Truman's Your Dish is My Command Dishwasher Bars 2020 Review - Sustainable, Biodegradable Dishwasher Detergent Pods
The Top Line: Truman’s Your Dish is My Command is NOT a buy for us. Not seeing anything compelling enough to get us to switch—especially at that premium price-point.
Originally published on May 16 2020; Updated as of 30 Dec 2020
After a couple more months of consistent usage: Unfortunately, with Truman’s Your Dish is My Command, we are often seeing a clump of un-dissolved dish soap on the bottom of our dishwasher (and leftover residue) — something that has not happened very much with other dish pods we have tested. It hasn’t happened every time, but roughly 1 out of every 4 times — not ideal. Dishes still come out clean, but I do wonder if it is less clean since most of the soap is still intact on the bottom of my dishwasher.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $14.50 for 30 dishwasher bars. 25% off if you purchase in a bundle.
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Really clean. Recyclable packaging, toxin free, synthetic fragrance-free, dye-free, and compostable. Pre-measured pods reduce overuse of detergent (which most people are guilty of!)
Packaging: Minimal packaging, all recyclable or biodegradable.
Purchasing & Shipping: OK eCommerce experience. We did have an issue with setting up our account and had to reach out to customer support — lightning fast responses (we heard back from them in a couple of hours). Took a little while for them to ship our product out as well (about a week).
Coupons: Discounts offered for bundles and membership.
Whats Your Impact? Traditional liquid dishwasher detergents are usually packaged in high density polyethylene. 68% of these bottles are not recycled and contribute to the approximately 275 metric tons of plastic waste that goes into our oceans and waterways annually. A family of 4 would typically go through 6-12 plastic jugs of dishwasher detergent over the course of a year.
The Efficacy:
Context: We liked Truman’s humor and the packaging gave us a chuckle. And it did its job — our dishes came out clean and sparkly.
Originally published on May 16 2020; Updated as of 30 Dec 2020
After a couple more months of consistent usage: Unfortunately, with Truman’s Your Dish is My Command, we are often seeing a clump of un-dissolved dish soap on the bottom of our dishwasher (and leftover residue) — something that has not happened very much with other dish pods we have tested. It hasn’t happened every time, but roughly 1 out of every 4 times — not ideal. Dishes still come out clean, but I do wonder if it is less clean since most of the soap is still intact on the bottom of my dishwasher.
The Cost:
Context: We assumed that an average family of 4 would run their dishwasher 9x a week, 52 weeks a year
Money Thoughts: We’re not quite sure there is a real good reason to pay the premium for Truman’s here—we will be sticking with Dropps, especially if we’re purchasing in bulk.
The Good:
✔ Pre-measured pods reduce overuse of detergent (which most people are guilty of)
✔ Zero waste packaging and product
✔ Non-toxic formula
✔ Septic safe, with non-GMO enzymes
✔ Synthetic fragrance and dye-free
✔ Great humor in their marketing and packaging
The Bad:
✗ One of the more expensive options
✗ No scented option for those that like a little scent
✗ Unclear if the formulas are actually green
✗ Mixed eCommerce experience (difficulty setting up an account, slow(er) to ship
Our Recommendation:
Not seeing anything compelling enough to get us to switch—especially at that premium price-point. Truman’s Your Dish is My Command is NOT a buy for us. We will be sticking with our Dropps dish detergent pods.
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!
