Cleancult Dishwasher Detergent Pods Review 2020 | Eco-Friendly, Zero Waste Dishwasher Detergent Pods
The Top Line: MIXED. While we love Cleancult’s mission, and their dish soap (the lemongrass scent is incredible), we cannot justify purchasing the dishwasher tablets — it’s way too pricey to use in bulk. The container is very pretty, beautiful enough to leave out — we recommend it to purchase if you plan on leaving it on top of your counter. Otherwise it is much too small at 5”x4” — impractical if you plan on storing in bulk inside a cabinet.
Check out our Big Zero Waste Dishwasher Roundup on the Reduce Report.
We break it down for you:
Cost: $14.45 for Dishwasher tablet container with 18 tablets. You can also purchase it as part of a larger “Kitchen Bundle” with an all-purpose cleaner, dish soap and hand soap containers, and 1x of refills for each for $47.84 (20% off). Note that you will be signed up for an auto-subscription for the refill whether you buy a bundle or a-la carte.
Products Included: A “forever” glass container that comes filled with 18 dishwasher tablets in a lemongrass scent.
Coupons: You can sign up for their newsletter to receive 15% off your order. 20% off ordered on all bundles as well.
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Cleancult appears to have one of the simplest and cleanest ingredient lists, even when compared to other green cleaning products— and they are Leaping Bunny certified (the gold-standard in cruelty-free certification for personal care and household products companies).
Packaging: Everything was either 100% recyclable, refills come in paper cartons.
Purchasing & Shipping: Very easy purchasing experience. Shipping is also free if you purchase more than 3 items. However, be warned that you are automatically added into a refill subscription. You can of course choose to pause or cancel later, but generally a bit annoying to not have the option to just purchase for one-time.
Whats Your Impact? The biggest impact here is a major reduction in plastic due to the refill model. Additionally, Cleancult has a sustainable shipping system (they work with environmental agencies to plant trees to undo any shipping carbon they emit) and partners with Carbonfund.org to be a fully carbon neutral company.
Cleancult appears to have the deepest commitment to being green — from their simple ingredients lists to their Leaping Bunny status and carbon-neutral shipping process.
How Well
Did the Products Actually Work?
Overall the product worked well.
A little confusing — each tablet comes wrapped in what looks like a plastic (if you dig into their Q&A on site you find out that it is actually a biodegradeable film that you do not have to remove). Our first time using this we ended up removing the wrapper as it looks as though it is made to be removed.
Our dishes came out sparkling clean and smelling incredible. We are seriously in love with the lemongrass scent!
We had a similar experience with the Cleancult Laundry Detergent Pods.
1 Year Value
Comparison
Annual Value Comparison:
A typical family of four probably runs the dishwasher 6x a week — that’s 312 loads of dishes a year!
We took a look at cost when compared with the many options for dishwasher pods out there: Public Goods, Dropps, Cascade, and Grove Collaborative.
Money thoughts: Cleancult is the most expensive option out there. This adds up if you run the dishwasher often. We’re not quite sure it’s worth it despite the incredible lemongrass scent.
What We Liked:
✔ Drastic reduction of plastic—though the refill milk carton containers are larger than tablet based refills
✔ The glass jars are really beautiful and shatterproof.
✔ Packaging is all recyclable.
✔ The lemongrass scent is incredible. We particularly like it as our pans never have that soap smell when we heat it up.
✔ Non-toxic, kid-safe, pet-safe, cruelty-free, hypoallergenic, vegan, gluten-free, Leaping Bunny status
✔ The most committed to being carbon neutral with their sustainable shipping process and partnership with Carbonfund.org
What We Didn’t Like:
✗ The most expensive option out there
✗ Glass container, while gorgeous, are much smaller than you would expect from the photos — they are roughly 5”x4” and fit only ~18 tablets. For a normal family of four, you would have to refill this every 3 weeks. We would want them to disclose dimensions/measurements on the site more clearly, and perhaps offer a larger size.
✗ Auto-subscription into the refills — no option to just purchase one time
✗ It was confusing whether you are supposed to unwrap the tablets (turns out you don’t have to, but we had to go to their site and dig into their Q&A section to figure this out…)
✗ No additional options for scent. Not a huge deal for us as we LOVE the lemongrass scent, but others may want options!
Our Recommendation:
While we love Cleancult’s mission, and their dish soap (the lemongrass scent is incredible), we cannot justify purchasing the dishwasher tablets — it’s way too pricey to use in bulk. The container is very pretty, beautiful enough to leave out — we recommend it only if you plan on leaving it on top of your counter. Otherwise it is much too small and impractical to use for storage inside a cabinet.
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!
