Electrasol Gelpacs make a hated chore more fun (okay ... not really ... but ...)
Written: Apr 29 '04 (Updated Apr 29 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Convenient, smell great, clean dishes well, no risk of overflowing detergent cups
Cons: Can't adjust amount used, may be a bit more expensive per load than bottled gel
The Bottom Line: Am I the only nut who hums the theme to Electra-Woman & Dyna-Girl while using these?
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| elainehn's Full Review: Electrasol Gelpacs |
As you can tell by my dishwasher review from 2001… dish washing is one of my least favorite household chores. I can’t really explain why, but I abhor doing dishes … by hand or even to some extent with my dishwasher. Hey, even with a dishwasher you still have to scrape, rinse (yeah yeah, I know they say you don’t have to rinse) and load those suckers!
But even so … when the gel packs and dishwasher tabs began to be advertised a while back, I literally rolled my eyes and thought “What a crock!” Just another product hyped as a convenience item to sucker consumers out of more money! I mean 12 Gelpacs for about $2 has got to cost more than 12 loads worth of dishwasher powder from a box or liquid from a bottle, right? And just exactly how difficult is it to pour your detergent from a multi-load box or bottle into the little cups in the door of your dishwasher? Do we really need individual load gel packs?
For anyone not yet familiar with them … Electrasol Gelpacs are individual units of liquid-gel dishwasher detergent that are contained in a material that looks like soft plastic but is water soluble. I’ve read that the detergent is an enzyme based solution which dissolves food allowing it to be washed away much easier than a detergent that does not contain enzymes.
Well, I am now eating crow! (From sparkling clean dishes thanks to my Electrasol GelPacs of course!)
Why did I cave? Coupons!!! Yes $2 coupons from a ‘blinkie’ machine in the grocery store. They made the $2.89 price of the 18 (or is it 20?) count box seem reasonable so I gave the little gel packs a try just for the heck of it. I liked them! I really liked them! Very convenient, they cleaned well, not something I’d want to pay full price for but definitely worth the $.89 I’d spent. And then thanks to the folks at a website called Refunding Makes Cents - http://www.refundcents.com or RMC for short. knock me over with a basting brush … I found out that Wal-mart had these marvelous little boxes of 12 gel packs for $1.84 and YES the coupons worked for them too! It says ‘ANY’ and does not specify a larger size. So I loaded up my cart. I actually loaded up my cart on several different occasions. 8, 10, however many boxes I happened to have coupons for. I don’t have a lifetime supply of these little gems, but I have to say … I won’t be paying to wash my dishes anytime soon.
So what do I like about Electrasol GelPacs? … besides the fact that I got mine for free …
I like that they truly are convenient. The convenience isn’t the life changing kind of convenience like the invention of the automatic washing machine or the electric lightbulb … but as easy as it is to open a box or bottle and fill the little cups on the door of a dishwasher, it’s even easier to open the box, retrieve a gelpac and toss it in! (Well actually I place mine in the covered detergent cup and close the cup so that the gel pack will be released during the main wash cycle which follows the pre-rinse on my machine … but others report fine results by just tossing the pac into the bottom of their washer.)
I like that they dissolve completely! One of the reasons I usually bought a liquid or gel dishwasher detergent was that when I used powdered I sometimes found undissolved dishwasher detergent on the door beneath the detergent cup or even on my dishes. This isn't the case with the gelpacs ... they dissolve and disappear!
I like that my dishes come out clean and shiny! I’ve had no problems with dishes not getting clean and I haven’t noticed a residue or film. Sure the burned on barbeque sauce from the casserol dishes still need a little hand scrubbing … but for regular, non-burned on, non-dried like cement, type food messes … the gelpacs do just as good of a job as any other dishwasher detergent.
I like that they are premeasured! I don’t have to worry about hubby or one of the kids (or heck, even me) over flowing the detergent cups and wasting lots of dishwasher detergent.
And I like the fact that there is a 40 cent off coupon on the inner liner of each of the boxes I got for free. I’ll definitely cut these out and watch for Electrasol Gelpacks to be on sale at our local supermarkets that double coupons. I may not get them free, but if the price is comparable to that of regular dishwasher liquid, I’ll buy more!
What don’t I like about the Electrasol GelPacs? Not much really …
I suppose at full price they are a bit more expensive than using bulk detergent. I usually bought whatever brand was on sale and bought the larger box/bottles if they were a better deal than the smaller ones. I probably would never buy the GelPacs at full price. When I eventually run out of my stockpiled packs … hopefully there will be another ‘new’ and innovative product being marketed and couponed like heck. If not, I’ll probably go back to my ‘usual’ preference of liquid/gel detergent and buying whatever happens to be on sale.
You must make sure your hands are completely dry before removing a Gelpac from the box. If your hands are wet … from loading the dishwasher … the outer material of the gelpac will become sort of sticky-slippery and begin to disintegrate prematurely. This isn’t an end of the world problem … just toss it in and let the cycle begin … but you don’t want the remaining gelpacs in the box to become wet and melt in your cupboard.
The packaging of a box and a plastic zippered bag requires twice the opening and closing as a ‘regular’ box or bottle of dishwasher detergent. I’m thinking of putting the gelpacs from my open box into an airtight plastic container … such as Gladware … to see if that would work … but I haven’t done it yet.
Other observations and notes:
I have a compact dishwasher that is slightly smaller (about 6 inches less in width) than most standard sized units. This may mean that I need less detergent per load than I would with a full size dishwasher. However one gelpac seems to work perfectly for me … and my mom and brother who both have regular size dishwasher report that one gelpac seems to work fine for them as well.
The product is available in three scents … Sparkling Citrus, Orange Blossom and Green Apple. I’ve only had the opportunity to try the Sparkling Citrus. It is a delightful clean smell! It’s not overpowering and doesn’t linger for a long time after the dish cycle is finished, but while they are washing I love to be in my kitchen and smell the scent.
Electrasol tells us that a 12 gelpac package is equivalent to a 40 oz. bottle of gel and 20 Gelpacs™ = 70oz bottle of gel … I haven’t done exact price comparisons but it seems that while the Gelpacs may be a bit more costly per load, they may not be as much more expensive as I originally assumed they would be. However one drawback to the price per load comparison is that you cannot adjust the amount you use with the gelpacs like you can when using gel from a big bottle. Not everyone uses as much detergent as the manufacturer recommends and therefore some individuals may get more loads per bottle.
All in all ... I like Electrasol Gelpacs and (cost concerns aside) would defintely recommend them.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
elainehn
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Member: Elaine HN
Location: Near Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 221
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