I'm on my second bottle of Eco+ Palmolive gel dishwasher detergent and it is ruining my dishes! It leaves this horrid white residue all over them that I have to scrub off. Is that what the phosphates prevent?

Anyone have a better detergent that is at least more Earth-friendly than regular detergent that doesn't do this to dishes?

I use the Trader Joe's liquid auto dish washing soap. It works great for me - actually I like the results way more than I ever did with Cascade.

I use the little tablets because they don't come in a big plastic bottle. I tried to decide which would have more of an effect on the environment and came down on the side of not using petro-chemicals to create a big plastic bottle that would then be put into the recycling stream where it may or may not be transformed into something useful but at the expense of burning fossil fuels to produce energy to recycle it.

So, I usually choose the little pouches made by Cascade I think. And, if I'm feeling rich, I'll buy the Ecover brand, which probably don't have phosphates and which come in a recyclable flatboard box. Yeay for flatboard, one of the world's most recycled materials!

We use the powdered Seventh Generation stuff in our ancient crappy dishwasher and it works well.

Lady Grey, it sounds like a water issue. Do you have hard water? We used to until I got a water softener. The white residue sounds exactly like what we used to get. Is the heating element of the dishwasher covered in it, too? It could be that.

I've looked this problem up online and it seems particular to this detergent. I've also heard mixed reviews about 7th Gen. and Ecover, but may be trying one of them soon...

I just came in here to say surfactant.

Surfactant.

One just doesn't get enough opportunities to say that word.

I bought two containers of the phosphate free stuff. Not sure what brand; it's one of the pretty popular brands of regular stuff. It's doing the same thing and leaving nasty white residue all over everything.

I have a well and septic, so I'm fairly unhappy about the idea of putting more things back into the water that will run into the stream across the road and possibly somehow end up near the well. Having to re-scrub all my dishes after they come out of the dishwasher is really starting to suck, though.

Lady Grey - we had the same problem with that brand. So sad! (and yes we have VERY hard water here).

We use ECOver and are very happy with it. Sometimes it leaves a slight white film on certain plastics - our pyrex lids, for example. We have since stopped washing our plastic in the dishwasher anyway, so it is not a problem for us.

Yes, I had the same problem here only it was with the Trader Joe's powder brand. I finally went out and bought the totally un eco Cascade brand and some jet rinse because it seriously was ruining my dishes. I don't know if my glasses and silverware will ever be the same. We have all kinds of things in our water, it is recycled, more than the stuff they use for irrigation, but still! That is why we have to buy our drinking water from bottling stations, not by choice, but necessity. If anyone has had good results with anyother more eco-friendly dishwashing detergents please let me know.

I have this problem, but it only seems to effect plastic, and it wipes right off. But it is still annoying. I hate having to clean stuff twice.

We use the Palmolive that LG mentioned. I just yesterday started noticing that there was a white film on one the dishes. I had assumed that it just hadn't gotten rinsed well. Other than that we really like it.

I have the same issue with the Eco Palmolive - nasty white residue. I stopped using it and went back to the tablets. Our water is on the hard side, but the dishwasher is only about a month old, so I'm pretty sure it was the Palmolive.

I have moderately hard water, and I have had some problems with the Palmolive. It's only on my black cooking utensils. It may be on my dishes, but they're white. Ewww.

I bought some 7th Generation and it didn't leave the residue, but it didn't dissolve completely and left powder all over my dishes. Ugh.