These Aldi Logix Platinum tablets are reviewed highly by Choice magazine, and already good value at the normal 40 pack version sold for $7.99 = 20c per tablet.
Now they are offering a bulk-buy 60 pack version for $9.99 = 16.65c per tablet.
I am currently using these and everything always comes out clean. I can't justify paying more for dishwasher tablets.
Since reading the Choice reviews I'm looking at moving to the Earth Choice ones, once I've depleted the 700 Finish tablets I have left.
I normally use these and they're great. Stuff always comes out completely clean. Finish on the other hand… I had to buy some from Coles a while back because Aldi was shut. They suck. Every wash there's crud left on the glass and mugs.
We also have a bag of Finish from a while back (has the powerball but non-Quantum I think) and it's nowhere near as "reliable" to get the job done.
If these are noticeably better than might give them a crack. Our bag of Fairy is running low.
For the price they are pretty good, cant tell difference between them and the powerballs
Do you guys rinse your dishes/mugs etc before putting in the machine? If so, how thorough are you?
I'm not talking liquid stains, like coffee on mugs which will wash thru quickly and easily - i'm referring more to dried food on plates and cutlery. Just wondering on the approach others take prior to putting stuff into their washers. I am conscious of how effective dishwashers are removing food off plates, and how much of that gets caught in filters and water pipes, and potentially reduces efficiency of the washing cycle. Hand-scrubbing dried food off plates (even after soaking) with a scourer can require a bit of work sometimes, so by comparison it makes me ask how effective dishwashers can be with just water jets and a cleaner tablet.
edit- i would say from experience the aldi tabs are great, and the Finish etc brands dont really seem to do much better at the task, but I pre-soak/rinse before putting in the washer anyway.
If you think someone is going to harden and stick, give it a quick rinse while the substance is still wet. If I have frying pans with baked on food I add a bit of water and soak the stain overnight in the pan. Pretty much everything comes off easily.
yeah, that's what i do now - stick the bowl or whatever in the sink for couple of mins with water and the chunks come off no worries. You see in ads though, people putting everything straight in their machines with dried stuff all over, like lasagna dishes. Do ppl really do that? Do their machines/tabs really work that well to clean those sorts of dishes? Hypothetical really, but I am curious about other's usage generally.
Bought a new dishwasher recently and I am one of those that will throw anything in. Originally to test to see what it would and wouldn't clean but everything is coming out fine.
Porridge bowls might sit in there for a couple of days before washer, no issue.
Im using Finish powerballs
@memphisraynz: Have you cleaned your filter yet? Dishwashers are amazing machines and highly effective, but your filter will cake up with bits of interesting material if dishes have large bits of hard crusty food on them.
@memphisraynz: I have a repeating reminder in my todo list to prompt me to clean the filter every month. (Screen on the DW also reminds, but don't always see that.)
You see in ads though, people putting everything straight in their machines with dried stuff all over, like lasagna dishes. Do ppl really do that?
Absolutely. The most I will do is scrape uneaten food off a plate, but other than that things go straight in no matter how much caked on crud remains. And 99% of the time everything comes out sparkling clean. If it doesn't maybe you're using the wrong cycle, or some really crappy tablets.
Obviously I rinse out the filter occasionally, but I'm often surprised by how much of a small and quick job that is. The majority of food matter seems to get broken down and washed away.
I will generally scrape of as much food as I can into the bin and load up the dishwasher.
As a single person I don't run it everyday, so I use the 'rinse' cycle and that basically gets all the food residue off so that:
1. the food doesn't dry and stick to the plates
2. stops the machine from smelling due to food crud hanging around (I do check the filter from time-to-time)
If I don't have many plates I'll give them a quick wipe down with the sponge before loading into the dishwasher.
Anything that has touched egg I will use detergent and hand wash with cold water before placing in the machine - this stops everything getting that 'egg-y' smell, which I hate.
I never wash or rinse anything. Stacked properly it will clean.
Might clean the dish washer filters once every so often.
Agreed. I use Finish Quantum and never wash, rinse or scrape anything, except for the food that is burnt-on to the rim of the slow cooker crock pot.
Pay attention to how you're stacking the dishasher and make sure each item has an "uninterrupted" path for the water jets.
The dog polishes them clean then rinse off his hairs he leaves behind.
Hi, we used to rinse plates before putting them in. Couldn't work out why the dishes were never spotless. I read a couple of months back that you should leave the food on dishes as the cleaner needs to react with it. Now we put them in fully dirty without rinsing and they are spotlessly clear.
The detergents are actually designed to bind to grease and grime. Scraping is a good idea to keep your dishwasher itself clean, but rinsing is actually counter productive.
I use these now as my standard dishwasher tablet and can't complain. Works as well as brands costing more than double the price (hello Finish Quantum). Bought three packs of 100 tablets for $15ea earlier this year.
Are these tablets individually wrapped and require removal prior to using? Or are they like the Finish Quantum where they have a dissolving film so you just put them straight in?
Wrapped. Require removal before use.
Wrapped
Dear god. wrapped tablets make powder look convenient.
I used to use ALDI powder. It's cheap and Australian made. But then I discovered the caked up powder deposits on the filter. I could tell it was the powder as it had blue dots in it. Peeling a tablet takes all of five seconds. I can live with that.
I can't imagine how much trouble for those wraps every time
I use the Logix Platinum tablets. Each tablet is wrapped in a dissolving film . No need to remove the film before use
Looks like ALDI was selling old stock in February 2017. I have three boxes of Logix Platinum tablets here and the wrappers must be removed. They do not dissolve.
Directions for Use
1. Unwrap one tablet per wash, taking care to avoid skin contact.
I just bought 2 boxes of this 10 mins ago and it says this. Is this the same everywhere for the 60 pack?
@Cluster:
Yep you have a point. I was at Aldi last weekend. The regular Logix Platinum 40 Pack($7.99) has 'with dissolvable wrapper" printed on the box. The one on offer 60 Pack,$9.99) didn't have anything printed like that on the box. And it also felt lighter in weight than the 40 Pack.
From previous experience, Logix tablets without the dissolvable wrapper become mouldy /spotted if unused for some time (maybe months). I ended up not buying the 60 pack on offer. Would recommend sticking to the usual 40 pack (with the d wrapper)
The wrap dissolves.
According to Choice, the cheaper Logix Complete is slightly better than Logix Platinum! 72% vs 70%
https://www.choice.com.au/home-and-living/kitchen/dishwasher…
Platinum is only slightly better on egg yolk and mince. Complete is better on rice, wine, cheese and coffee.
https://www.choice.com.au/products/home-and-living/kitchen/d…
https://www.choice.com.au/products/home-and-living/kitchen/d…
Yup, was going to say that too.
me too
Interesting….
That's an interesting list, I don't think it matches my experience much at all. I found the cheap Aldi tablets ok but probably slightly worse than the Finish Classic you get cheap at the reject shop.
I have the cheapest Miele dishwasher and generally it'll clean anything pretty perfectly so long as you keep the salt reservoir stocked. The main difference I notice is how shiny things are and how dry the plastics come out of the cycle. All the manufacturers seem to keep the magical drying chemicals for their expensive range.
Do you live in an area with hard water? I thought you didn't need salt otherwise…
Adelaide, so yep. The difference is very noticeable when it gets low.
How much are the complete ones on regular price?
Is it worth using a dishwasher if there's only two of us at home and we only cook for dinner. Is it cheaper than washing by hand? Probably use 4 plates and 2 bowls each day plus pots.
Dishwasher still uses less water than hand washing - just make sure you fill the dishwasher up before you put it on.
It might mean buying a few extra items so you don't run out of things between washes. Ie use the dishwasher every 2-3 days, so have enough bowls/cutlery etc to last you that much.
I'd say with two people though, you should almost get a load a day with cups/bowls and pots and pans. If not at least every 2nd. So have maybe 10 plates, 10 mugs etc.
If you have more crockery and cutlery, so you can keep using them and wait till the dishwasher fills up with the dirty ones. That's what I do, and for me it's more of a convenience than an economical decision.
In your case, I don't think it's worthy enough to invest on a dishwasher.
I already have a dishwasher, just wasn't sure it it was worth using. Would leaving the plates and bows etc for a few days before running it be a problem? Ie food getting dried and stuck and potentially smelling?
We used to do this before we had kids. 2 adults in the house and we only needed to run the dishwasher every 2-3 days. No issues.
(Now of course we have to run it at least once per day, sometimes twice.)
My wife and I fill up the dishwasher a little each day until full. Prob start it once every 2-3 days. Still cost effective as uses less water and detergent.
I live on my own and found that my water bill came down when using a dishwasher. At first I was convinced hand washing was the way to go, but it is not.
I did a test on my own and measured out the water using a 1L jug over a few days to see how much water I was actually using washing by hand.
On average it takes 2-3L of running water before the hot water comes out of the tap. If I wash up after breakfast and dinner (I hate dirty plates hanging around), that's 4-6L of water down the drain before I even get hot water to start wash up with.
Then factor in the additional water used to actually wash the dishes.
Just considering the wasted water alone before the hot water comes through is say 8-12L of water per day. My machine uses (or claims to use) 11.6L of water for the entire cycle, which is almost a weeks worth of dishes for me.
I think it depends on your dishwasher . The instructions in ours are to scrape of excess crap but not to rinse.We have a Miele G4203SCBRW and the instructions say not to rinse. Apparently a bit is crap allows the suds to hold onto something. Seems illogical but it is true.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-4404726/DON-T…
We push the dishwasher hard e.g. 3 loads a day sometimes more. I've put everything through e.g. oven pans, oven racks , grills and trays from the charcoal BBQ. I'm happy the Miele eats it all up. I have not used Aldi Logix since our old ASKO which could take the thrashing. This current miele dishwasher though with which I have only used finish powerball from reject shop deals gets through everything. Thanks OP I will try these.Our policy is if it isn't dishwasher safe then straight to landfill.
After finally running out of Finish Quantum tablets from various previous deals, my wife was keen to try powder after hearing all the waa waa about tablets, but found that they leave this residual chemical smell on the dishes. Has anyone noticed this with the tablets? Plus, they often left powdered residue on the dishes/in the dishwasher.
We've also tried Fairy tablets, but they too, have the residual chemical smell.
Otherwise will have to wait 'til the next Finish deal…
Interesting that you bring this up. We found the last time Aldi had a 100 pack logix platinum on sale they had wrappers that had to be removed and left a bad chemical residue that smelled awful. The dissolvable wrapper 40 pack versions that are in store every day have no such problems. I'm sticking with the 40 packs.
Interesting also, I bought 4 boxes of these 100 packs when they cleared them out for half price (I think I got them for 6.50 per pack, at 6.5c per wash it might be a record). I am half way through and have absolutely no problems even though I wash on thr short 30min cycle on my Turkish Bosch dishwasher. I used to use the powder without rinse aid but after a while my glasses would be foggy so these tablets solved that issue for me.
just btw I read my dishwasher's manual that a quick cycle uses more water and energy than the eco cycle… but I guess it depends on the dishwasher.
@iSamurai: Yes that last part that it depends on the dishwasher, in my case the quick cycle is most economical on both
I use the aldi powder. it's quite cheap and you only need a little - I estimate it's about half the volume of a tablet per wash on a 2/3 full load. On a full load we use aldi's tablets which works out to be ~$0.11 per tablet iirc.
The powder works well, no residual smell or feel on plates and tupperware. with the powder we can control the dose and it's cheaper too. I think it works just as well as finish's powder. You just need to top up the rinse aid and use a dishwasher cleaner (I use aldi's too) every month or two.
The smartbuy/homebrand powder (I think it's $2/box) however doesn't clean well. You need to use more and leaves residue after washing.
Hope it's good for that price Jesus
Has anyone had problems using cheap dishwashing tablets (or aldi brand) on their machine. For example, clogging, seals deteriorating, worn out plastic components???
Used them for 1yr + now. No issues
Its gotta be the dissolving wrappers for me and nothing else.
Consider Woolworths Select Shine All In 1 then. They are as good as or better than even the top-tier Finish/Fairy tablets, though not quite as good as these Aldi tablets.
I found them terrible quality and also made in China. Almost returned them.
I go the aldi 40 box tablets now.
I agree…used them once and things kept coming out dirty…
I've found them to be excellent tablets, every time I've used them. At least as good as anything else I've ever tried.
They've changed the packaging a couple of times though, and I'm not sure if they've ever changed the formula.
Best value dish washing tablets I've used
cheaper to get the $2 coles generic dishwashing machine powder that last quite a few wash?
That stuff was doing a poor job and leaving residue for me. Plus the hassles of powder handling.
Been a couple of years though so formulas might have improved.
Tablets win for convenience and ability to slowly dissolve through the cycle regardless.
The Coles-brand Ultra tablets are $5 for 30 tablets, so same unit cost, although you do have to remove the wrappers from those tablets before use. They seem to clean fine, so don't worry too much if you miss out on this.
Amazed at the number of people complaining about having to remove a wrapper on here, to be honest I am more concerned about the landfill or if that dissolved wrapper is doing something to the environment
Removing a wrapper doesn't seem to be the burden some people make it out to be.
Very occasionally (though still often enough to be annoying) tablets with dissolvable wrappers stick to the release module in our dishwasher, so when I do buy such tablets I tend to remove the wrapper anyway, which is actually much harder to remove than a normal wrapper. Normal wrappers can be torn open in a split-second, literally.
With tablets I don't bother with the dispenser, I just throw the tablet in the bottom of the dishwasher.
You don't wash your hands after stacking the dishwasher anyway? I'm not necessarily saying you have to, but it's something that I do anyway.
How good are the deals on the Finish equiv's - just to get an idea of how good a deal this is. If Finish is 1/2 price - does it come close to 16.65c a wash?
Finish Quantum on special is usually 25ish cents each, and normal finish 18c I think? So all else being equal this is technically "cheaper".
I am using coles dishwashing powder and washing in the fast mode too. It is a techinka basic dishwasher. I have no issues at all.I think It is the cheapest option on earth. 1 KG powder costs only $4. 20g powder for each wash, it will work out as 8c per wash. Try once and it won't cost much, my little advice.
Are these better than Finish classic powerball?
I see reject shop has 110 pack for $19 that's 17.2c per tablet so not much difference in price.
According to Choice Aldi Logix are better than the most premium tablets that Finish put out, and are a whole lot better than any of their budget crap.
After reading this thread I decided to get rid of the brand new Finish 110 pack.
Anyone done comparison with Fairy tablets. Would like to know if I should get these or Fairy when they are half priced
According to Choice Aldi Logix platinum are some of the best tablets on the market, and Fairy are some of the worst. Even Fairy Platinum are decidedly average. Woolworths Select and Coles Ultra tablets are better as well, though not as good as Aldi Logix.
The basic truth of the matter here is that neither of the two well-known and seemingly well-regarded "premium" brands (Finish and Fairy) are doing anything impressive at all. So it's time to cut through all the bullshit marketing and undeserved credibility and call a spade a spade I think.
Choice is hardly the gold standard for that, though. They win by default in this market space, there's simply no competition, which is a real shame.
I defer to them because their testing methodology will produce dramatically more meaningful information than a hundred anecdotal "reports" from random strangers on the internet who are usually simply recommending what they've always used, or what they feel comfortable being seen buying, or what clever marketing has merely convinced them is good, or any number of other often profoundly subjective factors.
I don't know. It might have drummed up some interesting discussion.
I have doubts on that report though been using Finish Quantum and Fairy Platinum when they go half price. Never miss the beat. But I would try a bag of Aldi and see.
We do rinse thoroughly before putting in dishwasher so that helps a lot
Interesting think I will try these Aldi tablets then
I used to use Aldi tablets but found they left a really weird residue and smell on soft plastics and some hard plastics. I switched back to Finish Quantum (parallel import bought in bulk) and the cleaning results were the same just without the residue.
Once I stop using baby bottles this will probably be less of an issue but it's good to know anyway.
If you have a costo membership the Kirklands dishwashing tablets are $16.98 and you get 115 which equates to 0.14 per unit. One of the rare things that are good value at costco
Thus, no membership :-)
In our brand new machine as well as in our previous machine, we use the Logix Platinum 16-in-1 tablets from Aldi with the dissolvable wrappers. 16 in 1 tablets include tea stain removal and rinse aid facilities, but our stainless steel cutlery almost always comes out with sticky black/brown tea stain tar goop spots on the knife blades. It only seems to clear up if I add extra rinse aid liquid to the machine in the rinse aid cavity. Not sure the 16-1 Logix stuff works for us - the cutlery always looks brown & spotty.. and of course our dinner guests love that. :-/
This is very interesting - as I get this on our knives too - and I always blamed the machine. I couldn't figure it out as the spoons and forks are all fine. Our dishwasher has the cutlery in a drawer at the top of the machine. I will try the rinse aid option and see how things pan out.
Yeah mate, ours is the cutlery drawer in the top rack machine also. I hated that so I pulled that rack out and just reverted to using the cutlery basket instead. But yes - only knife blades ever get the spotting thing.. never the spoons or forks. Seems fine though if I keep the rinse aid cavity full.
Got a box from the last time they had this deal - haven't used them yet as I'm still working through my box of Finish tablets, but the reviews have all been positive.