I was right about dishwasher pods, and now I can prove it

[00:00] Hello and welcome to No Effort November,

[00:03] a series of videos for the month

[00:08] And you know where I never make any effort?

[00:11] Washing my dishes.

[00:12] That's because I have an automatic

[00:17] And when it comes to the detergent products

[00:21] I would like to say the following:

[00:23] I was right!

[00:27] And thanks to the work of a bunch of cool people,

[00:29] today I can prove it.

[00:32] How?

[00:33] With this.

[00:35] That's right. There's a new dishwasher powder in town!

[00:38] And I was... very slightly involved in its development.

[00:43] Now, of course, I will tell you where 

[00:47] but this video isn't just

[00:51] You see, sending this formulation to an

[00:58] and crotchety Midwestern stubbornness

[01:04] And because of that, I would very much like to

[01:09] and what we have learned through sending it

[01:15] I'll also show you why it's so important for those of us in

[01:21] by running the kitchen faucet until the water

[01:28] I've only ever explained that

[01:32] And I've cooked up a great demo to show you.

[01:34] It involves temperature logging

[01:38] So, stick around for that!

[01:40] But first, let's talk detergent.

[01:42] For those of you who may not be familiar with

[01:49] well, quite simply, that's because the standard washing program

[01:55] is designed to accommodate two separate doses of detergent.

[01:59] A small one first and a bigger one later.

[02:03] Why might that be?

[02:05] Well, you know that little compartment

[02:08] The entire reason your dishwasher has that thing is so that it can delay when detergent gets added to the washing water.

[02:17] It wants to do that because when the machine starts washing,

[02:20] food particles which dissolve

[02:24] or that are easily knocked off your dirty dishes, like those chunks of tomato and the sauce from your pasta dinner,

[02:30] will cause the water inside

[02:35] And this means your dishwasher will have to

[02:40] after a relatively short period of time,

[02:46] That initial fill of water is called the pre-wash because it happens before the wash.

[02:52] It will handle the easiest to clean stuff, but that's it.

[02:56] And so it's the detergent dispenser's job to make sure

[03:01] so it can mix with the water and create a cleaning solution to tackle the really difficult stuck on food

[03:07] doesn't get sent down the 

[03:12] That's the whole point of the dispenser!

[03:14] The dishwasher needs to control

[03:18] And in doing so, it can assure there's 

[03:26] Now, here's my little bugaboo:

[03:29] the pre-wash water can do a lot,

[03:31] but some food soils, particularly oils and fats, 

[03:38] And because of that little incompatibility problem,

[03:45] But, what if you were to put a little extra detergent

[03:52] That detergent would mix with the pre-wash water and thus it would allow it to absorb those fats and oils right away.

[04:00] Then when the machine drains the pre-wash water away,

[04:03] 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.

[04:12] That's going to reduce

[04:17] potentially allowing for a smaller main wash dose.

[04:20] Well, it turns out

[04:25] Notice how this detergent dispenser has two cups.

[04:28] One is labeled main wash,

[04:31] and the other smaller cup says pre-wash.

[04:34] The pre-wash cup isn't actually sealed by the lid.

[04:37] In fact, it's got holes in the lid

[04:39] so whatever you put in there is just going to fall right out

[04:46] Sometimes instead of two separate cups like this,

[04:51] And other times, you won't find a marked spot for it

[04:58] decided to stop helping people

[05:02] And if they make any mention of pre-wash detergent at all,

[05:08] But let me just state this plainly:

[05:13] which I'm fairly certain it does,

[05:15] then it's going to be doing a pre-wash

[05:20] Because if it didn't, there would be no reason

[05:25] It would just have a spot which says, "Put detergent here."

[05:29] You know if they could get away with removing that costly moving part, they absolutely would.

[05:35] But they haven't because the fundamentals of 

[05:41] Yet, most detergent products on the market today by forcing people into a single predetermined dosing structure

[05:48] disrespect those fundamentals.

[05:50] And that is just one of the reasons

[05:55] That's why I made my first video on dishwashers.

[05:59] There's a lot of people out there

[06:02] often to the point of

[06:07] Yet, I have never had a dishwasher 

[06:13] And I've used all kinds:

[06:16] to landlord specials of various vintages

[06:19] to mediocre machines like this Frigidaire

[06:21] and to high-end machines

[06:25] And with just a single exception,

[06:28] all it took to get great results was using cheap store-brand powders,

[06:33] using them as the machines expected with a little bit of pre-wash detergent in addition to the main detergent dose

[06:39] and selecting the normal wash cycle.

[06:42] The single "bad" machine in my life required the use of its heavy wash cycle for consistent results,

[06:49] but it could still wash great so long as you selected that.

[06:53] And hence explains my skepticism that the supposedly superior pods are really any better or worth the extra cost.

[07:00] Yet, after making those videos,

[07:02] while many people reported that switching to powder and using some pre-wash detergent made a huge difference for them,

[07:09] others couldn't get satisfactory results with powder

[07:16] The biggest issue seemed to be

[07:19] That can be a sign of using too much detergent,

[07:23] but when the same people reported

[07:27] well, that gives some credence

[07:33] But here's my issue:

[07:35] Detergents are just chemicals!

[07:37] The way those chemicals are packaged shouldn't matter,

[07:41] especially in a dishwasher

[07:46] And lots of pods out there are nothing more

[07:52] So if loose powders perform worse than pods,

[07:56] that's probably because the manufacturers want them to.

[08:01] Which brings me back to this.

[08:03] When I was working with Good Store

[08:08] (which by the way, thank you

[08:11] Numbers aren't final yet, but it's looking like we'll have raised close to $200,000 for the Maternal Center of Excellence,

[08:18] which is awesome!

[08:19] And by the way, it just had its ribbon cutting.

[08:22] Truly, thank you all so much

[08:27] ...

[08:29] Okay, that was too long of a parenthetical, so let me restart.

[08:32] When I was working with Good Store,

[08:37] Back in 2022, John contacted me and said,

[08:40] "You know what would be funny? If you made your own dishwasher detergent and we sold it to raise money for charity."

[08:46] I frikkin loved that idea, but we weren't sure how to pull it off so we decided to shove it for a while.

[08:53] Fast forward a few years and Good Store now exists

[08:59] in partnership with Green Llama

[09:04] While they were offering dishwasher tablets,

[09:06] lots of people were writing in to ask for a powder option.

[09:11] Weird. I wonder why that might be.

[09:13] Maybe they saw some YouTube videos.

[09:16] So, since the demand was there,

[09:18] I got connected with Matt Keasey.

[09:20] And after explaining my whole deal

[09:25] he was excited to work on his own loose powder formulation.

[09:29] And this is the result of his work.

[09:32] And folks, this is fantastic.

[09:35] And best of all, you don't have to take my word for it.

[09:39] See, the team at Green Llama wasn't satisfied with simply coming up with a great formulation and calling it done.

[09:46] Matt arranged for independent, blinded ASTM testing

[09:50] where this product was put through

[09:54] to measure its cleaning

[09:59] And it was compared against both a big name powder

[10:02] and the most premium detergent pod

[10:07] The tests revealed two very interesting things.

[10:11] First, the powder that big name brand sells

[10:17] So, you are at least getting a better product

[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

[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

[10:54] And the overall score for this formulation

[11:01] So, this is good stuff.

[11:04] Oh, and for the folks out there who have had problems

[11:09] well, part of the testing procedure

[11:13] And sure enough, Matt's formulation 

[11:20] No spotting was observed at all,

[11:22] and when it comes to filming,

[11:27] It's almost like powders actually 

[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

[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,

[11:58] In fact, after using this a few times,

[12:00] I am pretty confident this is the best

[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 

[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

[12:30] I truly did not expect that, and I wish I had taken a

[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

[13:08] Maybe you've got soft water

[13:12] Or perhaps you've got a particularly good dishwasher model

[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

[13:37] your dishwasher and your water supply

[13:40] And if you've been persuaded 

[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

[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

[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

[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,

[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 

[15:37] you don't actually need

[15:42] But personally, I will always want to control

[15:48] which is why I'm so happy

[15:53] Thanks so much to Matt for developing this formula

[15:59] It's nice to know that the bad powders out there

[16:02] are only bad because whoever makes them

[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 

[16:25] Again, for those of you who live where household voltage

[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 

[16:50] And we do this because thanks to our lower voltage, 

[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

[17:11] But dishwashers sold here usually have heating elements

[17:17] And there's a simple and pragmatic reason why.

[17:20] See, there are plenty of homes

[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

[17:47] This gives some overhead 

[17:51] but it means North American dishwashers

[17:58] But if they fill with water that's already hot,

[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

[18:31] And just in case you think I'm making that up,

[18:34] here is that exact advice

[18:39] How important this is to do

[18:43] But this is the only way

[18:48] Otherwise, it may start filling

[18:54] which not only defeats the point

[18:58] but more importantly will 

[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

[19:24] The phaseout of phosphates from automatic dishwasher detergent was a messy ordeal

[19:28] and there was a brief period of time

[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:

[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

[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,

[20:38] I can show you the difference

[20:43] and a dishwasher that fills with hot water.

[20:47] I hooked ol' Fridgy up to this utility sink using an adapter, 

[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

[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,

[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,

[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

[21:40] when put in contrast to what my grandma did

[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

[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 

[22:09] to completely coat them in delicious goop.

[22:12] And then I let it all cool

[22:16] I hope you'll pardon the food 

[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

[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

[23:10] in this case, a store brand product.

[23:12] I didn't use Matt's formulation

[23:16] But to be honest, even if I did,

[23:21] So, with everything in place, I set the faucet to cold

[23:28] Once full of water, it began its 15-minute pre-wash.

[23:32] But because this machine doesn't

[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 

[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,

[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,

[24:32] And because the heating element in this machine

[24:37] it took quite a long time for the peanut butter

[24:44] Though it did eventually all clear up.

[24:47] The water was absolutely filthy

[24:52] but the machine was just barely

[24:57] Now, I needed to do this test again

[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,

[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

[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

[26:02] and all those plates (and the dishwasher itself)

[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

[26:18] And, well, after it drained this water out,

[26:24] That's about 14° above the ambient temperature.

[26:28] That may not seem that significant,

[26:34] we've given the main wash at least

[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 

[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

[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

[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

[27:45] thanks to the blasts of warm water helping

[27:50] However, once we move on to the main wash

[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

[28:13] but based on the similarity in the curve shapes here,

[28:16] I would estimate that the

[28:21] whereas on the cold fill side,

[28:23] the water is only just now

[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

[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

[29:18] But before I show you what adding 

[29:21] you may have noticed something about where the temperatures peaked.

[29:25] This testing revealed something about this dishwasher

[29:30] and assuming others out there are like it makes it

[29:36] "run the tap until the water comes out hot"

[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

[30:18] With a hot water fill, it peaked slightly above 130 Fahrenheit,

[30:23] but you can see that the heating element

[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

[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,

[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

[31:23] I realized there was clearance

[31:28] We can now see exactly what 

[31:31] Filling with water, draining that water out, running its wash 

[31:36] and of course,

[31:40] And in a more than slightly annoying twist,

[31:45] I discovered a little sheet of paper clipped to the

[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

[32:02] And it also has charts which

[32:11] I wish I knew that was in there -

[32:12] and honestly, all appliances

[32:16] Maybe don't hide it inside the door next time.

[32:19] Anyway, with this, I confirmed there is in fact a

[32:26] it only actually uses it to control the heating element

[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 

[32:45] The high temp wash option doesn't simply make the wash a high temp 

[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, 

[33:08] So, you get a half hour of pre-washing

[33:14] And with the final pre-wash also heated, everything inside 

[33:23] This obviously uses much more water, but it 

[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,

[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

[33:58] Honestly, this machine's unmodified

[34:04] It washes okay, assuming you purged the line

[34:10] Oh, and fun fact, you know how much energy the

[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

[34:27] if you haven't yet, you really need to try

[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

[35:01] For instance, I was also curious whether the

[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 

[35:16] It made a dramatic difference.

[35:18] But this video has already gotten

[35:21] so I'm going to finish up with

[35:26] This time, I included just a single teaspoon of

[35:33] Okay, it was a bit of a heaping teaspoon, but this 

[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,

[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 

[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

[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 

[37:11] And here, too, we see a pretty significant difference.

[37:14] Stuff on the top rack doesn't get sprayed

[37:19] so the water cools down quite a bit

[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 

[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

[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

[38:26] is often more effective

[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

[38:59] It's almost like detergents

[39:04] Now, I didn't do the best job being consistent

[39:09] so here's a teaser of the high temp

[39:13] I put way more butter in this mug, and still it only took

[39:19] and just a few more spins of the sprayer

[39:24] If this doesn't convince you, I don't know what could.

[39:27] And now that someone has

[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 

[39:43] without sacrificing washing performance.

[39:46] Powders don't have to be relegated

[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

[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...

[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 

[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

[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,

[41:24] My hat was never tinfoil!