The Best Dishwashing-Liquid

Your guide to this review today is by Cleaning expert Ben Thurber
Published on
February 14th, 2019

Expert BioExpert Bio

Ben has over a decade of experience in cleaning projects of all types along the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. Ben’s formal training and certifications in cleaning include the AMRT (Applied Microbial Remediation Technician), WRT (Water restoration technician), CCT (Carpet Cleaning technician), as well as several other certifications from the IICRC. Ben has managed teams involved in cleaning projects around the United States. Ben’s passion for cleaning and leading teams goes back as far as he can remember.

The Cleaning Institute

Of all the household chores a person has to do throughout the week in their home or apartment at any given time, one of the ones that they often tend to look the least forward to is doing the dishes. And while relatively modern inventions, such as the dishwasher, have managed to cut down on the amount of time that is required to complete this task traditionally, not all dishware is made to be dishwasher safe.

In that instance, you have to go back to the old way of doing things, which means washing dishes by hand. And when the situation arises, you want to have the necessary materials, including the best dishwashing liquid, to help you complete the task as efficiently and effectively as possible.

That is why we decided to conduct independent testing of our own and find out, of the myriad of products that are currently available to you, what the best dishwashing liquid on the market is. After some time was spent in the lab, we came to the realization that Mrs. Meyers Liquid Dish Soap was our Top Pick for this category, Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid Dish Soap was our Honorable Mention recipient, and Seventh Generation Dish Liquid Soap ended up taking top prize in our Green Pick category.

But we didn’t just hand out these superlatives at random, right? Of course we didn’t. We came to these conclusions by applying a predetermined set of criteria to our review process. We will happily explain the categories that we used to make our final determinations in more detail below.

Testing Categories

To make our review and testing process as easy to follow and transparent as possible for both our readers and our reviewers, we decided to split up our grading criteria into three different categories: power, application, and odor. We will take a few moments to go into more detail about each category below.

Power: In terms of power, we primarily wanted to focus on how concentrated the dishwashing liquid was, as we wanted to see how often you would have to buy refills of the dish soap in question. The more of the dishwashing liquid we had to use to get a dish clean, the lower the score the product received in this particular category.

It should be noted that we weighted this category much more heavily than we did the other two. We strongly feel if a dishwashing soap has to be applied excessively it is not a well-designed product and scored the category as such.

Application: Where application was concerned, our primary focus was to focus on how easy it was to get the soap out of the bottle and onto the dishes, as well as to see if the packaging of the product was defective or damaged in any way, shape, or form.

We also made note of how easy the instructions were to follow on the back of the dishwashing liquid packaging. If there were any issues with the product in that regard, we lowered the product’s score for this particular category.

Odor: When you are having to wish dirty and smelly dishes for an extended period of time by hand, the last thing you want to be dealing with, in any shape, form, or fashion, is a dishwashing liquid soap that also has an unpleasant smell to it as well. That is why, as we were conducting our testing for these reviews, odor was one of the things we paid special attention to.

If the liquid dishwashing soap had an unpleasant smell to it at any point in time, we gave the product a lower score in this category.

After conducting our reviews and weighing all the numbers out accordingly, here were the final conclusions that we came to.

Top Pick

Mrs. Meyer’s
Lemon Verbana
Liquid Dish Soap

Mrs. Meyer’s Lemon Verbana Liquid Dish Soap is highly popular due to its effective formula, highly pleasant smell, and the fact that it is environmentally friendly to boot on top of everything.

Price Check

Most notable upside: Mrs. Meyer’s is able to cut grease down in record time using biodegradable and plant derived ingredients, and it’s the combination of these two factors that caused us to award it our Top Pick in this category. On top of everything else, it also happens to have a fantastic but not overpowering smell, which makes it double as a type of aromatherapy. Relaxation while doing the dishes? Consider us in.

Biggest downsides: Unfortunately, some of our trials resulted in a sudsy, oily residue that took more time than we would have liked to get off our dishes, although this happened way less often than not. That being said, we still thought we should make note of it for you here.

Honorable Mention

Palmolive
Apple
Liquid Dish Soap

This apple scented soap from Palmolive manages to be both phosphate free and tough on grease while not being overly rough on your hands. As a side note, the product is Kosher as well.

Price Check

Most notable upside: Palmolive’s Apple scented dishwashing liquid soap, which also comes in pear for those who may be so inclined, is pretty concentrated, which means a small dollop of it will go a very long way when it comes to getting your dishes clean. The smell is also very pleasant, which means you can not only get your dishes done quickly, but your nose will thank you for making this choice when it is all said and done.

Biggest downsides: We definitely noticed an issue with the packaging on this one, as a number of our orders seemed to have leaked upon our receipt of them. We are not sure why this is, but the fact that it happened to us on more than one occasion was definitely something we felt compelled to tell you about. The frequency of this occurrence, in fact, was enough for us to only give this our Honorable Mention instead of the Top Pick award. This is a great product, but the packaging is definitely subpar in some instances.

Green Pick

Seventh Generation

Seventh Generation Liquid Clear dishwashing liquid soap is one of only a handful of products to be an EPA Safer Choice certified product, setting it apart from many other dishwashing liquid soaps.

Price Check

Most notable upside: Seventh Generation specializes in making soaps and other cleaning products that are made solely from plant based ingredients, which means they don’t have any fragrances, dyes, phosphates, or triclosan. Their hypoallergenic formula has been dermatologist tested and made especially for sensitive skin, so if that sounds like you, this is a product may be for you.

Biggest downsides: While the packaging says that it is scent free, we didn’t exactly find that claim to be actually true when we used the product. As best as we can tell, the formula seems to have changed over the last couple of months, so we don’t know what else might have been added or removed during that period of time.

All Our Picks

Tips for Effective Dishwashing

When you are washing your dishes, simply apply the soap to your sponge or cleaning pad and wash them under warm water. Do make sure that, after the rinsing and drying is done, you have checked to see if there is any residue left on the dishes. Any residue should result in a rewash, as some dishwashing liquid soap is chemical based and could end up being harmful to you if continually ingested.

Once you are done with your dishes, simply put them away and return your dishwashing liquid to wherever you store it in your home or apartment space.

A Note About Safety and Storage

Despite the fact that some of these products are environmentally friendly, they are still not safe for human consumption under any circumstances. That means, if you have children or pets in your home, you need to keep dishwashing liquids far away from any place in which they can reach.

Make sure that dishwashing liquid soaps are stored on a tall shelf in a place that is not overly humid. If your pet or child does ingest these substances, call your local hospital immediately.

The Best Dishwashing-Liquid

Your guide to this review today is by Cleaning expert Ben Thurber

The Cleaning Institute

Testing Categories

Mrs. Meyer’s
Lemon Verbana
Liquid Dish Soap

Palmolive
Apple
Liquid Dish Soap

Seventh Generation

All Our Picks

Mrs. Meyer’s
Lemon Verbana
Liquid Dish Soap

Palmolive
Apple
Liquid Dish Soap

Seventh Generation

Tips for Effective Dishwashing

A Note About Safety and Storage

Quick Links

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

The Best Dishwashing-Liquid

Your guide to this review today is by Cleaning expert Ben Thurber

The Cleaning Institute

Testing Categories

Mrs. Meyer’s Lemon Verbana Liquid Dish Soap

Palmolive AppleLiquid Dish Soap

Seventh Generation

All Our Picks

Mrs. Meyer’s Lemon Verbana Liquid Dish Soap

Palmolive AppleLiquid Dish Soap

Seventh Generation

Tips for Effective Dishwashing

A Note About Safety and Storage

Quick Links

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Mrs. Meyer’s
Lemon Verbana
Liquid Dish Soap

Palmolive
Apple
Liquid Dish Soap

Mrs. Meyer’s
Lemon Verbana
Liquid Dish Soap

Palmolive
Apple
Liquid Dish Soap