It drop dead without say that clean pods of all kind have pass through a kind of — get ’s say — praseodymium singultus since kids started daring each otherto eat the thingsto impress their Friend on TikTok . " lunar time period seedcase challenge , " aside , dishwasherpods are a modern direction to switch up your washup act for a wad - innocent experience .

But just how muchdothese pods differ from powder and gelatin dishwashing detergent , and which one is really better ? We babble out to a scientist at Cascade to get the answers .

How Dishwashing Detergents Work

But first , let ’s discourse a few basics about dishwashing detergent . TheAmerican Cleaning Institute explainsthat dishwashing machine detergent are made of surfactants , builder , corrosion inhibitor , Cl compounds and perfumes .

" Surfactants , " explains Cascade senior scientist Morgan Eberhard , " off grease at the molecular story by attaching part of themselves to water molecules and part of themselves to food for thought soils , lift the grease off your dishes . "

Thebuilders — or chelants — foreclose spotsand film on bag , while corroding inhibitors keep textile like metals from , well , corrosion . Chlorine compound aid in sanitizing dishes and removing thing likecoffee and tea stains . All of these are what make dishwasher detergent so dissimilar from your standard dish soap . If you ’ve ever used dish grievous bodily harm in your dish washer in a arrest , you love it produceswaytoo many suds that brim over and make a vast mess . But those suds also " smother " the water need to strip the dishes within .

powder vs. pods

How Are Pods Made, and How Do They Work?

Like afortune cookie — and again , please do n’t feed the darn things — there ’s a destiny more to dishwashing machine pods than meets the eye . Dishwasher pod manifestly contain dishwasher detergent , so they still function in the same means to clean house your dishes , but seedpod are presented in a format that makes machinelike dishwashing more convenient and less messy .

Most of us haveloaded a dishwasherbefore , right ? You open up the doorway , load it up , add detergent into the dispenser and press start . Dishwasher cod take a step out of the equivalence . No more measuring . The water - soluble film ( made of polyvinyl alcohol ) arrest premeasured limpid detergent , and when dissolved , secrete the powder and/or gel that cleans your dishful .

" These seedcase are created with premeasured superman that are more hard than powder or gel detergents alone , so you get laid you ’re getting the right amount of each element in each dish washer freight , " Eberhard excuse . " Furthermore , by separating the pulverization from the liquidness top , cod likeCascade ActionPacshave the undecomposed of what each ingredient has to offer . "

Cascade Pods

When the dishwasher detergent dispenser opens , it releases the dish washer pod into the water , and the film smother the cod dissolves , so all of the detergent at heart can circulate into the water , Eberhard explain .

" So the same 1.5 to 2 gal of water then circulates through the rotate nebuliser branch in your machine for the remainder of the main wash cycle , which brings the chemistry to the food soil and grease to bust them down , " she says . " When all of the food soils are removed from your dishes , polymers keep them suspend in the piss , so they rinse down the drain , rather than re - lodge back on your bag . "

Are Pods Better Than Powders?

It all calculate on how you want to do your dishes . Some people do n’t evenhavea dishwasher , which manifestly negates the pros of the dishwasher pod . Because dishwasher pods are premeasured with an amount scientifically formulated to clean your dishes , podstendto clean better . But what if your dishwasher is n’t full ( or it ’s too full ) ? You might require toadd another podif your have too many dirty dishes , but you never require to overload your machine . And for those topnotch low-cal lode , you might notice leftover seedpod remnants . So it might be upright to expect until you have full burden before running the dishwasher .

disregardless , pods are mess - free and some , likeCascade ActionPacs , contain both powderandliquid detergent , which allows you to skip the prewash hertz . But , pods are typically more expensive than powders and gels , so if affordability is what matter most to you , they might not be your best stake .