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.

When ours worked, aldi tablets were great. I always thought Calgon was a waste of money, but now our machine packed in due to a build up of lime scale, so recommend you do something to clean it through now and again.

I refuse to buy tablets as I think they are a ridiculous expense. Although I agree with a previous poster that the powder is becoming harder to find. As a result of an earlier post I got interested in how long a kilo of powder would last (I average 1 load a day) - so in the interests of research I've made a note of when I started the last lot (11th November). I'll let you know when I finish it.

We're in a soft-water area so need very little salt, and I only top-up the rinse-aid if the glasses are coming out spotty. The advantage of powder is that if you have a small load, or things aren't very dirty (load of mugs/glasses rather than saucepans/stew pots) you can use less powder.

I buy tablets when they are on offer. Got 52 Finish ones for £6 yesterday so that will last a couple of months

my pop up drawer doesnt work either, it is permanently shut, so my solution is tablets.
i have fairy tablets at the moment as it was on offer - mainly i use what ever is on offer but i do wonder if the named brands might be better?

Tesco Value tablets do the job well. I do use salt and cheap rinse aid with them.

A friend of mine works with a company that manufactures dishwasher stuff, and apparently it's the machine that does most of the work, not whatever you put in it to wash the dishes.

Make sure you put salt in (if you need it), and rinse aid, and then buy the cheapest stuff you can. I've been using Sainsbury's Basics for years now - £1.80 for 30 tablets, and they are great. Never had a problem with them - and just as good as the ridiculously expensive Finish or Fairy ones.

I use the cheap ones from the local shop, because as long as your dishwasher is running ok, they are fine. Get value supermarket ones, or poundland, or whatever. I have really never noticed any difference - clean is clean.

I have just switched to finish tablets after a life long sneeriness about them being a waste of money. But own brand powder just wasn't doing it, i was getting tarnish on cutlery and glasses very cloudy. i live in central london so the water is fucking hard as nails and even with constant refilling of rinse aid and salt, things were just notmquite as clean as they should be.

So far the million-in-1 tabs seem to be doing a better job. Will try lidl version next time, i am a big fan of their stuff genrally.

I am waiting to be corrected... from what I researched before it seemed like RinseAid was purely optional, we don't bother and can't see that we're missing out, or damaging the machine. This says it's purely an aid for drying (we don't have any problems with drying, even though we've never used a rinse aid); no interior mold, for instance (Dwasher is 3.5 yo).

I do top up bountifully with salt as appears that it vital (not least because we live in very hard water area).
Most economical option for us is the cheapest tablets in Lidl; used to buy huge powder containers in Sainsbury's but they no longer stock them .

Am waiting to see if I'm wrong about RinseAid...

Cheapest own brands are great, I actually tried the expensive types when they were on special offer and they weren't up to the job - and never do lemon ones, they rust your cutlery, stick half a squeezed lemon in if you've used it in the cooking to give a refresh every so often

I stopped using cheap powder when I realised it was scratching/clouding glasses & taking the pattern off china! But that was a long time ago, it may be that the cheapest stuff is a bit milder now?

ragged, rinse aid is supposed to stop glasses drying spottily - if you don't get spots then no, you don't need it

Really wouldn't recommend Fairy Platinum: they have a REALLY strong synthetic perfume that absolutely reeks, and permeates any porous surface (frying pans, chopping boards). All my food tasted of Fairy Platinum for weeks afterwards, even after I stopped using them. Boaksome.

I use Waitrose own-brand essentials tabs - 30 for about £2. Do the job fine, although I'm going to investigate powder (pretty sure there's a Waitrose own-brand powder as well). What happens - do you just spoon it into the dispenser?

No salt ever used here, but I still use extra rinse aid even with all in one tabs or I find the dishes are still really wet.

You might want to check the Salt thing, VSMum. I've heard it can damage the dishwasher to not use salt, violate the warranty, if you have hard water, anyway.

I've had my dishwasher for a few years and always used all in ones. I'm now contemplating switching to separate detergent, rinse aid and salt. My water supply is very soft though, so this means I don't have to use salt???

Theres different levels of softness, it's not just either hard or soft but varying levels of each.

I tried to say this ages ago and got shot down but couldnt be bothered to get my dw manual out to prove it. Still cant now.

But my dishwasher has it so I'm not bothered.

I use the cheapest I can find as my experience has been that the branded tablets are an utter waste of money.

I use salt and rinse aid. Someone up thread said that it's the machine that does the work. I found this out when I ran out of tablets and used the machine anyway. Everything came out super clean and sparkling.

Oh, and if you want to make your cheapo tablets go further, I only ever use half of one.

no salt needed here either (E Lancs)
and W Lancs

According to the manual of my new dishwasher and the data from United Utilities, I shouldn't need any salt - but I put some in anyhow to be on the safe side. It'll be some sort of ion exchange thingy and if there aren't calcium ions to mop up I think it'll just sit there and do no harm.

Going against the grain of 'cheap ok', with my last dishwasher ASDA own brand didn't seem to do very good job on the eco setting. Not sure it makes sense to get cheap tabs if you have to use a more expensive wash setting.

Today, I went to get dishwasher powder from the co-op, only to find that they have discontinued it. Tesco are temporarily? out of stock of Daisy powder. ----Not looking good! looks like the overpriced tablets have won!

have been looking for 3kg packs in sainsbury and tesco for a few weeks - they seem to have been taken over by finish vv expensive products - don't seen point of high cost dishwasher stuff...

Not helpful, but anything fairy platinum doesn't cut it for me. Fell sick paying the price though. And as others said, if you're in a soft water no salt.

I don't have to use salt, my manual says if you're in a soft water area, you may not need to use salt or rinse aid at all - mine is Kenwood. I live in area with proven best water in the UK - so it bloody should be for how much it rains - it rains 364.5 days of the year. :)

*best for softness for washing/showering etc. can't say for taste - sometimes tastes like bleach :/

It was only when I read that tablets are £1.30 for 30 that I realised this thread has been resurrected! I wish it was 2011 at things were obviously much cheaper then :)