Discover How Cascade ActionPacs Work

Cascade ActionPacs come in premeasured doses to make adding detergent easier than ever. Every Cascade ActionPac is designed to dissolve quickly in your dishwasher and is septic-safe. Just pop an ActionPac into your detergent compartment, start the cycle, and the job is as good as done!

The unique design of Cascade ActionPacs is made possible by the water-soluble film, made from Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA or PVOH) – a well-known and safe material used for over 20 years in a range of everyday items and lots of other household products.

How Do Cascade ActionPacs Work?

Cascade ActionPacs provide the best of gel and powder combined. The unique design of the pacs means that ingredients are kept separate until they’re ready to be used during the cleaning cycle. Once released into the dishwasher, the ActionPacs dissolve completely in water within minutes, so the cleaning ingredients can get to work right away and have the maximum amount of time to break down stubborn food soils.

The key to the unique design of Cascade ActionPacs is the water-soluble film, made from polyvinyl alcohol, also known as PVOH or PVA. PVA is specifically engineered to be effective, efficient, and is proven safe for humans and the environment. In fact, the EPA’s Safer Choice program recommends it as a chemical that’s safe for people and for the environment. The Safer Choice designation means that a chemical meets stringent criteria around human safety and environmental impact.

Common Dishwasher Questions

There’s a lot of dish debate on how to use the dishwasher, so let’s tackle some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Q: How dirty should your dishes be when you load them into the dishwasher?

A: You want to make sure scrape any chunks of food off but leave that last layer of soil for the dishwasher to handle. You might be tempted to pre-treat or pre-rinse dirty pots, pans, and dishware, but with a high-quality detergent like Cascade Platinum Plus, you can load it right into your dishwasher. Same goes for easier soils like sauces, crumbs, and condiments – just load those dishes in. Your dishwasher and your detergent will do a better job of cleaning if you don’t pre-wash.

Q: Where does the food in the dishwasher go?

A: Dishwasher detergents are designed to break food down differently than the products you use at the sink. They include things like enzymes that break foods down into tiny pieces, similar to the way enzymes in your saliva and your gut break down the food you eat. The food particles then flow with the water through a filter in the bottom of your machine, which is designed to catch any larger particles before making their way to your pipes. It’s important to regularly clean this filter to keep it free of debris and keep your dishwasher working at its peak. If you feel like you’re always cleaning it out, it might be time to upgrade your detergent, which not only gets your dishes clean but helps keep your filter clean, too.

Q: Where should the detergent go in the dishwasher?

A: Without question, the detergent should go in the dispenser on the door of your dishwasher. Most dishwashers have a prewash cycle that runs for about 10-15 minutes and drains before the detergent is released, so if you place your detergent pac in the bottom of the machine or in the cutlery basket, it will dissolve completely in the prewash water and most of it will drain away before the main wash cycle begins. Sometimes we hear from people that it seems like their detergent gets stuck in the dispenser cup. To help avoid this, make sure your hands and the dispenser are dry – and that there aren’t any large dishes in front that could prevent the dispenser from releasing the detergent when it opens. To help avoid this potential issue, most newer dishwashers are made with dispensers that slide up rather than flip open.

Q: What’s the right way to load the dishwasher?

A: While there’s no perfect “right” way because everyone’s dishes and machines are different, there are definitely some wrong ways. Here are some tips on how to load your dishes to get the best clean:

• Avoid letting your dishes nest together. Overlapping dishes too much prevents water and detergent from being able to get in between them to get the dishes clean.
• Make sure your spray arms can rotate freely. Dishes that are too tall may block the spray arms from making a full rotation, leading to areas in the dishwasher that don’t get cleaned.
• Don’t overpack the silverware compartments. You don’t want your spoons to spoon, so be sure to distribute silverware evenly across compartments, so the spray can get to the dirty part of the utensils more easily.

For more tips on how dishwashers work, check out these videos.