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Comment by magicalhippo | Hacker News Reader

> But the whole thing is that if you follow some sequence of steps, powder will clean as well as or better than pods for a third the cost.

YMMV. Based on the earlier videos, I did switch back to powder, and I did follow the steps of putting some powder in the main compartment for the pre-wash. And i did try several powders.

Yet, none of the powders were anywhere near as good as the tablet we use.

It also doesn't contain any nasty chemicals, unlike several of the powders[1].

So we went back to our tablets. It might cost slightly more, but hardly a significant expense by any stretch.

Now, there might be some powders that work better which aren't available here in Norway. But I gotta work with what I got.

[1]: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/siste-nytt/test-av-oppvaskmidd...

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> It also doesn't contain any nasty chemicals, unlike several of the powders

At least in the US my experience has been the reverse of that. Several of the companies seem to have used the pods as an excuse to increase the number of chemicals that require chemical burn labels on the packaging and switch "Best By" dates to very literal "Use By" dates. With those pods, there's a thin water-soluble plastic that is also prone to melting at the posted expiration dates as all that is between you and second or third degree chemical burns.

No thanks. I worked food service in High School and had more than enough Chemistry classes in college to have too much healthy respect for chemical burn notices to trust any of the pods at this point. (Especially as someone who lives alone and will almost never use an entire package of pods before "Use By" dates.)

I haven't tried powders, but I did go back to liquid detergents even though there's only about one option left on store shelves where I shop which have now devoted so much space to the wasteful plastic tubs of the pods.

I've been trying paper for about 2 years now and its been great. Works about the same, feels the same, no pods. Its quite a nice experience.

Powders should perform better for the reasons explained - that was the reason he prefers powder, not the cost. The problem is that the powder in the pods is better than the loose powder.

The solution might be to put powder in the pre-wash tray and a pod in the dispenser. Or you could cut the pods and split the powder between the prewash and the dispenser.

Dunno what you have available, but since watching his video on powders I've always just broken off part of the powder pods we use.

We have the Finish tabs with the red ball in the middle (that's what our Costco carries, so that's what we use). I just break off on one side of the red ball and then crumble that up for the pre-wash. It usually breaks off super easily into three parts: The remaining tab with the red ball attached and two smaller pieces. If you rub the smaller pieces against each other, they break up super easily into powdered form. No cutting required.

He demonstrates this in the video as well. Powder/tablet from the same company performed differently, the powder seems to be deliberately underpowered.

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