Dishwasher tablets/powder. What's best?

[JingleAllTheSoddingWay]

My new dishwasher is sitting all nice and shiny in my kitchen so now I need tablets.

They've sent me some "Finish" tabs but I know they're quite expensive.

Can you recommend any good cheaper ones? We do online shop at sainsburys but walk to the local tesco quite often too so products from either of those stores will be fab.

I used to buy powder but it is becoming harder to get hold of it. Fwiw I buy the cheapest tablets and have never had any problems with them. About £1.80 for 30 in Tesco/S'bury.

Or you can of course pay significantly more for Fairy Platinum or Finish or similar.

If you use powder you will also need to buy separate rinse aid and salt. I used to buy "all in one" powder/liquid but it doesn't seem to be available any more.

I've moved on to liquid as its cheaper and seems to do the same job.

And I always top up the rinse aid and salt anyway. Even if its all-in-one stuff.

Aldi tablets are recommended by Which, I think (or GH???) if you have one of those near you?

The Finish tabs I've been using recently - red ball ones which have to be unwrapped - have not been dissolving properly in my d/w. I only ever use the quick economy wash (I scrub off sticky bits before they go in) which is probably why but anyway, the kind in the dissolving outer seem to be ok.

I prefer Ecover actually - they dissolve completely & wash well - but they are expensive unless on 3 for 2 or something. (They were 2 for £7 in Tesco recently but cheaper individually at Sainsburys)

Ecover £3.13 at Sains atm, normally £4.70 (for 25 tabs)

worth stocking up at that price!

I buy Lidl basic dishwasher tablets - about 1.80 for 30. They're ace.

I also had some Tesco Value ones recently and they were absolutely fine too.

It's still cheaper to buy rinse aid, salt and cheapo tabs or powder separately than shell out for Finish All-in-Ones and similar.

I have to buy powder or liquid because my little pop-up drawer doesn't pop properly, and I kept finding soggy tablets still in situ at the end of the cycle.

I can honestly say I've never noticed any difference in clean-ness from using different brands, so I generally go for supermarket own brands.

If the stuff comes out dirty it's more likely because I haven't cleaned the filter recently.

Lidl's. A which? best buy, cheap and fab.

I like the Tesco 5-in-1 tablets - they're much cheaper than the Finish ones, but there are also even cheaper value kinds.

You need to find out how hard the water is in your area before you can know whether all-in-one tablets will be ok, or if you will need to also use dishwasher salt to soften the water.

There are websites where you can find out a figure for the water hardness, and others where you can find out what is best to do about dishwashers on the basis of that figure. Sorry I dn't have any links but I found them through Google a few years back when we got a dishwasher and was baffled by it all!

Cointreau just chuck the tablet in the bottom of the machine, you don't have to put it in the drawer.

I've tried most tablets over the years and find the best ones in my machine are Finish or Fairy. Both brands seem to be on almost constant special offer in both Sains and Tesco - usually 50% off, which makes them ok cost-wise. I wouldn't pay full price for them, pretty expensive [faints]

My machine is a good ten years old so might be why the cheaper tabs aren't as effective, as the machine is probably not as effective as a new one. So worth trying the cheaper ones first, in your lovely new shiny one

I use the W5 tablets from Lidl and have never had a problem.

Tesco value ones are far and away the best ones I've used. I used to only use the quick 30 min economy wash which I thought was ok but the full length 2hr wash was a revelation. Things were actually sparkling. So, cheep tablets, decent wash for me.

Lidl W5 ones are just as good as finish IMO.

I used to use tesco 5 in 1 ones and the are rubbish compared to the W5 ones.

TBH i use W5 everything now

Another vote for Aldi magnum, just as good as finish/fairy and a third of the price. I stock up whenever I go near an Aldi!

I use Finish Powerballs in a big box of 84 tabs. I get two boxes for (I think) about £12 in Costco, and they last me for about six months.

I use rinse aid, salt and cheapo tablets. I'm in a hard water area and just tablets wasn't as good even the all in one ones.

Same as lovebeingafirework here too.
Rinse aid and salt regardless because of insanely hard water.
Just finished a box W5 and using some special offer Finish ones, no difference whatsoever.
Generally dirty dishes are the filter is full of rice, the plastic lid has jammed the rota, the dishes were too greasy for quick wash or simply I've stuffed too much junk in. Nothing to do with the washing agent.

You have to add salt anyway, you would have to have the softest water ever known to man to avoid salt. Your water provider publishes water hardness by location on its website. My new dishwasher came with finish tabs too and the manual said to add salt regardless of what detergant you use.

I've been using smartprice tablets but today I used tesco daisy powder. I used a level dessert spoon ful and everythings clean. I've worked out that using that much every day (I used a pair of scales and a calculator) a £5 pack would last me for 11 months. I use the spatula that came with the kenwood chef to scrape off food.

I have used finish too but I couldnt see a difference. But if you do want to use a brand homebargains and savers do dishwasher tablets much cheaper than the supermarkets do, that finish auto dose thingy was £2.99 today in homebargains.

We don't need salt ... that soft water area is called "most of Scotland"

I used to use all-in-one tablets until my dishwasher conked out and very nice man who fixed it said most tablets are too concentrated and a level tbsp of powder is all you need (plus rinse aid). We do live in a very soft water are athough. He also advised using the hottest cycle about once a week to flush out all the gunge.

no salt needed here either (E Lancs)

Lidl W5