Sorry but Ecover dishwasher tablets are shite - can anyone suggest an alternative?

[CountessDracula]

I am giving up on them
I have tried and tried but they just don't do the job. I have a pretty new Miele dishwasher too, so it isn't that the dishwasher isn't up to it.

Is there any other better eco friendly dishwasher tablet?

We used clearspring gel and it was hopeless! Didn't get tea stains off at all (it actually says on the bottle to wash off tea and coffee stains before you put them in the dishwasher...)
Does anyone know whether there's really a serious difference between the 'eco' and 'normal' products, and if so, what is the difference?

indeed

someone here convinced me try them, and in an atypically green moment i did

they were rubbish

oh OK, they obviously just work in harmony with my crappy old dishwasher then

No rinsing off here. We have a Bosch dw.

Interesting variation in experience here. I noticed that 'green' products worked better when I moved up here (Yorkshire) than they had done in Oxford, where I lived before - I have wondered if it has something to do with what your water supply is like. Oxford water is horrible, scummy, nasty-tasting stuff. Maybe we should say where we are as well as what dishwashing products we use.

I find Ecover not very good compared to Sainsburies own 3 in one.

I don't rinse unless something is really yucky. Ecover copes perfectly well with my porridge bowl! Don't eat much meat though so dishwasher doesn't have to deal with much grease or fat. We have very hard water here and one tablet is fine. Mostly use 50 degree wash though. Old dishwasher is a Zanussi which has given sterling service!

haven't read the whole thread but did read the which article last month, best buy was Lidl own brand, even when you work out that you still need the salt and rinse aid - why spend more?

What problems have you been having Countess? I have a Miele (bought 2 years ago) & have used Ecover tabs cut in half with white vinegar as a rinse aid from the start with no problems. We did change to Tesco eco tabs for a while when DH decided Ecover were too pricey, but they started taking off designs on glasses, mugs etc so we switched back to Ecover.

I don't rinse btw (waste of water imo)...but do scrape plates fairly well to avoid cleaning the filter out too often (yuck!)

I find if you have hard water you need to use rinse aid and salt as well as any three-in-one tablet, be it ecover or mega-polluting-germ-zapper-from-hell.

I live in a hard water area and need to soak the potato masher and weetabix/porridge/muesli bowls before washing in dishwasher or by hand! But have no problems with ecover washing tab in cruddy inherited diplomat dishwasher.

Yes I have salt and rinse aid in too as we are in a hard water area

maybe that it it

The problem I have is that things come out dirty!

Are they shite?
They seem to work ok in mine (or maybe you roared off home sneering at my greasy utensils and cloudy glasses??)

Must be the duff London water innit?

No they were fine with yours
I think it must be the water

cd i thought sw london water was bad

here it is appalling

really really bad

e.g. we are on our 3rd kettle since movin here 16 months ago

and have had to replace 3 flush mechanisms in the loos

etc etc etc

What kind of dirty? Tough burnt on stuff? Tea stains in cups?

Which cycle are you using?

really?
do you have an integral element? This is the answer I have found

I bought a funnly little mini brillo pad thing in homebase to put in allegedly it collects the scale

i am using a cycle called something like universal plus

fuck nose what that is I have lost the instructions

55 degrees

yup

have one of those

it obv is doing something as the little beast gets very clogged up, but it's fighting a losing battle

have given up on posh kettles and buying the cheapest i can find on the basis that they're going to die very quickly, however delightful they may (or may not) look

lol at fuck nose

do you have integral element though

Co-ops own brand eco ones are some of the best I've tried.

have you tried the tesco naturally ones?

I have always found Ecover tablets work very well. We are in a very hard water area, and don't rinse before putting things in the dishwasher. It seems to cope with just about everything we throw at it!

We are in a hard water area too and use Ecover tablets in our Bosch dishwasher with no problem. I do add salt but never rinse-aid. I don't bother rinsing and I only scrape if there's lots of food left on the plates.

In case anyone is considering it, I wouldn't recommend 'Enviroclean' dishwasher powder. I bought it once to try to cut down on packaging, but it was so useless dp went out and bought some Finish super powerball 5-in-one tablets (the ones with the dissolvable wrappers). I might try that Simply Dishwash sometime but for now we're back to Ecover.

I haven't found Ecover very effective in our washing machine (also Bosch) so I use Bio-D washing powder .

i am in a hard water area and have found them the best so far but i do use salt and rinse aid