@Blairgirl, Wow.... The Powder is Amazing. I used 1 teapoon of stpp, and filled the rest of the detergent cups with the powder.. and guess what. Only the powder in the prewash cup dissolved completely, with about 20-30% of the main wash powder actually dissolving. Even with that little detergent, everything came out Spotless, and Clean :) There was no stuck on Oatmeal, or Cereal on anything. The un-rinsed Egg Yolk on a pan completely vanished, and our glasses were film free, and clear. I tried the same amount of detergent again, in another load, and it dissolved completely, surprisingly. (I didn't think it'd work, considering my DW hates Powder so much). Once again, everything was Nice & Clean. I'm honestly very curious, to try the Powder without any additive whatsoever. It seems very powerful, and efficient by it self honestly. Oh, and I haven't seen anything stick or redeposit to my glasses or dishes yet, however, if I do, I promise I'll report back. Next Project.. Seeing what STPP does with Tide :) This post was edited by OneBigMess on Tue, Jan 29, 13 at 0:03

asolo (on July 10) upbraids herring_maven's response (of July 10): "'We fill the cup to about 2/3....' Which 'cup'? What machine? Would you mind telling us how much detergent that is, please? Teaspoons? Tablespoons? Something we can relate to?" The detergent fill cups on every dishwasher, independent of brand, that I have ever seen are all (within +/- ten percent or so) the same size. Are you aware of any outliers? We have never used a teaspoon to dispense dishwasher powder into the dishwasher cup of our Miele G848, We have never used a Tablespoon to dispense dishwasher powder into the dishwasher cup of our Miele G848, We therefore do not relate to teaspoons or to Tablespoons in relation to dishwasher powder quantity. We gauge the adequacy of fill in relationship to how much of the dishwasher's cup is filled; that is our measure of how much we use. Sometimes (but rarely) we pour Ecover powder directly from the box into the cup of our Miele G848. More commonly, we use a long-handled standard coffee scoop to transport the powder from the box to the dishwasher. A standard coffee scoop is 1/8 cup; a full (level) coffeescoopful will not quite fill the detergent cup on our dishwasher. A slightly less-than-full coffeescoopful will fill the dishwasher's cup to about 3/4 capacity, and we use a bit less than that, to fill the dishwasher's cup to about 2/3 capacity.

I forgot to say -- I used the powder form of Cascade w/Dawn. I also forgot to say I soaked and washed the white clothes (all cotton) in hot water. plumbly, I have not wanted to use dishwasher tablets in the washer for the very reason you mention even though I washed the whites in hot water -- though I do use the Finish/Electrosol tablets (the grey/white/red'ball' ones) in the dishwasher. Several local stores, including BJ's, our favorite warehouse store, often sell them BOGO (Buy One, Get One free). Which is a fantastic bargain. Though my washer's hot water seems to get good and hot, the red ball is not needed in the washer and I'm not willing to risk any problem from it. suburbanmd, thank you for that link! It has a lot of valuable information. Thank you, May, for your kind words. I can't tell you how thrilled and relieved I was to see how clean the clothes came, and without any fading or discoloration! I hope your results are as effective if you choose to use Cascade as a detergent booster.

Another place to look...small dirty looking mom and pops stores. .often these are in the not so good section of town. And keep an eye out on Big Lots..sometimes they run across old stock of stuf f in the back that they put out. What about your current day Cascade powder mixed at 1 part STPP to 2 parts Cascade...that should be giving great results. Although I'm sure the heavy handed amount of Sodium Carbonate in it may interfere. Some of us old timers here will remember how great laundry detergent with phosphates used to be, everything was clean and never any worries of residue. But, a few people screamed to the high heavens about the phosphates, turned out consumers only accounted for 3% of the problem if that...so they were removed and a trade off was used...several other chemicals replaced phosphates that from what I've read have worse effects on the human race. but your not here for a history lesson LOL