Like everyone, when I first started my journey in sustainability, I had a bunch of products I wanted to phase out. Dishwasher detergent was one of the things I realized came in plastic and decided to switch. I used to use Cascade Platinum, and it always cleaned my dishes really well. My first plastic-free alternative was Dropps dish detergent pods. You can check out my reviews for their products here. I love Dropps, but then I saw Grove also had their own dish detergent I had to try them.
Grove Collaborative is a sustainable brand that makes a ton of different products. They have products ranging from health and beauty to cleaning and laundry. In this article, I’m reviewing their dish detergent packs and talking about my experience with them.
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Ratings
Overall Score
Function
Ease of Use
Packaging
Do I recommend this product?
Sadly, I don’t recommend Grove’s dish detergent packs, and I have several reasons why.
I tried the “Total Clean Dishwasher Detergent Packs” but Grove also has a product called the “Pure Power Dishwasher Detergent Packs.” Those are a dollar more for a slightly smaller quantity (18 pods instead of 20). And while I don’t know for sure, I assume they’re a step up from the “total clean” version that I’m reviewing. Those might be something you’d like to try if you’re interested in Grove products but aren’t down for the ones I’m reviewing in this article.
Overall, Grove’s total clean dishwasher detergent packs almost made it to “recommended” status, but they barely missed the cut off. Let’s look at why in the ratings breakdown.
Does it get the job done? (Function)
For the most part, I had a very normal cleaning experience with my dishwasher cycles. But, there were a handful of times that I noticed my dishes had a lot of spots or were even a little cloudy after they completed their cycle. I have clear dishes so it’s really easy to see anything on them.
I’m used to Dropps dishwasher pods (you can see that review here) and they have worked perfectly for me almost every time. I can only think of one moment where I had one dish that wasn’t spotless with Dropps and even then, it was because I had baked on some sauce.
Before Dropps I used Cascade Platinum and those pods also worked wonderfully for me every time. Coming from two brands that worked great really highlighted the moments with Grove dish detergent that were lackluster.
Ease of use?
These dish detergent packs work like any other dishwasher pod. You just put them in the detergent slot, close it or twist it (whatever you dishwasher requires), and run the cycle like normal.
Grove Dish Detergent Packaging
You may have already noticed, Grove’s dish detergent packs come in a plastic bag. Whyyyyy?
I recently did a brand review on Grove (which is like a product review but for the brand) and they are such an awesome company! They’re transparent and actively working on eliminating plastic packaging in all their products so I was so confused when I got these in the mail.
Grove has a Beyond Plastic initiative and they claim they will be completely plastic free by 2025. Since the packs I bought are made by Grove, I have to assume that within the next 3 years they will stop shipping the laundry packs in plastic. So for now, if you do want to try this product then you will want to make sure you recycle so the plastic bag doesn’t end up in a landfill.
But ultimately, I do have a problem with the plastic packaging. Especially when it’s so easy to put these kinds of products in cardboard boxes. Dropps has been using cardboard for years and years.
Beyond the packaging for the pods themselves, the shipment packaging was stellar. Grove uses regular brown paper as filler rather than bubble wrap or peanuts like many other companies. I like to use that paper as filler come Christmas time, and it even makes good gift wrap. They get a gold star (metaphorically) for the cute handwritten note too. But ultimately, I’m rating on the products packaging and not the shipments packaging.
What options do I have to buy?
At the time of writing Grove offers two scent options for the detergent packs I tried. They have:
- Free & Clear
- Lemon & Eucalyptus
I only tried the Free & Clear. I don’t know that I’ll ever be one to partake in scented dish detergent. But if you do like that kind of thing, then they have that one option for you.
Cost and Comparability
There is a myth or a common belief that sustainable products cost more than “normal” product. Sometimes that’s true, sometimes it’s not. So I like to do cost comparisons and cost breakdowns so you can see for yourself how the products I’m reviewing stack up against big name brands.
To get the numbers for the products below, I go to the brand’s own website (Dropps and Blueland) or I go to Walmart’s website. I used subscription pricing for the Dropps products. And on Walmart’s website I look for popular items that are available in-store that day. I do this because they generally have lower prices than other stores.
Table 1 has both options for Grove’s dishwasher detergent packs listed right in the first row. Take a look and then I’ll discuss the results after the table
| Brand | Pods Per Container | Total Cost (USD) | Cost Per Pod (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
From this table you can see that Grove’s dish detergent is the most expensive out of the many brands I compared it to. Surprisingly, the 180 ct. Dropps pack is the second cheapest product per pod/pack AND it’s a zero waste option that also offers subscriptions. That really just confirms my recommendation at this time, or lack thereof.
But while I’m talking about subscriptions, let’s discuss Grove’s subscription program. Because even if you don’t buy their dish detergent, it’s the same process for all of their products.
Beware of Subscriptions
Grove does offer subscriptions. One thing to keep in mind is that when you order an item through them, it automatically enrolls those items in the subscription program for you. You have to wait until the order is processed to adjust the subscription, but you can cancel it immediately after.
I’ve always canceled it right after because I don’t need to re-up my cleaning supplies but maybe once a year. I’m cleaning for one person and so I just don’t need that many things. If you’re someone that’s cleaning for a household of 4 or 5 then a subscription might be a blessing.
Subscription Options
Once you process your order, you can navigate to “Product Subscriptions” under your account tab in the top right of their site. From there you can choose a shipping frequency of 1, 2, 3, or 6 months for that particular item. But here’s where it might get a little tricky.
Scheduled shipments need to reach a $29 minimum for VIP members or $49 for non-VIP members. What that means is, if only one item for $12 is set to refill for the current month, it won’t go through. It will get added to next month’s shipment, and so on until you eventually reach the minimum amount.
That could be a little annoying if you’re not buying that much from them, which is why I tend to buy a lot at once and then cancel the subscription afterwards. But Grove says this method helps them stay true to their carbon neutral shipping.
If you want to see more information on how that works from the source, check out these links:
Ingredient Things
I didn’t find any concerning ingredients for Grove’s dish detergent packs. But you can find the ingredient list here, it is the tab right next to “Description.” The list of ingredients is pretty small and a large proportion of their listed ingredients are also biobased.
What makes Grove dish detergent packs a sustainable choice?
Typically I wouldn’t include this section if I don’t recommend the product. But, I think there’s a chance that Grove will improve the product in the future and the packaging should change relatively soon.
If the dish detergent pods had performed slightly better or come in something more sustainable than a plastic bag then it would have been approved this round. But, overall I think Grove is a more sustainable brand than many other choices out there. I would recommend their products and their site over stores like Target, Walmart, and Amazon.
They are incredibly transparent when it comes to sustainability and their ingredients. Both of those things are super important when you’re evaluating a brand and searching for eco-friendly alternatives to the products you already use.
So even though the product doesn’t work as well as I’d like it to and it comes in plastic, I think Grove’s dish detergent pods do have a chance with some minor adjustments because they already have the sustainability built into the brand itself.
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If you’re interested in a dish washer detergent I *do* recommend then check out my post on Dropps dish detergent pods.
Sustainably is supported by readers like you. When you buy through links on this site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links on our “Affiliate Marketing…” page.