I was using Finish Quantum power ball and salts from SOMAT as i have hard water. I began using finishing rinse aid as well as a no name brand but I don't notice the difference. But one thing that has happened is that the lower basket on RHS has rusted and now a prong has broken off. The rust showed up before and Miele replaced basket in first five years (of ten year warranty) but said no more. When this happened again four years later, I called Miele and while I was told when I purchased the machine to use FINISH, Miele is saying it has been reformatted and is causing the problem. That or the rinse aid. OR combo. I will be buying Miele Ultra Tabs from now on and being in Canada in a rural setting, I will have to get them from the co directly. (Note I have an 18 inch d/w). I do hope there is a way to cut the tabs in two as I really don't need that much detergent given size of loads.

I decided to do a patent search on DW detergent to see if I could find any information about the use of detergent tablets. The search turned up all kinds of information about DW detergents and patents granted to P&G, Palmolive and Reckitt Benckiser. Almost all companies state that the use of tablets provides easier dosing, and less storage and transportation costs. I wonder which is really important to them, the ease of dosage or reducing storage and transportation costs. Multi layer tablets solve some problems due to the fact that it keeps some components separate from each other avoiding reaction, instability and exhaustion of the components before they are even used, and some components are damaged by the compression used to make tablets so putting them together in layers helps prevent this. Given this I wonder if they can mix this stuff together into a powder? I know they could, but would it be as effective? Dishwasher Pacs are described as a tablet also, just that one compartment of them may contain a gel which may contain hydrogenated castor oil as a thickening agent. Oil this is the reason my hands were oily when I bought a bag of Cascade 2n1 action pacs reached in and found that some of them were busted, pulled my hand out and it was full of oil. P&G and Reckit Bencisker approach etching a little differently in that P&G uses insoluble zinc salts and RB uses a variety of soluble materials and could use zirconium, titanium and other things. RB also claims to add water soluble glass components to their mixtureI guess to help replace components that get worn away from washing. One patent for DW Gel stated that the Gel was developed because water was known to leak into the detergent cup during the dishwasher pre wash and once there would mix with the detergent and cause a very high alkalinity and a breakdown of the detergent before it was released into the main wash. The Gel worked because it had a higher surface tension and the water leakage was not consequential.Hmm never heard about this--I thought it just supposed to be convenient. If I remember correctly I had a Dw that you could not use a gel in because it would be oozing out of the cup during the prewash.so I guess water could run in also. I found something interesting in a P&G patent that was dealing with the use of enzymes. The information stated that chorine bleach required manufactures to use special processing and storage precautions to protect compounds and it caused some damage to metal rims on china and silverware, but that there was no known surfactant that could perform its function which was to prevent the formation and deposition of troublesome proteins and protein grease complexes on hard surfaces during the washing process. These statements make me wonder if this is the reason I get identical cleaning results from ElectraSol powder containing chlorine bleach and almost any other detergent containing enzymes. Both of these clean just fine for me. In the patents all companies give a series of scenarios and ingredients they MAY use in the products and they dont necessary state that they are using any method but they do state a preferred scenarioso no one can ever really tell what they are doing, but you can get an idea of the compounds involved. I found the search interesting and it seems that this is just one big research field in which all companies know a lot about the background and chemistry involved and are merely tweaking things by building on the past which makes sense. I did not do a complete exhaustive search so there may be other patents that are newer than the ones I found which are dated from about 1990 to 2003. The above comments about the information are mine. If you want to get the details you should do the patent search. Good stuff if you are interested in wading through it.

I've never had any adverse results besides the suds. Lift the top of the washer and there's 4"+ of foam. That's why it takes so many rinses. I've been usings quite a bit too. As far as detergents with enzymes, virtually all P&G products have enzymes as does Wisk. Otherwise I don't know of any American made ones with enzymes, except that the Walmart Great Value brand does. And it does a pretty good job. But I have a pail of Sun to use up so I add a the DW detergent to boost it when needed. Thought I'd check. I know there's been a big turnover of people. Thought maybe someone still used it. If anyone comes around who has experience or comments, I'd appreciate it! Happy laundering all!

FYI - Ive owned three F/P dishdrawers at different properties over the last 15 years. Heard from both the experience center in Orange County and also from the service technician that Finish Quantum (first choice) or Finish Classic are recommended above other brands, and Cascade is actually not recommended. The explanation they gave me was that there is less detergent in the Finish packets, which is better as the drawers are smaller than a full size unit. The cascade packs are portioned for full size units. You can, of course, use Cascade powder or Finish powder but do not overfill. If you’re using packets, place them in the silverware bucket so they don’t interfere with the dishwasher arms. Hope this helps and sorry for replying to an ancient thread, it just happens to be the most relevant one for new buyers.