I wanted to show that the pre-wash cycle is /important/ - that having detergent in the first rinse actually accomplishes something.
The main thrust of that video was that detergent packs skip that first step, and what I wanted to show was the value of that first step. If you had a dishwasher that worked fine with pods, there would be no reason to change your habits - and I explicitly said as much
And truthfully, what I messed up in the first video was not getting into the nuance of water hardness and detergent amounts.
People who follow the directions on powder to "fill cups completely" are going to be in for a rough time if they have soft water. I didn't get into that, so people started using powder, used too much, and had worse results.
So I went further, showed how you can actually get away with very little detergent, which imo is yet another reason to prefer powder.
@JWBananas So yeah, honestly I feel like you're missing most of the context in those videos.
I never said pacs don't work - I said that I suspect they've led to a lot of dishwasher dissatisfaction, made an argument as to why, and backed that up with a demo of the pre-wash and how, with no detergent in there, more stuff was left on the plates. That then was the starting point for the main wash cycle, and I figured that difference would speak for itself.
The other guy is totally unnecessarily being a dick, but is perhaps touching upon a good point.
The prewash stage might have a more effective result if some detergent is put in, but there’s no actual value in that if a full main wash without pre-wash detergent results in a completely clean load of dishes.