silverguide.site –

Should you fork out for your dishwashing liquids? Consumer advocacy group Choice has found one of the cheapest dishwashing liquids on the market is also one of the best – while some products perform worse than plain water.

In a product test of 31 dishwashing liquids, Morning Fresh Ultimate Pro Brilliance Original Ultra Concentrate Dishwashing Liquid took out first place, with a score of 90%.

In equal-second place was Aldi’s Tandil Ultra Quick Dry Raspberry and Apple, which scored 85%, along with Morning Fresh’s Antibac Active Lemon Ultra Concentrate Dishwashing Liquid, and Palmolive’s Ultra Gentle Care Mild Fragrance Dishwashing Liquid.

The second-placed Aldi dishwashing liquid costs $0.40 per 100ml, making it one of the cheapest products in the test. By comparison, the first-ranked Morning Fresh Ultimate Pro Brilliance Original Ultra Concentrate Dishwashing Liquid was the second most expensive product in the test, costing $1.71 per 100ml.

“As usual, price isn’t a guarantee of performance,” said Chris Barnes, senior project officer at Choice.

The most expensive dishwashing liquid tested, Saba Organic’s Dishwashing Liquid, received an adequate score of 75%. But at $2.40 per 100ml, it is nearly six times the amount of the silver-ranking Aldi product..

Choice assessed how well the dishwashing liquids loosened dirt and grease off of test tiles. These were pre-stained with foods such as spaghetti Bolognese, egg yolk and rice starch, then soaked in each detergent and given a set number of scrubs. Finally, a reflectance test measured how much light was reflected off the surface of the tile to test for its cleanliness.

“It’s all quite scientific,” said Barnes.

Seven dishwashing liquids did not scrub up well, with Choice finding they performed worse than water.

Ecostore Lemon Dish Liquid, which costs $1 per 100ml, received the lowest score of 55%. Six other dishwashing liquids, including Ecostore Ultrasensitive Dish Liquid Fragrance Free, Coles Ultra Concentrate Dishwashing Liquid Lemon Burst and Aldi Tandil Ultra Antibacterial Lemon, were given the second-lowest score of 60%.

By comparison, a water-only scrub received a score of 65% by Choice testers.

A spokesperson for Ecostore said while they acknowledge Choice’s results, their test does not factor in ingredient safety, chemical composition or environmental considerations which are central to Ecostore’s formulation approach.

“We consider a broader body of evidence, including independent testing, formulation consistency, and long-term consumer use over time,” the spokesperson said.

Coles and Aldi were contacted for comment.

Barnes says one reason why a formulation may be ineffective is because a brand may have focused more on smell, and not enough on its ability to “clean properly”.

He says it shows that a certain amount of the cleaning result doesn’t necessarily come from the dishwashing liquid itself. “Sometimes it’s actually just the warm water and the scrubbing that will get the job done.”

Barnes says brands are locked in a “constant arms race”, and regularly change their formulations to provide better performance at a lower cost.

And even within brands, there is so much variation in price and performance because they’re manufacturing to different consumer price points, said Barnes.