Huh? Aren’t they all the same?
Nope – afraid not.
But you could easily be forgiven for thinking that they were – they are all fairly thick, coloured, pleasant smelling liquids that differ only in the brand name.
Well, what’s in them? There are four things: detergent, thickener, colouring/fluorescing agent, and water.
Well, how much water is in them? Believe it or not, on average about 80 to 90% water. The cheap generic brands are typically less than 5% detergent, whereas the premium brands tend to be around 15 to 20% detergent. But there is one brand that stands head and shoulders above the rest – Cusson’s Morning Fresh – weighing in at a substantial 40% detergent.
This may surprise you – most detergents seem fairly thick. Well, this is simply the job of the thickening agent. The purpose of the thickening agent is to make a thin runny liquid appear thick and laden with detergent.
And the Morning Fresh normally requires much less detergent than you would normally use. On the back it is described as a “super concentrate.” In the case of Morning Fresh this claim is true, although it actually used to be 70% in not too far distant past.
But if you see the term “concentrate” on any other brand of dishwashing detergent then I’m afraid you can take it with a grain of salt.