I Take Back Anything Nice I Have Ever Said About 7th Generation Cleaning Products
Which hasn’t been a whole lot to begin with. A few weeks back I reviewed their dishwasher detergent and gave them a generous…doesn’t completely suck. Ahhhh…what a naive fool I was. It, in fact, does completely suck. I may be saving the world from phosphates but I am certainly not saving any energy or water. I often have to run the machine 2x…or simply hand wash everything because the detergent doesn’t dissolve…meaning many dishes are coming out dirtier than going in. I have used the vinegar rinse…no difference. I have tried not over crowding…no difference. Not for nothing…but when I was using the old toxic brand Electrasol I could put things in there with entire meals caked on and they would come out spotless…no pre-rinse, no rinse agent, no after washing. Now I don’t plan on going back to a phosphate brand but this is ridiculous. I am using at least 2x the water and energy if not more. There must be a better alternative!
While I am sharing my warm fuzzies about 7th Generation, let me share with you a little discovery…Planet. I was using 7th’s liquid soap for hand washing dishes but this stuff is soooooo much better. It actually cuts grease. Who would’ve thunk a green cleaner could do it? (Planet’s auto dish detergent doesn’t get such rave reviews.)
Don’t even get me started on 7th generation laundry products. Trust me, you don’t have that kind of time. Nor have I mastered enough profane vocabulary to express my feelings fully. (I really do need to go back to teaching middle school so I can bank up on the bad words for just such a review.) Planet does make a well reviewed powder detergent that I will be investigating soon. I’ll keep you posted.
So… yes…while I will still allow 7th to produce wipe for my who-diddly-whos…that is about all they will be doing in this house. But that in and of itself is quite an honor, no?
That’s strange. It works great for us.
I agree! I haven’t been happy with anything made by Seventh Generation. Try the Trader Joe’s dishwasher detergent. The big claim is “Next to Godliness”. I used to use it about 8 years ago and was happy, but stopped using powder because I fell in love with tablets. TJ’s now has a liquid version which I plan on trying once I run out of my stash of 5,000 Palmolive tablets. I believe Consumer Reports gave TJs brand the highest rating out of all the natural detergents. I also like the TJ’s hand dishwashing liquid.
I really like Ecover’s dishwasher tablets. Every few months I have to run the dishwasher empty with some vinegar to clear out the crud, but as long as I’ve done that, the tablets work really well.
It is such a let down when green products cause more work, so I can totally understand the need for profanity.
We didn’t have great luck with 7th dishwasher detergent, I found that putting about half as much in actually worked better but we too preferred the Ecover dishwasher tabs. I found a “recipe” for homemade dishwasher detergent that is just 1 tbs baking soda and 1 tbs borax. Has anyone tried this??
I had the same experience with the Seventh Generation detergent back when I actually had a dishwasher, so I was surprised (and pleased) to hear that you had a good experience. I have no problems with their hand dishwashing liquid, though.
I tried the homemade stuff. It actually worked okay, but it was kind of rough on the glasses and silverware. I wouldn’t use it on any of your finest silver or crystal. I think I ended up compromising and buying the lowest phosphate evil dishwasher detergent that I could find.
I picked up Palmolive’s new phosphate free liquid yesterday. The first run went pretty well. No residue at all. After a few more washes I will do a little review. As you all know…the first wash can be deceiving. The Palmolive being a liquid means it comes in a plastic bottle…but I guess we have to take what we can get that actually works.
Use less! I love 7Gen because they actually use recyled packaging.
I do appreciate their packaging efforts. I use their TP and their garbage bags. They just can’t clean worth a toot.