[0:00] Hello and welcome to No Effort November,
[0:03] a series of videos for the month 
of November where no effort is made.
[0:08] And you know where I never make any effort?
[0:11] Washing my dishes.
[0:12] That's because I have an automatic 
dishwasher at home which does that for me!
[0:17] And when it comes to the detergent products 
which are sold for use in home dishwashers,
[0:21] I would like to say the following:
[0:23] I was right!
[0:27] And thanks to the work of a bunch of cool people,
[0:29] today I can prove it.
[0:32] How?
[0:33] With this.
[0:35] That's right. There's a new dishwasher powder in town!
[0:38] And I was... very slightly involved in its development.
[0:43] Now, of course, I will tell you where 
and how you can get your hands on this,
[0:47] but this video isn't just
 to announce the existence of a new product.
[0:51] You see, sending this formulation to an 
independent testing lab has vindicated all of my hot takes
[0:58] and crotchety Midwestern stubbornness 
when it comes to pre-dosed dishwasher pods and tablets.
[1:04] And because of that, I would very much like to 
tell you the story of how this came to be
[1:09] and what we have learned through sending it 
and some big name products through blind ASTM testing.
[1:15] I'll also show you why it's so important for those of us in 
North America to purge the cold water from the pipes
[1:21] by running the kitchen faucet until the water 
comes out piping hot before starting the dishwasher.
[1:28] I've only ever explained that 
and never demonstrated the difference it makes.
[1:32] And I've cooked up a great demo to show you.
[1:34] It involves temperature logging 
and copious amounts of peanut butter.
[1:38] So, stick around for that!
[1:40] But first, let's talk detergent.
[1:42] For those of you who may not be familiar with 
why I strongly prefer loose powders for dishwashers,
[1:49] well, quite simply, that's because the standard washing program 
in the vast majority of dishwashers out there
[1:55] is designed to accommodate two separate doses of detergent.
[1:59] A small one first and a bigger one later.
[2:03] Why might that be?
[2:05] Well, you know that little compartment 
you're supposed to put the detergent in?
[2:08] The entire reason your dishwasher has that thing is so that it can delay when detergent gets added to the washing water.
[2:17] It wants to do that because when the machine starts washing,
[2:20] food particles which dissolve 
easily in water like sugars and syrups,
[2:24] or that are easily knocked off your dirty dishes, like those chunks of tomato and the sauce from your pasta dinner,
[2:30] will cause the water inside 
the dishwasher to get dirty very quickly.
[2:35] And this means your dishwasher will have to 
drain that water out and replace it with clean water
[2:40] after a relatively short period of time,
 often just 10 or 15 minutes.
[2:46] That initial fill of water is called the pre-wash because it happens before the wash.
[2:52] It will handle the easiest to clean stuff, but that's it.
[2:56] And so it's the detergent dispenser's job to make sure 
the product you added to the machine
[3:01] so it can mix with the water and create a cleaning solution to tackle the really difficult stuck on food
[3:07] doesn't get sent down the 
drain right away with the pre-wash water.
[3:12] That's the whole point of the dispenser!
[3:14] The dishwasher needs to control 
when the detergent actually gets released.
[3:18] And in doing so, it can assure there's 
detergent in the water during the longest, hottest part of its wash program.
[3:26] Now, here's my little bugaboo:
[3:29] the pre-wash water can do a lot,
[3:31] but some food soils, particularly oils and fats, 
don't like to mix with plain water.
[3:38] And because of that little incompatibility problem, 
those soils will be relatively unaffected by the pre-wash.
[3:45] But, what if you were to put a little extra detergent 
in the machine outside of the dispenser?
[3:52] That detergent would mix with the pre-wash water and thus it would allow it to absorb those fats and oils right away.
[4:00] Then when the machine drains the pre-wash water away,
[4:03] at least some of the fats and oils on your plates will have left the machine before the main part of the wash cycle has even begun.
[4:12] That's going to reduce 
the amount of work the main wash detergent has to do,
[4:17] potentially allowing for a smaller main wash dose.
[4:20] Well, it turns out 
that's exactly what you're supposed to be doing!
[4:25] Notice how this detergent dispenser has two cups.
[4:28] One is labeled main wash,
[4:31] and the other smaller cup says pre-wash.
[4:34] The pre-wash cup isn't actually sealed by the lid.
[4:37] In fact, it's got holes in the lid
[4:39] so whatever you put in there is just going to fall right out 
once you close the door and mix with the pre-wash water.
[4:46] Sometimes instead of two separate cups like this, 
you'll find a little divot for extra detergent.
[4:51] And other times, you won't find a marked spot for it 
because dishwasher manufacturers have, for some reason,
[4:58] decided to stop helping people 
understand what their machines actually do.
[5:02] And if they make any mention of pre-wash detergent at all, 
it's buried in the owner's manual somewhere.
[5:08] But let me just state this plainly: 
If your dishwasher has a detergent dispenser,
[5:13] which I'm fairly certain it does,
[5:15] then it's going to be doing a pre-wash 
on at least some of its cycles.
[5:20] Because if it didn't, there would be no reason 
for that detergent dispenser to be there!
[5:25] It would just have a spot which says, "Put detergent here."
[5:29] You know if they could get away with removing that costly moving part, they absolutely would.
[5:35] But they haven't because the fundamentals of 
automatic dishwashing have not changed.
[5:41] Yet, most detergent products on the market today by forcing people into a single predetermined dosing structure
[5:48] disrespect those fundamentals.
[5:50] And that is just one of the reasons 
I'm so cranky about the dang pods.
[5:55] That's why I made my first video on dishwashers.
[5:59] There's a lot of people out there 
who think dishwashers can't clean well,
[6:02] often to the point of 
refusing to use them even if they have one at home.
[6:07] Yet, I have never had a dishwasher 
which couldn't clean practically anything I threw at it!
[6:13] And I've used all kinds: 
from old machines from the early '90s
[6:16] to landlord specials of various vintages
[6:19] to mediocre machines like this Frigidaire
[6:21] and to high-end machines 
like the KitchenAid I now have at home.
[6:25] And with just a single exception,
[6:28] all it took to get great results was using cheap store-brand powders,
[6:33] using them as the machines expected with a little bit of pre-wash detergent in addition to the main detergent dose
[6:39] and selecting the normal wash cycle.
[6:42] The single "bad" machine in my life required the use of its heavy wash cycle for consistent results,
[6:49] but it could still wash great so long as you selected that.
[6:53] And hence explains my skepticism that the supposedly superior pods are really any better or worth the extra cost.
[7:00] Yet, after making those videos,
[7:02] while many people reported that switching to powder and using some pre-wash detergent made a huge difference for them,
[7:09] others couldn't get satisfactory results with powder 
but could with the higher-end detergent pods out there.
[7:16] The biggest issue seemed to be 
a residue left at the end of the wash.
[7:19] That can be a sign of using too much detergent,
[7:23] but when the same people reported 
they don't have that problem with pods...
[7:27] well, that gives some credence 
to the idea that the pods are a superior product.
[7:33] But here's my issue:
[7:35] Detergents are just chemicals!
[7:37] The way those chemicals are packaged shouldn't matter,
[7:41] especially in a dishwasher 
which violently churns up the water as it runs.
[7:46] And lots of pods out there are nothing more 
than a small quantity of powder in a dissolvable membrane.
[7:52] So if loose powders perform worse than pods,
[7:56] that's probably because the manufacturers want them to.
[8:01] Which brings me back to this.
[8:03] When I was working with Good Store 
on the Technology Connections socks campaign
[8:08] (which by the way, thank you 
so much to everyone who purchased them.
[8:11] Numbers aren't final yet, but it's looking like we'll have raised close to $200,000 for the Maternal Center of Excellence,
[8:18] which is awesome!
[8:19] And by the way, it just had its ribbon cutting.
[8:22] Truly, thank you all so much 
and I can't wait for the socks to start arriving at your door).
[8:27] ...
[8:29] Okay, that was too long of a parenthetical, so let me restart.
[8:32] When I was working with Good Store, 
an old idea of John Green's was resurrected.
[8:37] Back in 2022, John contacted me and said,
[8:40] "You know what would be funny? If you made your own dishwasher detergent and we sold it to raise money for charity."
[8:46] I frikkin loved that idea, but we weren't sure how to pull it off so we decided to shove it for a while.
[8:53] Fast forward a few years and Good Store now exists 
and they've been selling eco-friendly cleaning products
[8:59] in partnership with Green Llama 
to raise money for the Coral Reef Alliance.
[9:04] While they were offering dishwasher tablets,
[9:06] lots of people were writing in to ask for a powder option.
[9:11] Weird. I wonder why that might be.
[9:13] Maybe they saw some YouTube videos.
[9:16] So, since the demand was there,
[9:18] I got connected with Matt Keasey.
[9:20] And after explaining my whole deal 
and the importance of the pre-wash,
[9:25] he was excited to work on his own loose powder formulation.
[9:29] And this is the result of his work.
[9:32] And folks, this is fantastic.
[9:35] And best of all, you don't have to take my word for it.
[9:39] See, the team at Green Llama wasn't satisfied with simply coming up with a great formulation and calling it done.
[9:46] Matt arranged for independent, blinded ASTM testing
[9:50] where this product was put through 
a series of standardized scientific tests
[9:54] to measure its cleaning 
performance in several food stain categories.
[9:59] And it was compared against both a big name powder
[10:02] and the most premium detergent pod 
on offer by the same big name brand.
[10:07] The tests revealed two very interesting things.
[10:11] First, the powder that big name brand sells 
is in fact worse at cleaning than their pods.
[10:17] So, you are at least getting a better product 
when you buy their more expensive option.
[10:22] Which is good... I guess.
[10:25] But second, we also confirmed my long-held suspicion that the performance difference between Big Powder and Big Pod
[10:32] has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that 
one is a powder and one is a fancy pants pod.
[10:38] Because you see, Matt's powder formulation meets or exceeds the cleaning performance of the best pods that brand sells
[10:46] in nearly every category tested.
[10:49] The only test where this lost to the pod was 
the tea stain removal test, but it came in second.
[10:54] And the overall score for this formulation 
was slightly higher than the pod it was tested against.
[11:01] So, this is good stuff.
[11:04] Oh, and for the folks out there who have had problems 
with powders leaving some kind of residue,
[11:09] well, part of the testing procedure 
evaluated spotting and filming.
[11:13] And sure enough, Matt's formulation 
is just as good as that brand name pod.
[11:20] No spotting was observed at all,
[11:22] and when it comes to filming, 
this got a slightly better score than the brand name.
[11:27] It's almost like powders actually 
can be excellent detergent products or something!
[11:32] I have also tested this myself, of course -
[11:35] Yeah, that's right.
[11:37] I got early access to a dishwasher detergent formulation.
[11:40] Way cooler than something boring 
like the latest phone or laptop.
[11:46] Anyway, Matt's formulation passed my standard several-days-old-dried-out-cheese-and-bean-dip challenge with flying colors,
[11:52] and it took care of that hazelnut spread container, 
too, along with everything else in the machine.
[11:58] In fact, after using this a few times,
[12:00] I am pretty confident this is the best 
dishwasher detergent product I have personally used.
[12:07] Most of my dinnerware is glass, and while I've never had any washing issues using my cheapskate store brand powder,
[12:13] I did notice the glass seemed to be a little bit 
clearer after using the Green Llama formulation.
[12:20] And just a single run through the dishwasher with this stuff
[12:23] cleared up a faint ring of white hazing that had 
built up on the sides of that same bean dip pan over time.
[12:30] I truly did not expect that, and I wish I had taken a 
photo of that hazing before I made the dip.
[12:36] This really does a fantastic job at cleaning.
[12:40] And you know what's even better?
[12:41] Because this is a loose powder,
[12:44] if you want to try and use different amounts of detergent based on how dirty your dishes actually are -
[12:51] YOU CAN!
[12:53] The standard dose is just a single tablespoon,
[12:56] which as independent testing has confirmed is just as good as the most premium pod products out there.
[13:03] But you may very well not need that much 
all the time, or perhaps ever!
[13:08] Maybe you've got soft water 
which makes detergents more effective.
[13:12] Or perhaps you've got a particularly good dishwasher model 
that just doesn't need so much detergent no matter what.
[13:18] Or even if you're not in either of those boats,
[13:21] perhaps tonight's load of dishes just isn't that dirty and won't need a whole pod's worth of detergent.
[13:28] That's why I like loose powders.
[13:31] You're in control of how much detergent you use!
[13:34] Not some executive at some 
company who thinks they know what's best for
[13:37] your dishwasher and your water supply 
and what you're washing right now.
[13:40] And if you've been persuaded 
by the power of the pre-wash, why, of course,
[13:44] you can do that, too.
[13:45] In fact, you could split the single tablespoon into three teaspoons: use one in the pre-wash and two for the main wash.
[13:53] That might very well work better for you than putting 
the whole tablespoon in the dispenser,
[13:57] especially when you're washing greasy, oily stuff.
[14:01] So, obviously part of why I'm telling you about this new detergent product is because it's available for sale.
[14:07] And as a Good Store product, all of the profit from its sales 
will be donated to the Coral Reef Alliance.
[14:13] There are links in the description and the pinned comment which will take you to its product page,
[14:17] and I hope you check it out.
[14:18] I even made an instructional video for those who choose to buy it!
[14:22] But the other part of why I'm telling you about this detergent is because its development has proven that powders can be great.
[14:30] So good detergents absolutely don't have to be sold like that.
[14:35] They don't need pretty colors.
[14:37] They don't need fragrances -
[14:39] honestly, what is even the point 
of a fragrance in automatic dishwasher detergent?
[14:44] They don't need to be pre-dosed.
[14:45] They don't need any weird gimmicks.
[14:47] And they don't need wasteful packaging.
[14:51] I can't stand that in order to buy value quantities of detergent pods, you get a giant plastic tub thrown in for some reason.
[14:59] Get this, detergent could just come in a paper bag!
[15:02] And even though this one is resealable, 
it's made from compostable materials.
[15:07] Pretty neat.
[15:09] And let's not forget those detergent pods are often held together by PVA, a kind of dissolvable plastic which uh...
[15:18] perhaps we shouldn't be dumping down the drain and into our environment every time we run the dishwasher.
[15:24] I get that those products are more convenient.
[15:26] I really do, and some folks out there truly need them.
[15:29] So, honestly, I'm glad they exist.
[15:33] But for what it's worth, Green Llama's 
dishwasher tablets also prove
[15:37] you don't actually need 
that PVA wrapper to make a pre-dosed product.
[15:42] But personally, I will always want to control 
how much detergent I use and how I use it,
[15:48] which is why I'm so happy
there's a new powder option out there.
[15:53] Thanks so much to Matt for developing this formula 
and of course for sending it to be tested in a lab.
[15:59] It's nice to know that the bad powders out there
[16:02] are only bad because whoever makes them 
isn't putting their best foot forward.
[16:08] And we can only wonder just why exactly that might be.
[16:12] All right. And for my next trick,
[16:14] it's time to show you why it's so important
[16:17] that you open your kitchen faucet and run the hot water until 
it's actually coming out piping hot before you start your dishwasher.
[16:25] Again, for those of you who live where household voltage 
is 230 volts, you almost certainly don't need to do this.
[16:31] But for those of us with 120 volt power on tap, we do.
[16:36] Why? Well, with very few exceptions, domestic dishwashers sold here are meant to be hooked up to a hot water supply.
[16:46] Usually, it's connected to the 
same hot water line as your kitchen faucet.
[16:50] And we do this because thanks to our lower voltage, 
our dishwashers don't have very powerful heating elements.
[16:57] Side note, that's not technically because of our lower voltage.
[17:01] Our dishwashers could have 1,500 watt heating elements
[17:05] or even 2 kilowatt heating elements if they 
were wired to a dedicated 20 amp circuit.
[17:11] But dishwashers sold here usually have heating elements 
in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,000 watts.
[17:17] And there's a simple and pragmatic reason why.
[17:20] See, there are plenty of homes 
that were not built with a dishwasher.
[17:25] So, if someone wants to add one later, it's probably going to end up sharing its circuit with something else in the kitchen,
[17:32] like the outlets above the countertop or perhaps the refrigerator.
[17:36] And so rather than make specific models for retrofits,
[17:41] manufacturers limit the current consumption 
of all their dishwashers to something like 10 amps.
[17:47] This gives some overhead 
which reduces nuisance trips of circuit breakers,
[17:51] but it means North American dishwashers 
just aren't very fast at heating the water inside of them.
[17:58] But if they fill with water that's already hot, 
then the heating element gets a head start.
[18:04] That's the entire reason they're hooked up to hot water.
[18:07] However, they won't necessarily get hot water when you start the machine unless you've purged the pipes
[18:14] between your water heater and the kitchen faucet of the cold water that's currently resting in them.
[18:20] That's what I'm telling you to do when I say "run the kitchen faucet until the water comes out piping hot."
[18:26] That will clear the cold water 
from the line before the dishwasher starts filling itself.
[18:31] And just in case you think I'm making that up,
[18:34] here is that exact advice 
in the owner's manual of this Frigidaire dishwasher.
[18:39] How important this is to do 
depends on your dishwasher and your home.
[18:43] But this is the only way 
to get consistent performance out of your machine.
[18:48] Otherwise, it may start filling 
or completely fill with room temperature water,
[18:54] which not only defeats the point 
of being hooked up to hot water in the first place,
[18:58] but more importantly will 
dramatically hurt its cleaning performance.
[19:04] And it hurts cleaning performance in two ways.
[19:07] First, many food soils need the help of high temperatures to soften and detach from what they're stuck to.
[19:14] That's why you use hot water when handwashing.
[19:17] But dishwashers especially need hot water 
because of how modern detergent products work.
[19:24] The phaseout of phosphates from automatic dishwasher detergent was a messy ordeal
[19:28] and there was a brief period of time 
where dishwasher detergents really were pretty awful.
[19:34] Some folks are still hung up about that.
[19:38] But modern detergents use enzymes, usually protease and amylase, which chemically break down starches and proteins.
[19:46] In a sense, those enzymes digest the food on your plates and stuff and allow it to dissolve into the water.
[19:53] However, in order for those enzymes to be maximally effective, the washing water needs to be quite hot,
[20:00] ideally 60° C or 140° F.
[20:05] And here's where the trouble lies: 
if your dishwasher doesn't actually fill with hot water,
[20:11] then because of its slow heating element, it may not be able to reach that temperature before it drains the wash water away
[20:18] and moves on to rinsing.
[20:20] Or even if it does make it, it may very well 
spend less time washing at the optimal temperatures
[20:26] before its wash program calls for moving to the next step.
[20:30] And with the help of my trusty temperature data loggers,
[20:33] a plastic bag, some rubber bands, a zip tie, 
and a dishwasher with a hole in its side,
[20:38] I can show you the difference 
between a dishwasher which fills with room temperature water
[20:43] and a dishwasher that fills with hot water.
[20:47] I hooked ol' Fridgy up to this utility sink using an adapter, 
basically turning it into a portable dishwasher.
[20:53] Which by the way, did you know those exist?
[20:57] I don't mean a countertop dishwasher.
[20:59] I mean a full-size dishwasher.
[21:01] You can buy a machine much like this 
but encased in a box on wheels
[21:06] and which uses an attachment to hook it up to a kitchen faucet.
[21:09] If you don't have a dishwasher but would like one, 
those are an option worth looking into.
[21:15] My grandparents had one, and it worked great!
[21:17] Just roll it over to the sink and hook up the combined fill and drain hose thing to the faucet using the adapter it comes with,
[21:24] plug the machine into a power outlet,
 set the faucet to hot water
[21:29] (and purge the line of course, which you can do with a little button on the adapter thing)
[21:33] and then start the machine.
[21:35] Those of you who insist on 
handwashing really seem quite funny to me
[21:40] when put in contrast to what my grandma did 
every day specifically to avoid washing dishes.
[21:46] Anyway, because I had it hooked up to a faucet, I could choose whether the machine would fill with hot or cold water.
[21:53] And I devised a test using a food 
which really needs hot water to be dealt with effectively:
[21:59] Peanut butter.
[22:00] And a whole lot of it.
[22:02] I melted almost half a jar's worth of peanut butter and swirled it 
around in a series of mason jars and glass mugs
[22:09] to completely coat them in delicious goop.
[22:12] And then I let it all cool 
back to room temperature so it resolidified.
[22:16] I hope you'll pardon the food 
waste when you see how well this demo worked.
[22:20] In addition to the peanut butter, I also melted some regular butter and swirled it around in the same glass mugs.
[22:26] Some went on the top rack and others went on the bottom rack where they'd be visible to the camera peering in through the glass.
[22:33] Also present were a couple of plates coated in honey.
[22:37] Being fresh, I didn't really think that was going to be a problem for cold water, but I decided to try it anyway.
[22:43] Throughout this testing, a temperature logging device was positioned directly above the center of the lower spray arm.
[22:50] I would have liked it to be sitting in the water,
[22:53] but the design of this machine's 
spray arm made that not so possible.
[22:57] Now, for this test, I did not use any pre-wash detergent.
[23:02] At least... the first two times I ran the test.
[23:05] We'll get there.
[23:06] However, the machine's 
detergent dispenser was filled with detergent -
[23:10] in this case, a store brand product.
[23:12] I didn't use Matt's formulation 
because at the time I didn't have enough left.
[23:16] But to be honest, even if I did, 
I wouldn't want to waste it on this nonsense.
[23:21] So, with everything in place, I set the faucet to cold 
and started the machine on its normal wash program.
[23:28] Once full of water, it began its 15-minute pre-wash.
[23:32] But because this machine doesn't 
turn on the heating element during the pre-wash,
[23:36] that meant it spent 15 minutes "washing" with cold water.
[23:41] Some of the peanut butter did manage to get knocked off by the mechanical action of the water.
[23:46] And though it took a while,
[23:48] the butter in the bottom of the mug on 
the bottom rack was eventually dislodged.
[23:53] But not much else happened.
[23:54] Once it had finished draining the pre-wash water,
[23:57] I opened the machine to take a peek at the top rack, and everything up there looked completely untouched.
[24:03] The honey, though, did all dissolve and got pumped away, so there probably wasn't a point to including that.
[24:09] Oh well, live and learn.
[24:11] Once I closed the door and the cycle resumed, 
the machine did its little purging and rinsing dance
[24:16] then filled again with cold water, switched on its heating element, resumed washing, and opened the detergent dispenser.
[24:23] The water inside is still just at room temperature,
[24:26] so while we now have the help of detergent, 
we don't yet have the help of any heat.
[24:32] And because the heating element in this machine 
is only putting 900 watts of heat output into the water,
[24:37] it took quite a long time for the peanut butter 
to start softening and for the detergent to get to work.
[24:44] Though it did eventually all clear up.
[24:47] The water was absolutely filthy 
with all that peanut butter and actual butter in it,
[24:52] but the machine was just barely 
able to get it all off before it started draining.
[24:57] Now, I needed to do this test again 
so I let the machine finish the wash cycle.
[25:02] It didn't do a very good job of rinsing, which I wasn't super surprised by given the ridiculous amount of peanut butter in there.
[25:09] So, I had to do a rinse only cycle afterwards.
[25:11] But once everything was clean, I reset the test.
[25:15] I tried to make this as consistent with the last test as possible,
and I put everything exactly where it was in the first test.
[25:22] I even put honey in there again just in case it was somehow doing something to affect how well things dissolved or not.
[25:29] But this time I switched the faucet to hot water
[25:32] and I disconnected the hose and purged the line of cold water before reconnecting it and starting the machine
[25:38] which made sure the water 
which entered was actually piping hot.
[25:43] If you're wondering why there's a whole bunch of other stuff in the dishwasher alongside what's actually dirty,
[25:48] well this was to make sure the test is representative of the actual conditions a dishwasher typically sees.
[25:55] The gallon-ish of hot water that it's about to take in 
doesn't have that much heat energy in it,
[26:02] and all those plates (and the dishwasher itself) 
have quite a lot of thermal mass.
[26:07] So, I wanted to know how much the water would be cooled down by all that stuff.
[26:13] Or put another way, how much 
heating the incoming water actually does.
[26:18] And, well, after it drained this water out, 
I measured its temperature at just under 81°.
[26:24] That's about 14° above the ambient temperature.
[26:28] That may not seem that significant, 
but now that everything inside is already at 81°
[26:34] we've given the main wash at least 
a 10-minute head start when 
it comes to heating -
[26:39] if not more, depending on how hot the next fill of water is.
[26:44] That's going to depend on your home's particularities.
[26:47] 15 minutes have passed since it last filled with water, so 
the water resting in the pipes will have cooled down a fair bit.
[26:55] Here, the lil' baby water heater, which is supplying the dishwasher with hot water is right next to the sink.
[27:02] So, I'll note that it's going to fill again with pretty hot water,
[27:06] and it's probably got a bit of an advantage here 
compared to most installations.
[27:11] Regardless, let's take a side by side look at how this goes.
[27:15] This is a time lapse which ended up causing some 
flashing light effects, so here's your warning for that.
[27:21] I'll let you know when it's off screen by saying "persnickety."
[27:24] During the pre-wash, we don't actually see much of a difference.
[27:28] In fact, the cold fill side appears to be doing slightly better
[27:32] since we are not seeing the peanut butter get dislodged from the bottom of the mason jars like we were before.
[27:38] But we do see that the pad of butter was dislodged 
much more quickly from the mug on the hot fill side
[27:45] thanks to the blasts of warm water helping 
it to soften and detach from the glass.
[27:50] However, once we move on to the main wash 
and the detergent dispenser opens,
[27:55] the difference is dramatic.
[27:58] While nothing seems to be happening yet on the cold fill side,
[28:02] the detergent and the water immediately gets to work melting and dissolving the peanut butter on the hot fill side.
[28:09] My temperature logger reacts fairly slowly 
to sudden changes in temperature,
[28:13] but based on the similarity in the curve shapes here,
[28:16] I would estimate that the 
wash water was immediately at about 95°,
[28:21] whereas on the cold fill side,
[28:23] the water is only just now 
starting to move above room temperature.
[28:29] In fact, by the time the data logger was reading 100° on the hot fill side, the cold fill side was only reading about 78°.  
[28:38] That's why nothing 
seemed to be happening for such a long time.
[28:42] The upshot here is that when the machine filled with hot water,
[28:46] it had completely finished getting the peanut butter off the jars and stuff about 20 minutes earlier than when it filled with cold water.
[28:55] Persnickety.
[28:56] And because this machine always spends the same amount of time in this part of the washing cycle before it drains,
[29:02] this means the actually effective washing time was extended by 20 minutes simply by filling with hot water rather than cold.
[29:12] That could very well be the difference between 
perfectly clean dishes and disappointment.
[29:18] But before I show you what adding 
a little pre-wash detergent did,
[29:21] you may have noticed something about where the temperatures peaked.
[29:25] This testing revealed something about this dishwasher 
which I honestly didn't expect
[29:30] and assuming others out there are like it makes it 
even more important that you do that whole
[29:36] "run the tap until the water comes out hot" 
thing I keep harping on about.
[29:41] This machine is controlled by a microprocessor,
[29:44] and when I made my first videos with it and discovered that there were two temperature sensing devices below the washtub,
[29:50] I figured one of them would be a thermistor or some other temperature sensor that the control board is monitoring
[29:56] to make sure it attains a target temperature.
[30:00] But these two temperature graphs suggest the machine is simply running its heating element for a fixed period of time.
[30:07] When it filled with cold water, it didn't even hit 120 Fahrenheit before it switched off the heating element.
[30:14] It actually got hotter during the final rinse 
than it ever did in the main wash.
[30:18] With a hot water fill, it peaked slightly above 130 Fahrenheit,
[30:23] but you can see that the heating element 
switched off at precisely the same time.
[30:28] I figured the cold fill wash would run the heating element longer, but since it apparently didn't...
[30:35] well, you really, really need to purge the cold water from the line for this thing's normal wash cycle to do a good job.
[30:43] But this machine has more than just one cycle.
[30:46] In fact, it offers four different wash cycles with two 
optional modifiers: high temp wash and sanitize.
[30:53] And I wanted to see how the heating element's behavior might change using those other cycles and options.
[31:00] So, I decided to wire an indicator light in parallel with the heating element so I could record what it's doing.
[31:08] And then I thought, 
why don't I add indicators for everything else it does?
[31:13] So, I gave the machine some blinkenlights!
[31:16] I wasn't expecting to install them in the control panel like this,
[31:19] but when I opened it up to get 
access to the detergent dispenser's wiring,
[31:23] I realized there was clearance 
below the vent and... well, I couldn't resist.
[31:28] We can now see exactly what 
the machine is actually doing:
[31:31] Filling with water, draining that water out, running its wash 
pump, dispensing detergent,
[31:36] and of course, 
the thing I mostly did this for, heating the water.
[31:40] And in a more than slightly annoying twist, 
while I was inside the control panel
[31:45] I discovered a little sheet of paper clipped to the 
stainless steel on the inside of the door panel.
[31:51] I took it out and...
[31:53] whaddya know, a service data sheet!
[31:56] It's got a wiring diagram, an exploded parts diagram 
on the back, and some troubleshooting stuff.
[32:02] And it also has charts which 
explain what all the cycles do and when.
[32:11] I wish I knew that was in there -
[32:12] and honestly, all appliances 
should come with something like this. It's great!
[32:16] Maybe don't hide it inside the door next time.
[32:19] Anyway, with this, I confirmed there is in fact a 
thermistor which the control board is monitoring, but...
[32:26] it only actually uses it to control the heating element 
if you select the sanitize or high temp wash options.
[32:33] If you don't, it simply heats the water for a predetermined period of time depending on which cycle you chose.
[32:41] That seemed kind of strange, but 
here's where things get weirder.
[32:45] The high temp wash option doesn't simply make the wash a high temp 
wash.
[32:50] That's what you'd think, right?
[32:52] That's what it says.
[32:53] But in fact, it wildly changes the normal wash sequence.
[32:58] Select that modifier and you get not one,
[33:00] not two,
[33:01] not three,
[33:02] but four pre-washes, 
the last of which is actually heated, too.
[33:08] So, you get a half hour of pre-washing 
with four water changes before the main wash even starts.
[33:14] And with the final pre-wash also heated, everything inside 
is already at about 110° when the dispenser opens.
[33:23] This obviously uses much more water, but it 
makes the main wash extremely effective
[33:28] and gives those enzymes lots of time to go to town.
[33:32] Plus, at the end of the cycle, you also get two complete rinses rather than the one and a half you get otherwise.
[33:40] When it does that purging dance, 
which it apparently claims is a pre-rinse,
[33:44] it never sends any water to the top sprayers.
[33:47] So, whatever residual dirty water is left from the main wash inside the two upper spray arms
[33:52] and the tubing which feeds them 
is gonna end up in the final rinse.
[33:58] Honestly, this machine's unmodified 
normal wash cycle... is not very good.
[34:04] It washes okay, assuming you purged the line 
of cold water, but rinsing leaves a lot to be desired.
[34:10] Oh, and fun fact, you know how much energy the 
energy saver cycle saves over the normal cycle?
[34:16] Turns out none at all!
[34:18] And it uses more water.
[34:21] So that's neat.
[34:23] The moral of this story is 
since the cycles are so wildly different,
[34:27] if you haven't yet, you really need to try 
the other cycles and options on your machine.
[34:33] If you've been having residue issues, other cycles may very well do extra rinses which will take care of that.
[34:40] And if your machine is on the older side and enzyme-based detergents weren't common when it was made,
[34:45] those heavier wash options might be the only way to assure the water actually reaches optimal enzymatic temperatures.
[34:53] I'm going to talk more about this on my second channel
[34:56] because I've uncovered a lot about 
this dishwasher which isn't even on these charts.
[35:01] For instance, I was also curious whether the 
delay start option would change its heating behavior.
[35:06] Spoiler:
[35:08] nope.
[35:09] And some of its cycles and options are not listed here.
[35:12] I'll also show you the peanut 
butter test with the high temp wash option.
[35:16] It made a dramatic difference.
[35:18] But this video has already gotten 
quite a bit longer than I anticipated,
[35:21] so I'm going to finish up with 
the third time I ran the peanut butter test.
[35:26] This time, I included just a single teaspoon of 
Matt's marvelous detergent formula for the pre-wash water.
[35:33] Okay, it was a bit of a heaping teaspoon, but this 
is well less than half the standard washing dose.  
[35:38] And I simply placed it on the door and let it fall inside.
[35:42] I started the machine on the unmodified normal cycle again with the hot water line purged.
[35:48] And the first thing you'll notice is that the butter was dislodged much, much faster with some detergent in the water.
[35:55] In fact, the sides of the mug cleared up almost immediately.
[35:59] Now, the rest of what the pre-wash detergent did is a little more subtle,
[36:03] but it's pretty evident in the time lapse.
[36:05] Again, flashing lights ahead, 
and I'll say persnickety when they're gone.
[36:09] As the pre-wash continues, we see the water start to get much cloudier with the addition of pre-wash detergent.
[36:16] Even with just this tiny amount, the detergent is allowing the water to absorb the fats in both types of butter immediately.
[36:24] And that's why we're seeing it start to get cloudy -
[36:27] it's actually starting to dissolve those butters.
[36:30] Yet, nothing else about this wash is any different.
[36:33] In fact, the temperature graph is pretty much identical to the last demo.
[36:38] Now, admittedly, it doesn't look 
like a dramatic difference in this footage.
[36:42] But if we look at the water which was drained out of the machine at the end of the pre-wash,
[36:47] persnickety, the addition of detergent 
clearly increased how much peanut butter was drained out.
[36:53] The water is much cloudier and more uniform.
[36:56] Without the detergent, a good deal of stuff came out,
[37:00] but the water was a fair bit clearer, and what managed to make it out were more like chunks than anything else.
[37:06] I opened the door once it was finished 
draining the pre-wash water to check out the top rack.
[37:11] And here, too, we see a pretty significant difference.
[37:14] Stuff on the top rack doesn't get sprayed 
for several minutes into the pre-wash,
[37:19] so the water cools down quite a bit 
before stuff up here gets a good spraying.
[37:23] Still, in a first, both mugs of butter had the big pad dislodged with only a small ring remaining on one of them.
[37:31] And if we check on the bottom of the machine, we can see that although some of the butter remains inside,
[37:37] it's all been broken down into chunks.
[37:40] I am very annoyed with myself because I forgot to 
check the bottom of the machine for what the butter  
[37:45] that fell out of the mugs looked like when I ran the test the second time with hot water but without pre-wash detergent.
[37:51] So, my apologies there.
[37:53] However, another flashing light warning,
[37:55] if we go back to the time lapse, we can see that during the main wash,
[38:00] the water was much dirtier 
in the fill with only a single dose of detergent.
[38:05] While the pre-wash detergent certainly didn't get everything out,
[38:09] I think it's clear from this footage that it made a significant difference to how much food soil was left
[38:14] when the main wash detergent was released.
[38:17] And that's the entire reason I like to use pre-wash detergent!
[38:21] Taking the same amount of detergent and 
spreading its work between two fills of water
[38:26] is often more effective 
than asking it to do everything all at once.
[38:30] Persnickety.
[38:32] I don't always use pre-wash detergent to be clear, but if I've got anything in the dishwasher which is oily or fatty or greasy,
[38:39] I will be sure to add some additional detergent so the main wash fill doesn't have to deal with all of that on its own.
[38:46] Remember how the butter was dislodged so much faster?
[38:50] It took a little over 5 minutes for it to get knocked out of the mug without pre-wash detergent,
[38:54] but it only took about 60 seconds 
when there was some soap in the water.
[38:59] It's almost like detergents 
help fats to mix with water or something!
[39:04] Now, I didn't do the best job being consistent 
with how much butter was in the bottom mug,
[39:09] so here's a teaser of the high temp 
wash test that you'll find on my second channel.
[39:13] I put way more butter in this mug, and still it only took 
70 seconds for the butter to start to release,
[39:19] and just a few more spins of the sprayer 
were all it took for the rest to come out.
[39:24] If this doesn't convince you, I don't know what could.
[39:27] And now that someone has 
developed a powdered detergent product
[39:31] which doesn't have to fit into an overly complicated product lineup which needs to justify wildly different price points somehow,
[39:37] we know that there's absolutely no reason you 
should not be able to get the freedom of powder
[39:43] without sacrificing washing performance.
[39:46] Powders don't have to be relegated 
to a sad spot on the bottom shelf of the store.
[39:51] They could in fact be a premium product.
[39:55] So, thank you so much to everyone who worked on this project,
[39:58] but especially Matt Keasey.
[40:00] If one person can develop a detergent formulation
[40:03] which works just as well as what the big guys have convinced so many people is the only way to get a good wash...
[40:11] Well, I'll just say perhaps those 
stubborn, crotchety Midwesterners out there
[40:16] might have a point about marketing gimmicks.
[40:21] ♫ vindicatedly smooth jazz ♫
[40:24] I was right!
[40:28] Why might that be?
[40:30] Weird vocal flub.
[40:32] Oh no. Is that a leaf blower?
[40:33] On Friday?
[40:35] We will patiently wait for the leaf blowering to stop.
[40:38] I strongly prefer loose powders for dishwashers... 
[thud]
[40:45] Are they leaf blowing on the roof?
[40:48] They might be.
[40:50] And that's the entire reason I like to use main -
[40:54] gah!
[40:55] I'm going to finish up with the 
third time I ran the peanut butter test.
[41:02] FFAAH[bleep]
[41:03] ...time I ran the peanut butter test.
[41:09] Godd-
[41:11] I don't want to hear another word 
about how much better those pods are.
[41:15] Or I guess, I don't want to hear another word about how pods are some kind of "innovation" which favors the consumer.
[41:20] Because while they might be innovative, 
I don't think it's us who's really benefiting.
[41:24] My hat was never tinfoil!