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I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

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Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most kitchens I've seen, the dishwasher is pretty close to the sink. In fact the sink and the dishwasher often share a shut-off valve. So if you run the water at the sink until it's hot, then start the dishwasher, it will get hot water. Problem is, that most dishwashers have a prewash and a main wash. By the time the prewash is finished and the main wash starts, the water in the supply line will have cooled off qu…

Not just the shut off. My dishwasher's drain hose goes up into the sink's drain plumbing much higher than I would have thought. This almost made a mess when the sink was clogged and the dishwasher tried to pump the water out but had nowhere to go.

You can install airgap for this. In usa building code mandates it on multiple states

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#132
post #109
post #80

Pods work great for me, and I love not having crumbs of powder under the sink, or a bottle of liquid detergent with encrusted drips down the side. It's just gross. They are more expensive, but I buy them on sale at Costco for about $16/100, so at $0.16 per load I really don't care if powdered detergent is only $0.03 per load or whatever. There is clearly a revealed preference for pods among consumers for these things…

I'm 1.5 minutes in and I already learned to purge cold water from the pipes before running the dishwasher. Assuming this is evidence based and true, I mean come on! Is it really so alarming to see someone deep dive hard and do the work to mass educate the public?

It seems like it would be trivial for the machine to pump water in, turn on the heating element, and wait until it reaches optimum temperature before beginning the cycle.

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#133
post #107
post #80

Pods work great for me, and I love not having crumbs of powder under the sink, or a bottle of liquid detergent with encrusted drips down the side. It's just gross. They are more expensive, but I buy them on sale at Costco for about $16/100, so at $0.16 per load I really don't care if powdered detergent is only $0.03 per load or whatever. There is clearly a revealed preference for pods among consumers for these things…

With pods you can’t add some detergent to the prewash while adding the rest to the main wash cycle. That’s the thing that makes one of the biggest differences.

Seems like a market opportunity for dual pod packets.

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#134
post #80

Pods work great for me, and I love not having crumbs of powder under the sink, or a bottle of liquid detergent with encrusted drips down the side. It's just gross. They are more expensive, but I buy them on sale at Costco for about $16/100, so at $0.16 per load I really don't care if powdered detergent is only $0.03 per load or whatever. There is clearly a revealed preference for pods among consumers for these things…

His specific thesis is that pods fundamentally clean worse than powder because they're inherently single-stage releases of detergent in machines designed for two-stage releases. Despite this, he still explicitly says that pods have their uses. So I'm unclear on how his goal is "proving that everyone is wrong." Did we watch different videos?

Is there list of machines that designed for two stage releases?

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#135
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 1.5 minutes in and I already learned to purge cold water from the pipes before running the dishwasher. Assuming this is evidence based and true, I mean come on! Is it really so alarming to see someone deep dive hard and do the work to mass educate the public?

It seems like it would be trivial for the machine to pump water in, turn on the heating element, and wait until it reaches optimum temperature before beginning the cycle.

This is what most (all?) of machines do. Heat water when they need hot water

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#136
post #55
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBF the amount of gas used in old style pilots is really tiny. I’m sure it’s possible to accumulate dangerous quantities somehow, perhaps in a sealed subterranean basement if using propane instead of natural gas. Natural gas is mostly methane, which is lighter than air and easily escapes most structures.

Natural gas today is mostly methane, but in the past it often had large concentrations of CO. In 1950 you can turn the gas on and stick your head in the oven as a form of suicide - won't work anymore (unless you get the house to explode).

Fascinating. I double-checked with ChatGPT (FWIW), and it confirmed. It said that currently, natural gas is extracted and shipped in its mostly pure form. In the mid-20th century, natural gas was "town gas," manufactured by heating Cole in the absence of oxygen. That produced a lot of carbon monoxide.

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#137
post #84

Hah! I had watched this just last night. I have a Fisher & Paykel Dishdrawer so this prompted me to check the instruction manual and sure enough, I had been putting Rinse Aid in the pre-wash area. I don't even really know what Rinse Aid is honestly but it's fun having some things be a black box. Turns out the correct spot is turning a knob, pulling it out and pouring it down a hole containing a glowing red light. I h…

I wouldn’t use rinse aid. It’s not good for you - damages your gut and may contain dioxane byproducts. I also would avoid detergents with ethoxylated alcohols (AEs).

What to look for is any powder or powder-filled pod with a) no AEs and b) does contain amylase and protease , two food-eating enzymes that are often omitted for who knows why.

365 Whole Foods brand pods are my go-to

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#138
post #127
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

his dishwasher detergent videos are a good example of an "improved" product being more expensive and less effective (like disposable razors). With better understanding you can achieve far better results. I no longer rinse or even scrape dishes. with the right approach my dishwasher performance has been stellar. The user manual also includes proper tuning to local water hardness levels. Poor dishwashing also discourag…

I find his videos to have quite a bit of hand waving and poor methodology together with being overly verbose. For example, he kept on saying that pods are not better in previous videos, but in the study he presented in this video, it showed that pods are performing significantly better than powders in every category. The study (which was not linked and I couldn't find it) was sponsored by a powder maker which the vid…

[deleted]

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#139
post #130

I love that there are people who will go into this much detail on stuff. It's really cool that they do. But the whole thing is that if you follow some sequence of steps, powder will clean as well as or better than pods for a third the cost. All right, this isn't a significant portion of my expenses so I'll pay the 3x cost since my dishes come out clean anyway. I wish the description of the video was like an abstract.

>I wish the description of the video was like an abstract.

Business opportunity something something AI

Re: I was right about dishwasher pods and now I can prove it [video]

#140
post #2

summary: The creator argues that most dishwashers are designed to use a pre-wash dose and a main wash dose of detergent, a fundamental often ignored by single-dose pods, and presents independent ASTM testing confirming the new powder matches or exceeds the performance of a leading premium pod. The video also features a detailed demonstration using temperature logging and peanut butter to stress the importance of purg…

This has been his stance for a long time. He has a lot of dishwasher videos for some reason! One thing I can't get a good answer to is whether the "prewash" step is universally the case or not. I have a good Bosch dishwasher and there's no compartment for a bit of pre-wash detergent. I don't even know if my dishwasher cycle has a pre-wash step. I would assume the dishwasher manufacturer knows what's best. The owner's…

Find a PDF manual for your dishwasher. It generally will describe if it has a prewash.
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