How much powder should I put in my dishwasher?

Among the many dishwasher detergents available today, regular powdered detergent remains particularly popular. This is due to its ease of use and affordability. However, to ensure high-quality cleaning, precise dosing is essential. How much detergent should you add to your dishwasher to ensure a good clean without overdosing it?

How to determine the powder dose?

It's impossible to say that there's a universal optimal dosage for all detergents. It's easy to figure out what yours is by looking at the packaging. It usually tells you how much detergent to put in the dishwasher. If you don't have the packaging or can't find the information you need, you'll have to rely on expert advice. You can calculate the dosage based on the basic characteristics of the detergent.

• The average dishwasher holds 12 place settings. A fully loaded dishwasher of this size will require 40 grams of regular detergent. If the number of place settings is smaller, reduce the dosage proportionally.
• In addition to regular detergents, there are also concentrated detergents that require much smaller amounts. Some contain 20-25 grams, while others only 15 grams. In any case, if you're using a concentrated detergent, use half as much as regular detergent.

Important! If you're desperate to know the manufacturer's dosage recommendations but don't have the packaging, try this trick: find photos of your product's packaging online and look for the information there.

If you're willing and able, you can find the right dosage of detergent through experimentation. Sometimes manufacturers deliberately recommend using more detergent than necessary to run it out faster, forcing you to buy more. Determining your own dosage will help you avoid unnecessary expenses.

How to use the powder?

Pouring detergent into the dishwasher couldn't be easier. Just open the dishwasher door and find the detergent drawer on the inside. The drawer is quite large, so you'll definitely find it easily.

• Open the dispenser lid.
• Pour in as much powder as you need.
• Close the lid tightly.
• Start the washing mode.

Important! The dishwasher dispenser has several compartments for different types of detergents: powders, rinse aids, etc.

If you put the main detergent in the fabric softener compartment, the machine will only use it at the end, and at the end you will get dishes with stuck-on powder granules and poorly washed dirt and food residues. To know exactly which compartment in the dispenser is used for what, consult your dishwasher manual, which provides detailed instructions and visual illustrations of what goes where.

What if I use the cheapest powder?

Frugal housewives strive to save money even when buying dishwasher detergent. Is it possible to replace an expensive detergent with a more affordable alternative without compromising the cleaning performance? Of course you can. It's not the brand, packaging, or even the price that determines the quality of the detergent, but its ingredients. If you're used to an expensive product and then find a cheaper one with an identical composition, you can safely make a replacement. In most cases, expensive brands are such only because of their name, but what we need is not prestige, but quality.

Another downside of expensive powders is that they're often counterfeited. If you're devoted to one product and willing to spend a fortune on it, you need to be prepared for the possibility that you won't get the results you're looking for. Cheap powders, however, aren't counterfeited, so once you find your ideal budget option, you can be confident in its quality. However, finding it will require trial and error, as not all cheap powders are truly worthy.

   

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