Once you realize how well it works, you can go to straight citric acid if you can find that for less.

I also use Lemishine to clean the calcium buildup in my toilets. One tablespoon and let it sit for 15 minutes. If you see small bubbles, it's working. I follow up after 15 minutes with 1 tablespoon of baking soda. That will foam right away. When the foaming stops, I flush.

suseyb - that sandy grit on the glasses will go away with a rinse aid. Our DW is programmed to dispense the smallest dose. I loathe the idea of rinse aid, believing it is some chemical more or less coating our dishes etc.(I know someone here will say it does not, but,,,,) , but with the low water use DWs these days, it is necessary.

Our dishwasher was manufactured in 2006. It uses plenty of water. I will see see if can get some citric acid and get the gunk out of it.

I do like lemishine too but the only ingredient is citric acid so I started buying that in bulk for way way cheaper than lemishine. Amazon has it for very reasonable.

I just have to chime in here with my exciting find. Our 2008 dishwasher was fine until they banned phosphates. Everything got a cloudy white film, including the stainless steel tub. I hated our dishwasher. I was on a mission for years to solve it. Changed detergents. Rinse aids left a residue I could taste and feel. I even tried vinegar in the rinse dispenser. Rewashed glasses, even with lime-away. Then I tried DOLLAR TREE Ultra Shine Pods. A dollar a bag. 10 cents a load. That stuff is magic. Repeated use restored my glassware and improved the tub and baskets. We scrape and rinse plates. We don't use rinse aid. Everything comes out perfect, except plastic which still needs to be hand wiped. I also recommend cleaning the old detergent buildup out of the spray arms. I used pipe cleaner. After I did that the DOLLAR TREE Pods got the inside of the dishwasher like new. We have Chicago water. I hope it works for you, too.

I love Lemi-shine, it was a game changer in our KitchenAid DW's previously poor performance and now buy citric acid in five or ten pound bags on Amazon and refill the container for a fraction of the cost. It also helps to keep the rinse-aid dispenser full. But our six year old KA dishwasher is mediocre at best, it only sanitizes and will sanitize dirty dishes. We found that we get the same results on the "One-hour" cycle that we get on the "Normal" cycle so we do a load in an hour and it's all good thanks to citric acid.

I recently bought this to try since I like the power bars and quantum but this is awful! I’ve used it several times and it did not clean well at all.

Citric acid seems to have done the trick. We found that we need to rinse a little, but that's ok, since we are used to it. Ibought sone of the Cascade gel Costco to use after the pods are gone.