Our decide
This handy pod does the perfect job of annihilating robust messes, and it neutralizes odors with a gentle lemon scent. Nevertheless it doesn’t depart glassware as shiny as another detergents.
Of all of the detergents we tried, Cascade Free & Clear ActionPacs got here the closest to cleansing each dish in our check masses. It wiped away baked-on egg and peanut butter—two stains that problem dishwashers and detergents. It additionally cleaned glassware and stemware properly, although it didn’t depart our items as shiny as another detergents did.
Cascade Free & Clear ActionPacs mix powder detergent with a high layer of liquid detergent boosters that launch as their coating dissolves. This offers them an edge in cleansing energy over powder- or liquid-only formulation. They’re additionally handy since you don’t have to measure or pour out detergent.
The additional detergent boosters in Cascade Free & Clear ActionPacs assist minimize grease and improve shine higher than the opposite detergents we tried. They forgo dyes and chlorine bleach, which some individuals favor to keep away from.
Cascade Free & Clear’s gentle lemon scent, which is made with important oils, isn’t overpowering, and it did the perfect job of neutralizing dishwasher odors.
Runner-up
This pod cleaned practically in addition to our high decide. However its dyes and stronger scent could also be much less interesting to some individuals.
In our testing, Cascade Platinum Plus ActionPacs cleaned a few of our hardest stains with ease, together with peanut butter and baked-on egg and cheese. Although it labored nice on greasy dishes, it didn’t fairly match the facility of our high decide, lacking items of egg yolk right here and there and leaving tomato juice residue at instances.
The liquid detergent boosters encapsulated within the high of every pod are designed to chop grease and improve shine. However they include dyes (whereas our high decide doesn’t), which can make these pods much less interesting in the event you typically keep away from dyes resulting from sensitivities or choice.
Cascade Platinum Plus ActionPacs have a robust “recent” scent, which is extra intense and noticeable than the lemon perfume of our decide.
Additionally nice
This old-school powder carried out properly in our testing and left stemware streak-free. It prices half as a lot as our pod picks however is much less handy to dispense.
Powder detergents weren’t as efficient as pods with detergent boosters in our testing. However in the event you favor a powder, End Powder Superior supplied the perfect mixture of cleansing efficiency and worth among the many powder detergents we examined. It simply wiped away messes in our testing, although not as handily as our detergent-pod picks did.
Its capacity to go away glassware and stemware clean, shiny, and spot-free—the perfect of the powder detergents we examined—impressed us essentially the most.
End Powder Superior is economical, too, at about half the price per load as our pod picks. However in contrast to our single-dose picks, End Powder Superior may be unwieldy to dispense exactly. Its lemon scent, which is much less acrid than that of another powder detergents we examined, neutralized basic dishwasher odors properly.
