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I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]
- 383toast 11mo agosummary: The creator argues that most dishwashers are designed to use a pre-wash dose and a main wash dose of detergent, a fundamental often ignored by single-dose pods, and presents independent ASTM testing confirming the new powder matches or exceeds the performance of a leading premium pod. The video also features a detailed demonstration using temperature logging and peanut butter to stress the importance of purging cold water from the hot water supply line before running a dishwasher, particularly in North America, to ensure the water reaches the optimal enzymatic temperature needed for effective cleaning. This is further reinforced by showing how adding pre-wash detergent dramatically improves the initial cleaning phase, especially with fats and oils.
- suprjami 11mo agoThanks for the summary. American dishwashers don't have their own heater? All dishwashers I've seen in Australia only have cold water supply.
- midnitewarrior 11mo agoThey do, but they are generally confined to 10 amps, so they do not heat quickly.
- Rebelgecko 11mo agoAmerican dishwashers are typically hooked up to hot water. Some will have heaters but they're not that powerful and they may only run for the main wash cycle
- brianwawok 11mo agoNot true. Dishwashers get cold very often.
- tenacious_tuna 11mo ago...what's not true? I can't tell what you're disagreeing with.
- sgerenser 11mo agoAmerican dishwashers are always hooked up to the hot water supply. It’s right in the installation manual, and I’ve never seen one that wasn’t.
- devilbunny 11mo agoThey do. I didn't realize this until my natural gas supply company decided to replace my meter on a Friday. Without alerting me ahead of time so that I could, you know, plan to be gone while my house had no hot water. Whenever natural gas supply is turned off in the US, for any reason, only the gas company can turn it back on. And they can't do so if there's a leak at all. You have to call a plumber to come out, detect the leaks, and fix them. After that, you can call the gas company to come back out (but not on a weekend) to turn it back on. And a same-day request for service requires someone to be home ALL DAY after it's called in. And this is how I ended up showering at work for three days that week after not having had one over the weekend.
- thomascountz 11mo agoAs an American expat, I will use this story to explain some of the indignities of living in America. Thank you for sharing.
- devilbunny 11mo agoEvery country I have ever discussed with its residents has something that, on its face, is a reasonable safety precaution (I definitely don’t want to blow up my house), but in practice is just a way to make your life miserable while helping the people who work there have an easier day. This just happens to be the one that affected me. Like modern gas water heaters that have electric ignition instead of pilot lights, because the one serious reason to have gas water heaters is that they work when there is no electricity. Now it’s just a price distinction.
- ajb 11mo agoMy parents used to have an old cooker which rather than having a spark button, had individual pilot lights for all of the hob burners and the grill. My mother was forever worried about whether one of the damn things had gone out (which they occasionally did). I think if you switched the supply off, switched it on again, and someone has left their house for a week, it might build up a significant amount of gas. Although they are supposed to be small enough not to. Presumably there were hardly any of those left now, but they can't assume they're all gone.
- vel0city 11mo agoA dishwasher cycle is usually only going to run for a specific period of time. Its more effective it if starts that time closer to the proper temperature rather than relying on waiting for the heater to get the temperature up to that time. Especially on the pre-rinse cycle, where the heater may or (probably) many not engage.
- reaperducer 11mo agoAmerican dishwashers don't have their own heater? Some do, some don't. The ones that do vary in ability by overall dishwasher quality. The ones that don't are hooked up to the kitchen's hot water line. This is considered more energy efficient because a home's hot water heater (whether electric, gas, or another fuel) is better at heating the water in a bulk capacity than a tiny heater in the dishwasher. The downside is that the cold water between the big water heater and the dishwasher has to be purged first for it to be really effective. If your hot water heater is in the other side of the wall, no problem. If it's six rooms away, problem.
- WheatMillington 11mo agoHot water from the house supply isn't that hot though? My dishwasher gets MUCH hotter than the hot water supply... and I don't think the heater is "tiny" I think it's a rather substantial element. The dishwasher also doesn't need to heat up a "bulk" amount of water, just the amount of water used for washing the current load of dishes.
- reaperducer 11mo agoHot water from the house supply isn't that hot though? Depends on how you have it set. My current and previous hot water heaters had thermostats which permitted adjusting the temperature. They also had warning labels on them about scalding water. If it's hot enough to scald, it's hot enough. The dishwasher also doesn't need to heat up a "bulk" amount of water, just the amount of water used for washing the current load of dishes. If you're washing dishes and someone is, or has recently, taken a shower; or someone is, or has recently, done laundry; or someone is, or has recently shaved or done any of the other dozen things that draw from the hot water heater, then the water is already hot and available and doesn't need to be heated all the way from cold by the dishwasher. A properly insulated hot water heater can retain heat for quite some time.
- nomel 11mo agoMy cheap GE dishwasher uses a hot water line, but also has an internal heating element to "boost" it, and help dry. My electric bill definitely suffers if cold water is used.
- WheatMillington 11mo agoSame in NZ, never seen a dishwasher with a hot water connection.
- Titan2189 11mo agoIf you check the manual you might find that you can hook the single inlet pipe up to the hot water tap.
- SchemaLoad 11mo agoI feel like it's probably pointless. The dishwasher will be full of water before the hot water starts coming out the pipe. Depending on how far the dishwasher is from the water heater I guess.
- tguvot 11mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulator_pump#Use_with_domestic_hot_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulator_pump#Use_with_domes...
- Gigachad 11mo agoThis seems like something that only makes sense when water is scarce but electricity is cheap. You’d be constantly losing heat to the poorly insulated pipes.
- tguvot 11mo agoI have all hot water pipes insulated in my house
- maxerickson 11mo agoPeople who do it more or less don't care about the price of energy (except maybe in the abstract). It's for comfort and convenience.
- 11mo ago
- mrandish 11mo agoSome US washers don't but many do. However, US washers tend to not heat water as quickly or to as high of a temp. The video cites two reasons: 1. US power being 110V vs 220v. 2. US dishwasher heating elements being limited to 800 or 1000 watts because many are designed to potentially share one 20A residential circuit with an oven and/or fridge due to possibly being retrofitted into a kitchen built before built-in dishwashers were standard and manufacturers not wanting to create different models for retrofit vs new installs.
- beerandt 11mo ago3) manufacturers placing energy star improvement quotas over safety in programming the cycles.
- lawlessone 11mo agoThe energy star stuff isn't unique to US dishwashers though.
- masklinn 11mo ago> share one 20A residential circuit 15, dishwasher manufacturers can't assume the dishwasher is on a 20.
- dylan604 11mo agoThis plus the comment about sharing a circuit with an oven. If the oven is electric, even in the US it is 220v. If it is gas only, then it could be 120v as it only needs to run the igniter and other circuitry without running any heating elements.
- bcoates 11mo agoI think he said sharing a circuit with a fridge, which are generally 110 in the US -- i think this is how my apartment is wired (2-phase 30A to oven dedicated, one 20A for the whole rest of kitchen) Trying to run a resistive heater on the same circuit as a fridge compressor without tripping leans towards very conservative wattage
- alvah 11mo agoThis has always struck me as dumb, as until recently it was far cheaper to use your existing (gas-fired) hot water than to use a resistive element. However, with gas going out of fashion (and already hugely expensive in the Eastern states), and abundant solar PV, the calculus has changed.
- selcuka 11mo agoThe problem is that the first few litres of the water coming from the hot water pipe may be cold or warm. Therefore adding a resistive element is a better solution to guarantee a specific temperature.
- seanmcdirmid 11mo agoGas (especially just in time) still works well for water heating even if you can use heat pumps for everything else. No sure when that will flip, I assume it will eventually.
- alvah 11mo agoGas is already outlawed for new builds in Victoria, despite vast gas resources in the Bass Strait. Presumably that's the direction other states are heading too.
- seanmcdirmid 11mo agoIt was a direction some states in the USA were heading before Trump, but now… anyways there will come an economic/technological point where electricity just makes more sense like it does for almost everything else. No need to legislate a transition when one will happen naturally, but we aren’t there yet.
- totallymike 11mo agoI can’t speak to Australian dishwashers, but trying to skip the video by catching a summary has failed you. Heating is discussed extensively in the video
- fsckboy 11mo agotraditionally (in household washing machine time) US houses were large and had a lot more hot water capacity for the whole house, and putting a heater into individual appliances was not necessary/cost effective. retrofitting old traditional houses (especially stone) with higher capacity plumbing was expensive and infeasible, so putting heaters in appliances was a cope for markets that needed it.
- mattclarkdotnet 11mo agoQuite, another thing to add to the list of USAian weird exceptions.
- graemep 11mo agoMy fairly cheap dishwasher in the UK has its own heater, but you can attach it to a hot water supply, which may save money as gas is so much cheaper than electricity.
- tguvot 11mo agoi have miele dishwasher with detergent powder cartridge that allows dishwasher to dispense it at will. it never used during pre-wash cycle in any of the programs that dishwasher has.
- tmsh 11mo agoInterestingly the Gemini summary is nowhere near as good. But when it is... how helpful will that be! So many things with a very good summary will save so much time / avoid having to dive into unless truly in need of the details. But the quality of the summary - and maybe the ability to expand it if slightly more details are required - and the low latency with that - are all super important. In that sense, AI can potentially save a lot of time in getting the right information quickly.
- alvah 11mo agoI summarise YT videos with Gemini all the time. You can easily control the length and depth of the summary & get it to focus on particular things etc, before investing time in watching it, only to find out it's promotional, superficial, clickbait, or some combination of all 3.
- tmsh 11mo agoGood to know! Thanks.
- poutrathor 11mo agoDoes Gemini really does a good job at detecting promotional video ? For example, that one video discussed in this post is one huge promotion for his friend product but it is actually built in a way that clearly appeals to nerdy audience. The video boasts the rigorous testing, provides scientific explanations, nerdy jokes, etc. What Gemini says about that ?
- alvah 11mo agoI don't directly ask it if the video is promotional, but you can usually get a sense from the way the summary is written.
- losvedir 11mo agoThis has been his stance for a long time. He has a lot of dishwasher videos for some reason! One thing I can't get a good answer to is whether the "prewash" step is universally the case or not. I have a good Bosch dishwasher and there's no compartment for a bit of pre-wash detergent. I don't even know if my dishwasher cycle has a pre-wash step. I would assume the dishwasher manufacturer knows what's best. The owner's manual gives advice about not pre-rinsing the dishes because the food bits actually help the wash cycle, so I'm wondering if it works differently from the two-step process in this video.
- woodpanel 11mo agoPods have become so ubiquitous that many companies ditched that powder compartment altogether. But you don't need one anyways just pour it into the cabin. The video explains why there always is a pre-wash step. Regardless of whether it comes with a pre-wash-powder compartment or not. I will try his solution.
- tonymet 11mo agoit's inverted. the closing soap compartment is the washing step, the pre-wash tray contents can just be dumped.
- pineaux 11mo agoI have installed several dishwashers for friends and find them fascinating. All of the ones I have seen basically dumped the contents of the closing soap compartmens as soon as it started washing. Some dishwashers (looking at bosch) even have a little tray in the upper drawer that catches the pod.
- kiwijamo 11mo agoIt depends on the cycle for some. Mine one doesn't do a prewash for the 45mins QUICK cycle. But the ECO cycle does follow the normal prewash-then-wash process as described in the video. Hence I normally use the ECO cycle and put the correct amount of powder in both components. However in a hurry I sometimes just use the QUICK cycle and only use the main component as I know there is no point in adding more. The manual explained all this.
- woodpanel 11mo agoI've micro-optimized my dishwasher setup to have all my 100+ pods and other in-bulk dishwashing-chemicals stored in a compartment between my two dishwashers. I'm also firmly in the camp of having a flat cutlery compartment at the top and not that inefficient, and uncivilized, scarring, basket in bottom section. Until seeing that video I thought I was crazy. I've found my master.
- koolba 11mo agoYou have two dishwashers in one kitchen?
- tzs 11mo agoI recall reading, I think in a comment here long ago, of someone who did that. He had just enough items to fill one dishwasher. By having two he could use one for storage and one for cleaning, with the two alternating roles. I.e., he started off with all his things clean and in dishwasher A. As he used things he pulled them from A and put them in B. When B is nearly full and A is nearly empty, run B, move any remaining items from A to B. Then B becomes the storage space and A becomes the place to put the dirty items.
- buzzardbait 11mo agoJust in case one of them asks for a divorce
- woodpanel 11mo agoYes, i do. The idea was that it keeps the kitchen cleaner, because there's no more gross kitchenware that didn't made it into the dishwasher. Always wanted that. Then saw it in practice at a startup once, and then finally gave it a go. There will be instances when both are just full and you still end up visible filth, but even then, you at least have to go just once into clear-out mode. It works out great so far. If it didn't... well, I guess I'd need to buy a third one ;-)
- matt-attack 11mo agoI never understood the requirement for having to preheat your pipes. The dishwasher has access to a hotline, and a drain. Why wouldn’t it just run the hot water for 60 seconds to ensure it has maximum heat. This would just be a software feature, and cost nothing on their part. It seems so arcane for the operator to have to do this before running a cycle
- Telaneo 11mo agoThere are regulations on water usage for dishwashers. That purge would eat into its water usage. Yes, purging the cold water manually does exactly the same thing. We live in a flawed world.
- RealityVoid 11mo agoI've found it harder and harder to find powder dishwasher detergent in my country. I think they intentionally pull them off the market, I used to buy a large Finish container and now I can barely find a place that sells _any_ sort of dishwashing powder.
- NamTaf 11mo agoI, too, went through like 18 months in the UK with the big stores not selling any until one reintroduced it recently. Alternatives on the internet were like 3+x the price, at least. It was incredibly frustrating. I now stock up and have 2-3 boxes of the stuff, in case it does vanish again. Doubly frustrating since mine is a small, single-drawer dishwasher, so pods are even worse since I can't break them down. It leads to me having way too much detergent in the dishwasher and I end up with residue on the dishes.
- gattilorenz 11mo agoOr… use a (dirty) knife to split a solid tab; put 2/3 in the dishwasher compartment and 1/3 just in the dishwasher.
- valeena 11mo agoI thought about it but wasn't sure if it would really do the trick. I kinda don't wanna buy more detergent right now because I'm stuck with a lot of pods
- kevincox 11mo agoThe tabs I had to buy for a while could be broken fairly easy by hand. This 1/3 2/3 worked noticeably better than just putting the whole tab into the dispenser.
- bcraven 11mo agoThe big Sainsbury's near me never stopped doing this: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-concentrated-dishwasher-powder-1kg https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-conce... And this has worked for me too: https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/essential-dishwasher-powder-citrus/014539-6980-6981 https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/essential-dishwasher-...
- ErroneousBosh 11mo agoI wonder if that's why my now something like nearly 40-year-old dishwasher is so bad for leaking, on certain cycles? Maybe the pods foam up too much, because it seems hell of a foamy inside. At some point, I'll maybe post up the pics of repairing the door hinges - previously it was leaking badly because the chunky metal hinges had cracked and bent, pushing the door up enough to not squash the bottom lip seal. Unobtainable parts now, but if you have a welder... If you don't use a JTAG cable and a MIG welder on the same project in the same day, can you really call yourself "full stack"?
- smileysteve 11mo agoAt 40 years, there is an expectation that the rubber and most plastic components have become embrittled. The hinges likely only wore out after the spring had reduced function (and lack of lubrication) After your weld, I hope you consider replacing all rubber with silicone, and add lubrication to at least an annual list.
- tguvot 11mo agoi replaced few years ago dishwasher that was at this point of time 20 years old (GE). When it was removed from below countertop plastic connector on top of dishwasher (water hookup) fall apart into dozen of small pieces.
- ErroneousBosh 11mo agoThe plastic and rubber bits are absolutely fine. The hinges broke because someone leaned on the door with their full weight while it was open. The grease on the hinge pins was perfectly okay too. Ariston used to be a quality company.
- ash_091 11mo agoMIG is for hobbyists. Real programmers use TIG.
- ErroneousBosh 11mo agoI haven't got space for a TIG. However a couple of weeks ago Hofer had an inverter gasless MIG about the size of a Commodore 64 power brick, not including the spool of wire. Can't say I wasn't tempted to get myself a hot-glue-gun-for-metal kind of tool.
- tguvot 11mo agoi used multiple dishwashers in multiple countries. blomberg, ge, bosch, miele, lg. used pods for as long as they exist (with exception of miele that has detergent cartridge that is good for two dozens of cycles). the only times when I had problem with dishwasher performance it's when either dishwasher had physical malfunction, dishwasher arms were blocked by some object or when i forgot to put pod. is my experience of dishwashers extraordinary ?
- jogu 11mo agoHis stance is less that pods don't perform, and more that powders perform just as well and are less wasteful.
- tguvot 11mo agopods are about convenience. exactly same reason that i got dishwasher with detergent cartridges and washing machine with build in container for detergent. but if we talk about powders, they can be very different with different performance. There are commercial powders (for restaurants and such where dishwashers run on very short cycles) that I afraid to put in my dishwasher and there are eco powders that are made from unicorn tears (tried once, they cleaned dirt but leave stains on clear glass). i went through sds of a bunch of them. most of them have same similar basic ingredients, but in different proportions
- eitau_1 11mo agoI can't remember if it was main video or second channel one, in which Alec states with confidence that big brands make powder worse on purpose to push their higher margin pods. The opinion is based on his experience (horrible residue left by big-name powder in contrast to store-branded great-value powders being problem-free) and lab results.
- tguvot 11mo agoi used cascade powder to refill miele cartridges. there was 0 difference with regards to residue/etc. also SDS was very similiar. i just went to check amazon. cascade complete powder has 4.6 with 9k reviews. if it was subpar, pretty sure that rating would have reflected it. for example plant based detergents hover around 4.
- eszed 11mo agoI thought that the multi-solution pods - they're usually have differently-colored, for I presume marketing reasons - have pockets with different dissolve rates, so that the solutions are dispensed in sequence. I've not tested that, though.
- jogu 11mo agoHe has another video talking about pods specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04
- PetitPrince 11mo agoIt would be probably very difficult to engineer a good dissolution rate that takes into account the different length and water temperature of the pre-wash cycle of the many many different dishwashers out there. So no, as the video in the sibling comment shows, it's just fancy marketing.
- masklinn 11mo agoAlec actually looked at that in a previous video of the dishwasher series. There is no "different dissolve rate" or "dispensed in sequence". https://youtu.be/Ll6-eGDpimU?t=718 https://youtu.be/Ll6-eGDpimU?t=718
- jeffbee 11mo agoOne segment of this video quite clearly shows that the fancy pod does dispense its contents in stages.
- masklinn 11mo agoNot in any sort of meaningful way no. Pockets dissolving seconds later by random chance does not do anything in an hour long wash cycle.
- jeffbee 11mo agoMaking part of the pod out of 3mil PVA and bonding it to another part made of 1mil PVA does not sound like unachievable technology to me. In fact, the first Google result for PVA films that I see sells them based on their various dissolution times.
- ZeroGravitas 11mo agoI watched the video, but may have missed this, but shouldn't the testing have shown that the powder was substantially better? Or did they not test the "putting some powder into the prewash" thing and so it was just "powder released all at once" vs "tablet released all at once". Even there I'd expect some mild improvement from the powder mixing more easily than a plastic wrapped tablet (though maybe if the content inside is liquid this factor is reversed?). Does this mean the big corps do have some chemical advantage that cancels out the crappy delivery mechanism? Or does it mean that a mechanical spray prewash step isn't meaningfully improved by chemicals in most circumstances? I was more alarmed by the wrappers being plastic. I had assumed they were some clever biodegradable thing but they're not.
- mvdtnz 11mo agoGiven the stupid pods are way more expensive I think it's enough to show that there's no benefit.
- smiley1437 11mo agoThe pods cost about 6x as much per load as powder. So, even if they had equal cleaning performance, economically the powder would come ahead. As it turns out, the 1/6th-as-expensive powder does an even better job than the pods, making the powder an even more obvious choice (Unless you really value the handling convenience of using a pod and were willing to accept poorer results at a higher expense)
- pitaj 11mo agoNo. The powder he's promoting in the video (which performs better than pods) actually costs more per wash than the most effective pods on the market (Cascade Platinum Plus).
- nikita2206 11mo agoI believe expensive pods do have a chemical advantage, in the form of some enzymes that help break things down.
- jeffbee 11mo agoI was a long-time adherent of powder for all the reasons in the video. I used the Seventh Generation powder that is widely available, or once was. One day I couldn't find it, so I got Cascade Free & Clear Pods. I was completely blown away by how much better the pods work. And they work faster, too, because my dishwasher cycles are based on water clarity and they end sooner if the detergent is working faster. So I permanently switched, nevermind the cost difference. Perhaps part of the issue is that the presenter in the video is using a somewhat primitive machine.
- Izkata 11mo agoI used pods and tried out powder after one of his previous videos on this, it was pretty terrible even following his advice and using rinse aids. I like chocolate milk, made by mixing chocolate powder (Nesquik) into milk, and somehow everything except pods manages to leave a film of the chocolate powder over everything. I haven't watched this video yet, but my suspicion is he's using bad pods - ones that really are just packaged detergent without the extra chemicals they often include in the pods nowadays.
- orev 11mo agoBecause the pods are so much more expensive, it means they make more money on them. There’s a very real incentive for the companies to intentionally reduce the performance of the powders just so they can sell more pods (as people notice the performance difference, they think it’s because powder is naturally inferior instead of being manipulated into being so).
- Blackthorn 11mo agoWe attempted an experiment in our own dishwasher after the video, trying Cascade Platinum boxed powder (only stuff available here) and Cascade Platinum Plus pods (which we had been using before). The experiment showed that, for our dishwasher and our water, the pods just worked significantly better. The main difference was in the silverware (tiny bits would occasionally be left with the powder). A couple of months into the experiment with the powder, the dishwasher started to smell a bit foul, which usually indicates time to clean the filters, which I did. But this happened vastly sooner than I was used to with the pods. Even if the powder's performance sucks intentionally because Cascade made it worse now, as a sibling comment suggested, ultimately that's the only powder option still available here.
- platevoltage 11mo agoOne of my favorite YouTubers. Watch every video.
- platevoltage 11mo agoAnyone who downvoted care to tell me why? Am I watching trash?
- apparent 11mo agoProbably relevance. I wouldn't downvote for that unless it was the top comment or something.
- conductr 11mo agoI didn’t downvote but not a fan. Reason is Completely rude and subjective but I just can’t really stand his voice or how he speaks. Never seen him before today but oddly this video has found me through 2 different avenues today
- emtel 11mo agoPods work great for me, and I love not having crumbs of powder under the sink, or a bottle of liquid detergent with encrusted drips down the side. It's just gross. They are more expensive, but I buy them on sale at Costco for about $16/100, so at $0.16 per load I really don't care if powdered detergent is only $0.03 per load or whatever. There is clearly a revealed preference for pods among consumers for these things, and "proving" that everyone is wrong for liking them is just not a very interesting exercise imo.
- lurking_swe 11mo agoif you have powder crumbs under your sink you might need to improve your technique. This reminds me of how some of my house guests will accidentally splash water all over the bathroom counter and even the mirror when they wash up in the morning. I don’t say anything, to be polite, but they clearly lack technique lol. This works for me: 0. store the dishwasher powder (box) under sink. 1. Open dishwasher door 2. grab box, place OVER the opened door. 3. dispense powder into cartridge in door (with spoon, tilting box, etc) 4. put spoon back in box OR fully tilt box back upright. “Crumbs” will drop onto the door, that’s OK. 5. move box back under sink. Even if I was messy, I personally couldn’t make myself spend 5x on pods to avoid cleaning crumbs under the sink once a month. When i think of convenience i think of a dishwasher saving me hours every month. Not saving 10 seconds a month to wipe crumbs under the sink. :-) We clearly all have different preferences and ideas of “convenience”. I respect that.
- johnfn 11mo ago> if you have powder crumbs under your sink you might need to improve your technique. With a pod there is no technique to be improved. They just work, every single time.
- nixpulvis 11mo agoExcept if you get even a drop of water in the pod storage bin and they fuse together and you have to carefully rip them apart.
- 11mo ago
- spondyl 11mo agoHah! I had watched this just last night. I have a Fisher & Paykel Dishdrawer so this prompted me to check the instruction manual and sure enough, I had been putting Rinse Aid in the pre-wash area. I don't even really know what Rinse Aid is honestly but it's fun having some things be a black box. Turns out the correct spot is turning a knob, pulling it out and pouring it down a hole containing a glowing red light. I had assumed there was just some sort of circuitry down there and doing so would be a horrible idea. Thanks Technology Connections!
- analog31 11mo agoIt's a volatile surfactant. Thus, it allows water to drip off your dishes before drying, so you don't get spots, but also doesn't produce a residue of its own.
- hammock 11mo agoI wouldn’t use rinse aid. It’s not good for you - damages your gut and may contain dioxane byproducts. I also would avoid detergents with ethoxylated alcohols (AEs). What to look for is any powder or powder-filled pod with a) no AEs and b) does contain amylase and protease , two food-eating enzymes that are often omitted for who knows why. 365 Whole Foods brand pods are my go-to
- HumanOstrich 11mo ago[Several citations needed]
- selcuka 11mo agoHousehold usage levels are probably fine [1]. That being said, we don't use rinse aid and I don't see any issues with glasses. I can see how it could be a problem in areas with harder water. [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36464527/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36464527/
- DANmode 11mo agoAre you a chemist, an investor, a pro-additive experiments? Why?
- FredPret 11mo agoI applaud this man's commitment to dishwashers. But you can buy a large box of generic and very cheap no-bullshit pods at Costco, and simply put two or even three of them in a load. If you're going the multi-pod route, you can put one in the dispenser and one or more right in with the dishes.
- tonymet 11mo agoeven the cheap costco pods are 3x the cost of powder. And his point is that the pods undermine the dishwasher because they don't let you control when and how much detergent is deployed during the multiple washing cycles. powder deploys during rinse and wash. pods deploy only during wash (or only rinse if people put the pods into the tray, which is common) And the dishwashers are designed with a hardness index in the hopper . you're supposed to line up the soap with your local hardness level to avoid residue.
- FredPret 11mo agoBut the multi-pod strategy means you can give the machine soap to use in various cycles. Put some in the little flap, and some just in with the dishes. I'm not sure if my machine even has a hardness marking, but when I used liquid dishwasher soap, I simply filled up the compartment every time. As to the cost, yes it's 3X, but if you're reading this and you have a Costco membership, it's still a rounding error. Pods just make life simpler and cleaner (no messy powders and gunky liquids in the soap cabinet), which is why I even have a dishwasher in the first place.
- cgriswald 11mo agoAnything sounds good if you oversell its advantages and undersell its disadvantages. I find pods messy (they can stick together and break open) and powder simpler. Powder I store in a glass container and pour directly from that; never have to touch it directly. Occasionally I’ll have to push a bit of lose powder into the sink during transfer from box to container. Powder is cheaper. Sure I save pennies per load but I don’t know why I would waste pennies. Pods are overdosed for my washer and water and leave residue. I don’t want to use more of them. Powder lets me dose a load with much more precision anyway.
- macinjosh 11mo agoHaving the cleanest dishes is not always the optimization one is looking for. I like pods because there is less of a chance my clumsy self, or younger kids can accidentally spill costly soap for my dog to try to lick up or overfill the dispenser. My dishes are almost never caked in fats and oils when I put them in. I do not use a pre-wash. If I do I break a pod in half and toss in the bottom. This guy makes me roll my eyes. There is nothing more exhausting than a self-assured YouTuber lecturing others as if he has all the right answers. He is not wrong per se but not everyone has their own preferences and needs.
- RandomBacon 11mo ago> chance There's always chances with everything in life. Perhaps teach/practice with your kids to be less clumsy - that will pay a lot more dividends than just using pods.
- macinjosh 11mo agoSpoken like someone who has never been around kids.
- RandomBacon 11mo agoSpoken like someone who assumes incorrect things.
- pcunite 11mo agoWow, this will be helpful.
- CWuestefeld 11mo agoOne surprising thing I got from this is that the "Energy Saver" mode used just as much energy, and even more water. But he said that almost as a throwaway, with almost no explanation of his methodology in determining this, nor discussion about how common this problem might be.
- brikym 11mo agoMaybe it means energy as in human effort.
- Bratmon 11mo agoHe made a follow-up video in which he explains his testing methodology and what the dishwasher is doing in heavy detail: https://youtu.be/WnBb3DLlVPwsi=1fW2qg8_Y1SmxkKo https://youtu.be/WnBb3DLlVPwsi=1fW2qg8_Y1SmxkKo Tl;dr He actually tested each cycle, timed what it did, and measured the energy with a Kill a Watt. He also found the repair manual, which included a diagram of each cycle that matched his tests. His ultimate finding was that all of the cycles and modifiers did wildly different things, none of which correlated in any way to their name.
- tgv 11mo agoMy dishwasher came with a booklet that showed energy and water consumption for each setting. Eco mode is about 20% - 50% more efficient in comparison to the other programs.
- dprice1 11mo agoI have been using Dirty Labs dishwasher powder for about a year, since we got a new dishwasher, and inspired by some of his older videos on this topic. The performance has been good, no complaints. I don't torture-test my dishwasher like Alec does :). With the powder, I can do the whole some-on-the-door, some-in-the-dispenser thing mentioned here, or just use less for light loads. It is without a doubt not a budget option. One aspect I like about it is that they have a fragrance-free variant, and even the "fragrance" one is not too bad. A second aspect I like is that it's biodegradable, et cetera. So a bit lighter on the environment, I hope, and the SDS is prominently available on the website. I think another thing which is under-appreciated is that you need to know how to do the basic cleaning chores for your dishwasher-- for example if it has a filter, learn to clean it! Otherwise its ability to clean will probably be compromised.
- arjie 11mo agoI love that there are people who will go into this much detail on stuff. It's really cool that they do. But the whole thing is that if you follow some sequence of steps, powder will clean as well as or better than pods for a third the cost. All right, this isn't a significant portion of my expenses so I'll pay the 3x cost since my dishes come out clean anyway. I wish the description of the video was like an abstract.
- bitslayer 11mo ago>I wish the description of the video was like an abstract. Business opportunity something something AI
- small_scombrus 11mo agoYouTube are already doing it! :(
- redundantly 11mo agoMy kids would routinely put in too much powder, which would gunk up the dispensing mechanism, requiring my time and effort to clean it out and fix it. Eventually the dispenser broke entirely and had to be replaced. We since switched to pods and haven't had any problems with the dispenser. The pods are worth every extra cent.
- kurttheviking 11mo ago
- codethief 11mo agoI remember watching this[0] video by the OP a couple years ago. Never would have thought I could listen to someone talk about dishwashers for 30 minutes but it was surprisingly fascinating! [0]: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04
- billfor 11mo agoI went to my Costco right before they banned phosphates in the dishwashing detergent and got a pallet of Cascade with 5% phosphates. People looked at me like I was was crazy. I'm still going through my pallet 15 years later and my dishes are always clean :-) I just throw a bit of the detergent in the tub for prewash rather than put it in the cup, as it will leak out anyway. One thing you could probably do for the phosphate-free stuff is to add a "teaspoon of TSP" to the detergent and that would probably help - not sure if the formulation in today's detergent would agree with it though. I'll find out in another 5 years I guess....
- zeroonetwothree 11mo agoSo we have you to blame for coral reefs dying
- billfor 11mo agoProbably not I have a septic system.
- Yizahi 11mo agoCoral reefs are dying because of the water temperature increase coupled with increased acidity. And that happens not because someone uses a dishwasher detergent, they are likely not even in the same hemisphere. But because none of the governments are implementing any working green tech at scale, so the emissions are only ever increasing and the rates of increase is accelerating. Paper straws and bad detergent won't help when new coal and gas plants are constructed daily.
- nubinetwork 11mo agoStrange that nobody seems to notice the video was one big ad for a soap company.
- hekkle 11mo agoI started using powder about a year ago, because of this guy. It legitimately works so much better than pods, because of the bit you 'spill' into the pre-wash part; and it's cheaper!
- abakker 11mo agoMy only addition to this discussion is that the Dirty Labs dish soap has been legitimately better for our baby stuff and other plastic stuff that sometimes gets oily. I recommend it.
- kumarvvr 11mo agoI wonder if its possible to press powder into pods, and use them. I mean, pre-make a bunch of them from store brand powder, and keep them ready for use. Not sure if water can be introduced to bind the press, or maybe some other material.
- Krastan 11mo agoAt the end of the video he mentions that the good store sells those as well. https://good.store/products/dishwasher-tablets?srsltid=AfmBOoo6SBEffdgBp-Y3Er2LEJYEZJ_pGf8Xy_xBoqGh9xlk4fHGG6Nq&ch=1 https://good.store/products/dishwasher-tablets?srsltid=AfmBO...
- cr125rider 11mo agoNot to just bandwagon on Alec but he is the epitome of a hacker. He is always tearing things down and explaining how they work. An absolute gem.
- pixxel 11mo ago[dead]
- roguebloodrage 11mo agoWho the hell has a dishwasher connected to hot water? Shit, my washing machine doesn't even have hot water. Both devices have internal heaters. Both are over 10 years old. This guy has been incorrect in his yt posts so many times, I simply do not believe him anymore. He is all about monetization and doesn't care about truth or accuracy.
- zamalek 11mo agoI inferred a trick from his original video. Dish soap and dishwasher detergent are not the same; the latter contains an enzyme that breaks food down. If you have something that is completely wrecked, fill it with piping hot water and put a dose of dishwasher detergent in it. Leave it overnight. I strongly doubt the stuff is good for your skin, so I've only done this a few times.
- iamacyborg 11mo agoDepending on what thing you’re talking about, often the easiest way to clean various pans is to just fill them with water and bring them to a boil for a few minutes
- UnserMannInK 11mo agoThis works for cleaning a lot of things. I regularly clean the coffee maker (a Bialetti espresso thing) by putting some powder detergent in the water compartment, then „make coffee“ without actual coffee and leave it in overnight. Neutralize with white vinegar (which has the added benefit of descaling) and rinse thoroughly. It‘s as new afterwards. And yes, it’s not good for your skin, so avoid immersing your hands in it or wear gloves.
- bjackman 11mo agoI don't think boiling water with dishwasher detergent in it is a great idea (because of potential fumes). I might have misunderstood what you mean by "make coffee" but maybe something to look into if you do this regularly.
- UnserMannInK 11mo agoBy „make coffee“ I meant „use the coffee maker as usual, without ground beans but with detergent in the water“. The fume/steam is surely not healthy if inhaled directly and up close, but then again your dishwasher vents those same fumes into your kitchen untreated in much larger quantities than a 200ml coffee maker possibly can. I regularly use things to clean that I am more worried about, such as bleach, acetone, turpentine and the likes…
- jillesvangurp 11mo agoReferring to yourself in a title twice strikes me as mildly narcissistic and otherwise it's obvious click bait. Doesn't put me in a mood to watch the video. But judging from just the title this person seems to have figured out a few obvious things that are probably well known and entirely unsurprising for people that know anything about the virtues of soda in household applications. That's not exactly a well kept secret.
- rendall 11mo agoTechnology Connections is not a narcissist or arrogant. He's just a big geek about devices, and a bit of a comedian. Don't take it so seriously.
- MarioMan 11mo agoA few things that stood out to me: - One of the key factors in powder over pods in his prior videos was cost. Cheap powder runs about 6.6¢/oz. The brand he’s promoting is $1.11/oz, nearly 17x more expensive than traditional powder. When comparing per-load costs, Cascade pods are about 39.5¢ per load and the promoted powder is 58.5¢ per load, or 48% more costly than pods. The price to performance is terrible and could only be justified if you also consider external factors like their sustainability practices and the donation of all profits to coral reef restoration. Not discussing price seems like a huge gap to me. - I was disappointed that he only personally compared and tested washing performance against a pod and the promoted powder, rather than also evaluating a traditional powder. Could he have replicated and compared the subpar performance reported by others? - I would have assumed that, if the pre-rinse is supposed to get hot, the heater would run until it reaches the temperature target. Is it normal for a unit to simply not care? Last I had done reading on this, whether to attach to the hot or cold side is actually a contentious issue, mostly around the gas vs. induction-based heating costs in water heaters, in addition to temperature losses in the pipes. If the pre-wash expects hot water, then that’s an extra point for the hot side backers. I guess one should always check their manual to determine best-practice on the purge and line placement.
- douglee650 11mo agoIt’s a well made, elaborate infomercial with a science hook.
- tobyhinloopen 11mo agoThe price was also an immediate turn-off for me, and I really don't like he's advertising it. It feels like a product that is marked up crazy amounts, greenwashed with "profits get donated" (profits AFTER the people involved get their salaries, obviously). It feels like his channel suddenly changed to go into "let's make some money", carefully packaged in a "non-profit / charity" deal. Maybe I'm just overly pessimistic.
- Arch-TK 11mo agoA 2.8x price increase (compared to what I pay per tablet) for a product made and packaged in the US compared to a mass manufactured product made in a cheaper country by companies with thousands of other products and massive marketing departments seems completely normal. The thing about Hank Green is that he has been doing this sort of stuff (good things) for long enough time that I don't have trouble believing that this stuff a: pays fair and not over inflated salaries, and b: all the profits really do go to charitable causes. I also don't think Alec is getting paid per sale, maybe he got some kickback for the consultancy, no idea. He would be obligates to disclose if he was getting a kickback, so I guess well see. If he is lying about such an affiliation, these things have a good chance of bubbling up especially for a channel the size of his.
- conductr 11mo agoThis just leaves me wondering if I’m the only one manually wiping off the dishes before they go in the washer? I’ve never had a dirty dish issue and pods work just fine, the powder works just fine, etc. pods are just a little more convenient so I use them. Also, if you rinse your dishes first there’s no large food going into the washer and I’ve already got the warm water primed.
- dyauspitr 11mo agoThat beats the point of the dishwasher for me. I don’t really want to do any pre rinsing or scrubbing/wiping. If I’m doing that, I might as well just use a sponge with soap for an extra five seconds and wash the dish completely.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- jonathanlydall 11mo agoIf the dish has bits of e.g. vegetable matter beyond a certain size which would ultimately need to be manually cleaned out the dish washer's filter after some time, then I will at least scrape off the contents of the plate first, and occasionally I may do a 2 second rinse of a plate under my tap.
- mnw21cam 11mo agoYou mean you don't eat all your food? Disgraceful! Children starving in Africa etc.
- jonathanlydall 11mo agoI know you said this in jest, but I actually personally do try to not leave little pieces of food on my plate as it saves having to scrape it off later, but I've never even suggested to my wife that she do the same and even if my kids weren't only 3 and 5 years old, I don't think I'd bother asking them.
- cameldrv 11mo agoUnfortunate that he's advertising an expensive powder... That said, based on his advice in a previous video, now I run the hot water tap until it's hot. I put a pod in the dispenser, and I sprinkle some powder into the dishwasher. My issues with the dishwasher getting the dishes clean went away.
- mathiasrw 11mo agoJust use sheets. Like powder, but without inhaling the dust/smell and the slight mess. I like the ones from Lucent Globe.
- rapish62 11mo agothats amazing!
- quchao 11mo agoyes，i think so～
- Tan-Aki 11mo agoTldr?
- temperceve 11mo agoI love this guy
- exceptione 11mo agoPro-tip for those who use pods: remove the plastic foil of the pod just before inserting. That way you prevent polluting drink water with microplastics.
- arthurfirst 11mo agoRepair men will tell you liquid detergents of any kind wear out dishwashers and washing machines much faster. To say nothing of all the stabilizers/additives and dyes. The best thing to clean with is powder to make your machine last. Also shipping water (liquids mostly water including pods) is a bad idea in terms of weight and cost. Liquids and pods are great for driving new unit sales. Tablet seem to be in the middle but they of course caking agents use to make them into pucks... why not just use powder?
- _spduchamp 11mo agoThe big ah-ha! moment is finding a hidden service spec sheet hidden inside the door control panel. That sheet reveals a lot of useful information that should just be in the owner's manual.
- haritha-j 11mo agoI do not own a dishwasher. I watched the full video. If i wanted practical dishwasher tips I wouldn't be watching a technology connections video. I also don't own a a1950s toaster, nor a 70s pinball machine. The point of these videos is entertainment and learning odd bits of knowledge.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- pbnjeh 11mo agoHis prior dishwasher videos rescued my parents' 30-ish year old dishwasher -- one they had previously been advised to avoid replacing as long as possible, as modern units don't have the same construction quality. Following his cleaning instructions and, subsequently, his usage advice, did the trick. Regarding the latter, notably adding the recommended prewash dose of detergent in addition to the main dose, and running the kitchen sink's hot tap until the water is fully hot before starting the dishwasher. Here in the US with our lower power capacity, resulting in dishwasher heating elements being restricted to lower power to avoid circuit breaker trips, when the dishwasher is correctly connected to the hot water line (typically, of the kitchen sink), doing this results in a hotter prewash and often also wash. This all really does make a substantial difference. Take the time to watch his dishwasher videos. If you struggle at all with the performance of yours, you won't regret doing so.
- kjkjadksj 11mo agoMy dishwasher says to do those things in the user manual. It even has a little indented dish for prewash powder on top of the main soap door. It also says to regularly clean the filter which makes a big difference preventing any of those “specs” from ending up in the bottom of cups.
- MarkusWandel 11mo agoI guess I'm just a dishwasher neophyte. My old one was crude, loud, dried hot, and got the job done (to hot, dry dishes) in one hour. Rinse aid wasn't even a word in our household (we don't have hard water here - no water spots). But don't put in a rice cooker pot with rice residue in it - it'll be baked on so hard that you need a 1h soak to get it off. The new one (Bosch 500 series) takes three hours on its default "auto" cycle. No prerunning the tap to get hot water for the first fill, no worries about rice cooker pots. It runs for so long (quietly!) that everything gets soaked properly and comes off, sparking clean, no problem. Both the consumable (brands) that came with the machine as samples - the tablets and the rinse aid - are stocked in large packages at Costco at a per-wash cost that's negligible. I do put in rinse aid because drying is a weakness in this machine compared to the old one. That, and you can't run two loads in the same evening after a party. Prewash? Who cares, the dishes come out clean. And that's kind of the whole point isn't it? Not to have to geek out with your dishwasher. Just fill it, get it started and expect to have clean dishes in the morning.
- EnPissant 11mo agoThis guy just follows the time tested pattern of "I'll let you in on a little secret!". Pods are the best way to clean dishes because they are capable of containing chemicals that are not practical to formulate into a uniform powder or liquid. All actual science confirms this.
- nrlucas 11mo agoI would really like this content to be an essay, not a story. Or I should say, the narrative feels like an essay but it turns out not to be. Namely, (spoiler) he finds some schematics in the door that would have informed his analysis prior. The fact he didn't just say, "hey you might have this in your door and could be helpful,..." And then proceed to do the analysis with the full information provided from the data. Secondly, the purging test only compares hot water and "cold" water, and doesn't actually test the duration to get hot water to temperature. That is, is the 25s it takes to get up to temp matter? From the timings in the video it does, but it just felt like he was comparing purging and not, instead of hot water vs cold water. Thirdly, hows do these advice change for newer models? Surely the dishwasher companies know some of this and can make things better. I will be taking some of this practices to my dishwasher, but it is a newer Bosch model, and I would imagine I need to do some research to understand what is applicable to my dishwasher.
- jiehong 11mo agoReminds me of a question I had when working in a restaurant: what’s the difference between home dishwashers and restaurant dishwashers? I mean, how come restaurants dishwashers wash things under 5 minutes? (Albeit with a lot of noise and with stronger water jets).