My sister used to use the powder. It’s a little messy as it does not all dissolve with every wash and you can get a little build-up. But it’s not like you can’t wipe out the soap dish if you want to. The pods are OK if you have a family and run the dishwasher daily as my sister does. I run mine weekly and the pods are not great at cleaning dried foodstuff. I like ecologically sound cleaning products, but these don’t always work for me.

They do make a gel dishwasher detergent and they have both gel and pods that are marked Power Plus. I would start with the Gel Power Plus if you want to avoid the pods. You might have a better experience than I have had with the regular stuff.

Dried on food has to dissolve before it can be washed off, whether in a dishwasher or when doing dishes by hand. This takes both very hot water and time if not done manually.

If you run the dishwasher only once a week, try rinsing and wiping the dishes more thoroughly before putting them into the dishwasher. Make sure the water is maximum hot at the machine before starting it by running the adjacent faucet. Run a rinse and hold cycle first and then wait 30 minutes before freshening the hot water and running a wash cycle.

I hear you @Elmer J Fudd. Cleaning involves water, soap and time. Put enough of any of those three in and your dishes will be clean.

I use Cascade Platinum pods in my dishwasher and they have no problem prying off the dried gunk. My guess is that they use more effective (or just more) detergents that saponify dried food more effectively, allowing it to be washed away in a normal wash cycle. Cascade gives me clean dishes, Seventh Generation does not, so I use Cascade Platinum pods.

if u found the powder, i would buy as much as u can.

they don't sell it my area anymore, all pods.

i am using now and its works great!! no chemical smell like with finish tabs.

and no microplastics.

" Cleaning involves water, soap and time. Put enough of any of those three in and your dishes will be clean. "

I don't completely agree, an excess of one can't make up for a shortfall of the others. And "water" in my experience isn't just using a lot of water but using very hot water.

I left out something too - in my experience, the quality of the dishwasher seems to make a difference too. Probably because of what choices it makes for the variables. For us, one dishwasher is a Miele that works flawlessly. As do most or all other machines, it supplements the temperature of the hot water and does so producing very, very hot water. And long cycles (the normal cycle is about 2.5 hours +/- ). A second also newer machine in a different location is a less expensive, mid-market American brand. It has a shorter normal cycle (just under 2 hours), supplementarily heats water to a lower temperature, and makes a lot of noise. Even freshly soiled dishware and glasses don't come out as consistently clean as with the first.

Hard-ish water in both locations, though the Miele has an internal softener that we have set to the lowest setting. Same Finish tabs used in both, same rinse agent used in both.

Have you used 7th Gen powder, Elmer? If so, please state your experience with it. That's what I'm looking for here.

I can't say for sure. It was at the location where the poorer performing machine is. I checked the website of the store we use there and it sells two of what I'll call off-brand products touting "environmental factors" for appeal - this one and another. She bought one just to try out and after 3 or 4 loads, we discarded what was left.

She's not around to ask. I doubt whether she would remember the brand name as it made such a poor impression, and we've stuck with Finish.

I commented what I did to suggest that even top-rated dishwasher detergent products can be involved in a poor washing performance because the culprit can be the machine, its program settings or the water temperature.

I use 7th Generation powder and really like it. No chemical smell, no plastic jugs to discard. We only run the dishwasher every few days, so we do rinse food off before loading dishes.

I have a friend who lives in a different part of the country who used this powder for a long time. He was very happy with it. Based on that, I bought a box, but I had a negative experience with it. It did not dissolve in my Bosch dishwasher and did not clean well for us. I also had many cycles where the detergent compartment would not open during the wash cycle due to the powder creating what appeared to be a clod of the detergent locking (for lack of a better word) from the powder turing into the clod. I tried using up the remaining Seventh Gen powder to scrub toilets and tubs, but alas, it wouldn't dissolve in that application either.

I am going to assume differences in our water chemistry is what gave the very different results. Or maybe I had a dud? I do run the hot water to maximum temp 140F at the sink, so I don't think the dw was being asked to run with cold water.

However, I have used Ecover unscented powder dishwasher detergent for many years now with good results. We have soft-ish water conditions if that matters (my friend has medium hardness water). I find Ecover *powder* impossible to find locally. I order it on vitacost dot com at a reasonable price. When I have a supplement order, I sometimes add a box or two to my order.

At present, I am using Cascade powder dishwasher detergent as vitacost was out of stock at the time of my last order. This is working well for us, but I will order Ecover powder again in the future as I prefer a fragrance-free dw detergent and if I can get clean dishes using a more chemically friendly formula, I am for all that. Hope that helps.

^^ Appreciate the above detailed response -- I have very soft water so if I try it and don't get good results that may be a possible explanation as to why. I have to stop in at the chi-chi store tomorrow, I'll see if they carry the Ecover too. If not, A*n carries it.

My son and daughter-in-law use Seventh Generation powder. They like it and their dishes come out sparkling (I empty the dishwasher when I am there when it needs doing). I use Blueland dishwashing tabs (NOT pods in plastic) and am also very satisfied.