Environmentally Friendly Dishwasher tablets (Sainsbury's Cleanhome Dishwasher tablets citrus)

Member Name: jupiter28

Product:	Sainsbury's Cleanhome Dishwasher tablets citrus
Date:	06/06/08 (442 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works as well as leading brands, cheaper

Disadvantages: None that I can think of

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Sainsbury's Cleanhome
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Sainsbury's have brought out a new range of products that deliver great cleaning performance but are also kinder to the environment. I'm a bit of a spend thrift so was looking through the Sainsbury's aisles for some cheap dishwasher tablets. I had run out and didn't want to buy a lot of tablets until I was able to go and buy some tablets at wholesale prices. I noticed this at the top of the shelf because it was on offer.

25 tablets for £1.99, saving a 1/3 off the normal price. At 8p a tablet, how could I resist?

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The Packaging & the tablets
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The contents come in a cardboard box. Indeed a box that looks like it has already been recycled. The box itself is blue with an outline of a house in what looks like grass. The front of the box states the name and a list of the features:

* Water soluble film
* Salt Action
* Rinse Aid
* Glass Protection
* Stainless Steel Shine

The back of the box gives you directions for use and items that should not be placed in a dishwasher like lead crystal or thin decorated glass. It also lists the ingredients:


5% to 15% Oxygen based bleaching agents
Less than 5% Non-ionic Surfactants, Phosphonates, Polycarboxylates
Contains: Enzymes (Amylase, Protease), Perfumes

These are mainly plant based, so effective and kinder to the environment.

Interestingly enough the package has an eco label, which is a picture of a flower with a capital E inside the head. Designed to show that the product is greener than others not carrying the label. You can find more about eco labels at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/index_en. htm

You should keep the box away from moisture as the tablets come with a dissolvable film so there is no wrapper to discard. There is a warning on the packaging.

The tablets themselves are nothing different to ordinary dishwasher tablets. It is a white tablet about 1.5cm x 3.5cm x 2.5cm in dimension covered in a clear plastic film. For those of you that know the Finish tablets, it is just like that but without a red powerball in the centre. On opening the box, you get this really nice subtle lemon smell, really nice.


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My Conclusion
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Well, these tablets are certainly more environmentally friendly, from the packaging to the ingredients. The Sainsbury's website says this product meet tough environmental criteria, ensuring it does not use unnecessary chemicals and is biodegradable.

The performance of these tablets is certainly as good as the Finish tablets I normally use and I have not had to add any additional rinse aid. All my dishes, cutlery, crockery and even the saucepans (yes I put saucepans in the dishwasher!) come up as clean as I would expect. One thing I have noticed when I was using Finish tablets is that the items would not be completely dry at the end of the cycle - I wasn't sure if it was the tablets or the dishwasher. With these tablets I have never had that problem, the dishes weren't even slightly wet which I was really please with.

One of the things that I was nervous about was putting non-recommended tablets in my dishwasher. Of course, the only brand that was recommended was Finish, so not a lot of choice there. However, I have not noticed any adverse effects on my dishwasher and the performance is better than I get with Finish. It does recommend that you put extra salt and rinse aid if you are in a hard-water area. I would recommend too that you put dishwasher salt in any dishwasher regardless of which tablets you use. Rinse aid is a different thing and you would have to try the tablets first.

At full price, these are £2.99 for 25 tablets, making them 12p per tablet. Whilst at that price it is not cheaper than the basic Finish product, it is more environmentally friendly and certainly cheaper whilst it is on sale and I would recommend them for that reason.

Summary: a greener alternative?