Review for the new Cascade tabs-

I was given an opportunity by Crystal, the awesome blogger behind Surviving a Teacher's Salary, to do a review of the new Cascade dishwasher tablets. Pretty cool, because we just installed a brand new dishwasher and I'm pretty obsessed with washing dishes at the moment!

Now, you guys know I make my own dishwashing detergent (and it works like a dream!), but I'm open to try new things.

Yesterday, I made peach preserves, moscato wine jelly, and dill pickles.

I made a HUGE mess!

About half of my handiwork!

I was too tired by then to go downstairs to the pantry and get the ones I'd already hauled down there for a picture. Bad preggo blogger!

The pot I cooked the peach jam in. I scraped this thing as clean as I could, but between the peaches, sugar, and pectin, it was like glue in there after it dried last night.

Because the product claims to be able to wash 24 hour dried on food messes with NO pre-rinsing, I left it to dry until this afternoon. Not quite 24 hours, but close.

One tab popped in the thingamajigger.

Here is my stainless steel pot!

On the right side there is a glare, but on the left side, you can see that the pot is spotty.

I scrubbed it a bit with a dishcloth and it came off.

My new dishwasher was installed June 9th (according to my nerdy Facebook post about it- who publically celebrates a dishwasher, people?!), so I am hesitant to say that my dishwasher was the factor in this equation that caused the spots, but who knows.

The other dishes were cleaned really well, but this pot was my experiment since it had dried on stuff. I hate that I had to go back and scrub it by hand :-/

Pros:

• Super convenient tabs.
• I like how they don't get powder on my hands like my Method Smarty Dish tabs that I keep on hand for what have you.
 

Cons:

• More expensive than my super safe natural dishwashing tabs.
• WAY more expensive than my homemade dishwashing detergent.
• I have no idea what is in them, other than the package saying it is phosphate free.

In the end, it's a neat product! I enjoy getting to have tried it out! I probably would not buy it, simply because I don't know what's in it and the natural stuff I make myself seems to work just as well, if not better.

For those of you that are interested, here is my dish detergent recipe:

2 cups of Borax

2 cups of Baking Soda (or washing soda)

4 small packets of sugar free lemonade Kool-Aid

(you can also use 4 tablespoons of citric acid--if you can find it)

You use 2 tablespoons per load.

 My thanks to Crystal, for writing her awesome blog (that I make a point to read every time I have a moment to sit and enjoy reading my favorite blogs!)

If you've never read her blog, check out Surviving a Teacher's Salary!