Dishwasher tablets - what are the best cheap ones?

[Holymoly321]

My last megabox of Finish Max in 1 is about to finish so need to buy some more dishwasher tablets - but they are SO expensive. Can anyone recommend good but cheaper ones?

Well I rate Asda 5 in 1. Still not dead cheap but you get more tabs in your box than the other brands.

We use the Sainsburys 5 in 1 which seem fairly good. They're probably made by the same company as the Asda ones Again, not dirt cheap, but cheaper than Finish and do just the same job as far as I can tell.

Correction - they're 3 in 1 not 5 in 1. Which is what you'd expect really - replacing the detergent, salt and rinseaid. What on earth is the other 2 in the 5 in 1 varieties?! Enquiring minds need to know...

Hmmmm...cleaning the dishwasher and deodorising?

Lidl ones are great.

Hmm... but the salt component is supposed to do that, surely?

Buy dishwasher powder instead, it's much cheaper than the tablets.

I mean - it's cleaning the dishes... you'd have thought the dishwasher bit would get clean at the same time anyway, wouldn't you

tesco vaule - £1.75 for 30, they work fine and I only do a 30 min wash

forgot to ass cos it's a short wash - I chuck the tablet in the bottom of the machine rather than in the dispenser

ass= add

i was once told that the dishwasher did 85% of the work and the tablet 15%. Since then buy the cheapest i can find, have no complaints as long as salt and rinse aid are kept full

We changed to dishwasher liquid, it's much cheaper than tablets and does same job.

Co-op own brand is pretty crap so give them a miss.

When my Bosch packed up after only 4 years ( I'd been led to believe it would last for ages...) the engineer showed me that the tubes etc were clogged up. He said using the 5 in 1 or whatever tablets means people don't use enough salt, which you really need to do regardless of what tablet you're using, to soften the water and keep the dishwasher pipes etc clear. So now I do that - and I just buy whatever's tablet or liquid's on offer when I'm shopping- you can normally get good deals on 'brands' but supermarket own brands are normally OK too.

some people cut tabs in half

The W5 Lidl ones were a 'Which?' best buy so cheap and effective.

asda had an offer fairy dishwasher tabs 57 for £4, not sure if the offer is still on worth a look tho?

We use the Lidl ones and have been really plaesed with them

I love lidl.

I get the aldi ones, they work fine

another vote for the Lidl ones

prideandprejudice - I've just had my Miele pack up after 2.5yrs not long out of guarantee. They quoted £400 to fix. Engineer said to me that using the all-in-one tablets is very bad for the machine.

So it's salt, rinse aid and tablet separately from now on.

we use salt, rinse aid and powder separately - all 3 are dead cheap!

Lidl here too.

Have also found that a mix of 1 tablespoon bicarb and 1 tablespoon borax does the job just as well