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.

Product Review: Ecover Laundry Detergent

In an effort to live a more sustainable lifestyle, I have endavoured to change my consumer habits whenever possible. Switching out non-sustainable products for more or completely sustainable ones.

A product line that I have been experimenting with is Ecover, makers of many household cleaning products. My first foray with them was their liquid laundry detergent. This detergent uses natural plant oils and acids to clean clothing, therefore it isn't packed with phosphates that can wreak havoc on water supplies causing algal blooms and red tide, to say nothing of all the mining of bat poo to make it. :) Washing my clothes was no different with this detergent than any other, put in a cap-full, close the lid, walk away. The entire first bottle (20 loads) went by without a hitch and I was very pleased with the results. The clothes felt clean, soft, and had a certain "earthy" smell that I enjoyed. Not "earthy" in the Patchouli sense, but rather a "I just spent the day lying in the sun on the banks of a mountain stream" way. Well, maybe not that idyllic, but close. It must be the Citronellol in the mix.

Right about load 30, I noticed that my clothes start having that "not so fresh" characteristic that was so absent before. They were still clean, and smelled good, but they seemed "heavy" and not really breathable, even just regular medium weight cotton was getting "thick". I was beginning to think that maybe the plant oils were starting to build up on the clothing, not having been stripped away by a phosphate.

In an effort to change the pH of the wash, I started adding a cup of vinegar to the mix, directly with the detergent. This seemed to help the process out a bit. The clothes did not become thicker, but definitely not returning to their lightweight state. Being the giant that I am, I tend to get over-heated quite quickly, and I definitely need my clothes to breathe. This was not working for me.

Next I started rotating detergents, Cheer Free one week, Ecover the next. I was hoping for the best, but it still seemed to be no better than adding the vinegar. The rotations moved to 2 weeks, then 3 then 4, to the point where I would just use the Ecover when I ran out of the other kinds.

My clothes have returned to their original, phosphate burned selves, and seem to be no worse for the experience. I have plans to being experimenting with it again, maybe using water softeners, different fabric softeners, etc. etc. Or maybe I'll try the powder, the list of ingredients seems to lend to a different pH than the liquid.

I can't really recommend this product to anyone at the moment, except maybe for infrequent use, or hand-washing since you really don't want chemical burns on your hands. On the plus side, I have used their Dishwasher Tablets, and have had a much different experience. But that is a review for a different day.