Anyone recommend a non-toxic dishwasher tablet that is available to the the UK and works in hard water?

[Oneminutespeace1]

Just that really! Does anyone have any recommendations please? Thank you.

I recommend Greenscents - it's not a tab but you just pop a heaped teaspoon of the powder in your drawer. You'll need to make sure your filter is clean in your dishwasher but hasn't got any nasties in it

greenscents.co.uk/product/dishwasher-powder/

Thank you very much - looks like a definite possibility. We live in a hard water area and have struggled even with the mainstream brands! What do you think of Ecover or Seventh Generation? I’m mainly thinking family health (rather than eco credentials). Many thanks for your time 🙂

I think Ecover has a good marketing team but not a product that actually follows through. They are also now owned by SC Johnson, who are not particularly ethical (test on animals etc).

Have you heard of the app called Yuka? It's amazing for telling you if there's any rubbish in your products (food & toiletries). It's free if you scan products but if you want to search for them you need to pay (£10/year). It doesn't have everything on it but it does give the option to add new items.

I've just searched for ecover and it gives a 'poor' score for the hand soap (I don't think the dishwasher tabs are on there yet but it gives you an idea of the validity of the brand). Meanwhile the Greenscents handwash is excellent (screenshots attached)

I've not heard of the other brand you mentioned, sorry

I use Ecover and generally find that they perform well if the dishwasher load is mostly cutlery/crockery and not-particularly-dirty pans. If I'm washing something like the grill pan, with burnt-on food, then I use Fairy Original dishwasher tablets which have a little more oomph.

Greg Foot discuueses all this in detail in an episode of Sliced Bread:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002243k

I meant to add, so buy the least toxic dishwasher tablet/powder you can find and use that for all the occasions when the load isn't too dirty, and save the slightly more toxic but more effective one for when you really need it, cleaning up after the Sunday roast for example.

We use use smol.

Soft water area so not sure about hard water

smol.com/uk/products/dishwash

I'm in a hard water area and Smol works well.

What do you mean by 'I'm thinking of family health rather than eco credentials '? We've been using bog standard supermarket own brand tablets for decades with no ill effect..... We live in a hard water area and the best money we've spent on the house was to have a proper, plumbed in water softener fitted.

Thank you for the replies.

There is an Ecover product called Ecover Zero Dishwasher Tablets and the ingredients are: 5-15%: Oxygen-based bleaching agent. <5%: Non-ionic surfactants Enzymes. Other: Sodium citrate, Sodium carbonate, Polypeptide, Disodium disilcate, Sodium bicarbonate, Bleach activator, Bentonite, Sorbitol, Glycerin, Sodium gluconate.

I’ll have to use Yuka, TryingDry, to assess that list! Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll also try the powder you mentioned.

Some reviews seem to say that Smol uses “toxic” chemicals but much lower levels, so it’s still very effective. Not a bad compromise depending on personal priorities - I do still like the dishes to be clean!

Thank you so much again for all the suggestions! 😊

Bio d better value, better company too, my normal ones

@Oneminutespeace1 What did you end up going with in the end? I’ve just found this looking for exactly the same thing! Thanks 🫠

These Sainsbury’s ones aren’t quite as good as they used to be but we still really rate them - certainly more than Ecover which makes the glasses really cloudy.

www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-green-care-kitchen-all-in-one-dishwasher-tablets-300g

Nancy Birtwhistle does all manner of home made cleaning products if you're interested. I googled recently but I need to sort my life out as I don't have the time for anything.

I've just ordered some of these on spec - they look and sound great but we'll see if they're any good. if anyone's used them do let me know!! :

wearedip.co.uk/products/dishwasher-sheets?srsltid=AfmBOorETR2uEwlRDhz9ruparHxrkeJvs22Ie8DhQCE8i2i8Of3k9Ogy&variant=44343563026644