Dishwasher tablets all make similar promises: they’ll tackle the dirtiest of dishes, remove the toughest of stains and guarantee the perfect shine.
But as you’ve probably discovered for yourself, not all tablets all live up to the hype. If you’ve ever had to irritably throw your egg-encrusted cutlery, lipstick-stained glasses and discoloured mugs back into the dishwasher for a second run, you’ll know the importance of choosing the right tablets.
We’ve tested the top-selling dishwasher tablets, from well-known brands such as Finish and Fairy to supermarket own-brand products, to find out which has that all-important sparkle factor. Each was tested on a similar load of dishes at 50°, with no pre-soaking or rinsing. Read on for our results – plus our handy buyer’s guide.
What are dishwasher tablets made from?
Dishwasher tablets are made up of two enzymes – proteases, which attack proteins such as milk, cheese, egg yolks and meat, and amylases, which break down carbohydrates. These are partnered with other chemical ingredients, such as bleach, water softeners and anti-corrosion chemicals to stop the machine rusting – and if the balance is right then a good dishwasher tablet should effectively break down the grease and grime on your dishes, cutlery and glasses, while also keeping your dishwasher in top-notch condition.
Why not just wash up by hand?
When you wash up the conventional way, you’re briefly immersing your dishes in a sink full of increasingly dirty water. In a dishwasher, pressurized jets of hot water combine with the chemicals in the tablets for a more thorough and hygienic wash. And believe it or not, modern dishwashers are so energy- and water-efficient that a full dishwasher load is cheaper than all but the most economical of hand washers.
Aren’t all dishwasher tablets the same?
As our reviews show, there’s a real variation between brands. Some tackle stains better than grease, while others do a great job on glasses but lack the gumption to completely clear your baking dish of the last remnants of lasagne. It’s also worth noting that some dishwasher tablets are designed to be used at 50-60°C or above, and won’t perform so well on a low-temperature cycle.
Is there anything else I can do to make sure my dishwasher cleans well?
Even if you use all-in-one tablets, you may need to occasionally top up your dishwasher with salt to reduce limescale and keep the built-in water filters working properly – especially in harder water areas. Good dishwashers will indicate when you need to do this with a red light. Ditto rinse aid, which leads to fewer spots on glasses and dishes, thanks to its water-repellent properties.
READ NEXT: The best dishwashers for cleaning your dishes
The best dishwasher tablets to buy
1. Aldi Magnum: Best value
Price:£3.29 (8p per tablet) | Find your nearest Aldi store
Aldi, now the UK’s fifth largest supermarket chain, regularly challenges posh supermarkets such as Waitrose and M&S when it comes to quality, while keeping prices low. Its great value dishwasher tablets came up trumps in our tests, with no trace of egg yolk, lasagne or sausage grease left at the end of the cycle. Indeed, everything from cutlery to china to plastic containers all came up sparkling, with only a couple of lipstick marks – which are always tough to tackle – remaining in our glasses. Over a long time they can pick up spots, and plates can become a bit lacklustre, but overall these are fantastic tablets for the money.
Key specs – Number of tablets in pack: 40; Other pack sizes available?: No; Brand: Aldi
2. Fairy Platinum All in One: Best for glasses
Price:£8 (30p per tablet) | Buy it now from Ocado
These tablets promise “the confidence to cook anything you like, knowing they can even clean your greasy filter for sparkling dishes and a shiny dishwasher.” It’s hard to quibble with that, as we found they left no trace of grease or dirt whatsoever – not even lipstick, our ultimate litmus test. Even the dirtiest, grimiest tea and coffee stained mugs we could find came out perfectly white, while glasses came out crystal clear after many washes, with no cloudiness over time. A small amount of egg occasionally stayed encrusted on both cutlery and plates, but in all these excellent tablets justify their high price.
Buy it now from Ocado
Key specs – Number of tablets in pack: 27; Other pack sizes available?: Yes; Brand: Fairy
3. Tesco All-in-One: Best for tackling grease
Price:£4 (13p per tablet) | Buy it now from Tesco
When it comes to grease and sticky foods like egg yolk, we couldn’t fault Tesco’s tablets – and they work surprisingly well on lipstick too. For those who like gleaming glasses, this tablet also does a grand job on everything from tumblers to wine glasses, dealing with smears impeccably and leaving a great shine. But for the best results we would suggest a quick rinse first if you’re a red wine drinker – presumably, these tablets lack the chemical bleaching which some other brands boast. Tea stains weren’t tackled quite as well either, especially over time.
Buy it now from Tesco
Key specs – Number of tablets in pack: 30; Other pack sizes available?: Yes; Brand: Tesco
4. Essential Waitrose Dishwasher Tablets: Best supermarket brand
Price:£5 (11p per tablet) | Buy it now from Waitrose
We were so impressed with the results from these tablets that at first we assumed we were dealing with a high-end brand, with a price tag to match. When you check the price, the results are little short of astonishing. The faintest of faint amounts of entrenched, slow-cooked food were left on our dishes, but both cutlery and glasses came out, fit for the grandest of restaurants. They don’t seem to damage glasses over time either, although plates can start to look a bit dull after many washes.
Buy it now from Waitrose
READ NEXT: The best slimline dishwashers you can buy
Key specs – Number of tablets in pack: 45; Other pack sizes available?: No; Brand: Waitrose
5. Sainsbury’s Prism: Best for hard water
Price:£4 (16p per tablet) | Buy it now from Sainsbury’s
If you live in a hard water area, these dishwasher tablets are perfect: they clean well, and soften your water as they go, so you won’t be left with annoying water marks. Our dishes were left looking as good as new, even after a quick cycle. Closer inspection did reveal some traces of egg yolk and the odd slight stain, but overall results are very satisfactory. The only thing that does let these tablets down is their tendency to stick together in the packet, and sometimes even leak.
Buy it now from Sainsbury’s
Key specs – Number of tablets in pack: 25; Other pack sizes available?: Yes; Brand: Sainsbury’s
6. Finish Quantum Max: Best all-rounder
Price:£8 (30p) | Buy it now from Ocado
These high-end tablets are among the most expensive around – so we decided to really put them to the test with an entire load of dishes, cutlery, plates and glasses from a greasy turkey roast dinner. We couldn’t fault the results: no matter how hard we tried to find a lingering stain, we couldn’t. The Quantum Max tablets even passed our egg test, leaving no shred of evidence of hardened and dried yolk on spoons and plates when they had finished in the cycle. Just note that watermarks did start to appear on glasses over a longer period of time – and make sure you get the right name, as Finish makes a range of tablets, some of which are far more mediocre.
Key specs – Number of tablets in pack: 27; Other pack sizes available?: Yes; Brand: Finish