Product Review: Ecover Dishwasher Tablets

In my last post on an Ecover product, I couldn't really recommend Ecover's Liquid Laundry Detergent. It had way too much oily buildup on the Giant's clothes. "Fresh and Earthy" described my clothes at the beginning, but "thick and waxy" was more accurate at the end.

As before with regular laundry detergents, I didn't have any problem with effectiveness, it was just that I wanted to have a more sustainable product. There are a plethora of toxic chemicals in regular detergents and cleaners, plus all the hydrocarbons in the cleaner itself as well as the packaging. So the next most common thing I use in the "automated cleaning so I don’t have to go down to the river and beat my clothes against a rock" milieu was dishwashing detergent.

Whilst perusing though Whole Foods with my wife, I decided to pick up a box of tablets and give it a try. The box comes with 25 tablets, so if I didn't like it, I'd really be stuck with a lot of extra tablets laying around, so with some trepidation, I threw it into my cart.

The Ecover tablets come in a 95% recycled cardboard box (although at the moment I don't remember how much of that was post-consumer) and the tablets come with minimal individual packaging. However, they are each wrapped in plastic film that is identified with a #5. Which my recycling company does not take. I know that they chose this form because it is impermeable to gas, and that prevents the tablet from oxidizing and becoming useless. Still, I couldn't help but think "drat, so close". Maybe aluminum foil? I know it’s slightly fragile, but it’s impermeable too, and is recyclable. I guess I'll get out my little crayon and write them a letter. :)

Ok so, full load of dishes, and I take the box out, pop open the container, pull out a tablet, pop it out of its Polypropylene sarcophagus and toss it into the appropriate chamber. With a quick prayer for good luck, I started the cycle. At this point I started daydreaming of a world where dishes washed themselves, and Blu-ray DVD players didn't cost $800. :) 40 minutes or so later, the washing was done, and opened it up. After flinging the 1st dish onto the counter and cursing up a storm (I forgot that the dishes finish at 160 degrees) I realized that the plate felt clean, very clean. I grabbed a tea saucer (waved it in the air to cool to handle it) I did the old Dawn test. Rubbing my thumb along the side, it squeaked! It was so grease free! Elated, I grabbed another plate, and flung that onto the counter. Once I finished cursing, I picked that up and tested again, it squeaked too! Again and again an orgy of squeaking ensued, moving down from bowls to flatware. (No my wife was not home, so I was free to play without fear of ridicule.) I can safely say that the dishes were the cleanest I have ever felt them. No grease, no dried up "what was that anyway?" chunky bits clinging to the flatware, nada, just the glorious stink of clean. Not only was this better than I had expected, it was also cleaner that my usual Cascade, which always got the dishes clean, but didn't always pass the Dawn test.

As stated before, the box comes in packets of 25, and I am about 1/2 way through. I tend to wash a full load about 2x per week. I'm on city water in Suburbia, so it’s neither very hard nor soft, but it does have excessive amounts of chlorine sometimes. I don't know how those variables will affect other municipalities, or whether the pH will be modified if you run well water or collected rain water. All I know is that it works extremely well. Ecover's website mentions that for best results you should use their rinse aid, but to be honest, I can't see a reason why. I completely recommend this product. The tablets run about $6 for a box of 25, and can be purchased at Whole Foods, online, or that other green-leaning retailers.

Next review in the pipeline: some really nasty mouthwash.