20 Best Dishwasher Cleaner For Smell (2023 Updated)

Wow, I love how easy these cleaning tablets are to use! You just drop one a week at the bottom of your dishwasher and let it do its thing. The best part? You can put them in a FULL dishwasher and you don’t have to run a completely separate (and empty) cycle just to clean it.

The only thing to note is that the instructions say to not use the tablets in a cycle where you have nonstick items. It’s a minor inconvenience compared to the benefits you get and they clearly spell it out on the back of the packaging, so it was easy to work around.

As far as the cleaning goes, these do a great job! Everything looked really clean and fresh after the cycles ran. I’ll definitely be buying these in the future.

These work really well! They are so easy to toss inside the bottom of my dishwasher then just run. There’s literally nothing else to do. The instructions say that you can run it during your normal wash cycle.

Load dishwasher, add detergent then toss tablet in the bottom and run as usual. It also says that it can irritate eyes and skin which makes me nervous to use it while washing things I eat and cook with so ….

Just because I’m a nervous nelly, I use the tabs and I use detergent and I run a cycle without any dishes or anything. It works very well! I had some build up in some hard to reach spots that are completely gone.

I will continue using these. Once a week I toss in a tab and let it do it’s thing! I do recommend this product.

I wish I had read the reviews before buying this so believe me and the other reviews when we say that the toxic chemical smell is NOT worth it. I’ve been wanting to clean my dishwasher for a while and came across this product in the store.

I’ve always liked Finish products so I figured I’d give it a shot as it seemed easy enough. I followed the directions exactly. A while after the cycle finished, I barely opened the dishwasher a few inches and was overwhelmed with an intense chemical smell.

I immediately shut the door and decided to let it settle down a bit. Later on I went upstairs and could smell it up there even though it had been open barely 30 seconds. The next day, I was cautiously optimistic that after running a regular load, it would dissipate.

It did not. I was hit again w the intense smell and it permeates the entire house. Was smelling it again as I lay in bed trying to sleep *upstairs* last night. I just finally unloaded the dishes and they all smell – I re-washed by hand all the plastic as I don’t trust to use it as is and simply rinsed everything else with water.

I really don’t have time for multiple washing. Can’t wait for it to eventually wash out – will never ever use this again. It did get the dishwasher clean but it’s not worth the headache this likely will be for the next few weeks.

Our dishwasher was not too dirty. It more so had lots of white residue inside. So I thought I would get this. It worked very well. So easy to use. It’s a single use bottle (be aware of that) It’s not a bottle that you pour a little into the dishwasher for repeated uses.

So, you peel the covering off the bottle opening, and set it upside down in the dishwasher (the directions show you how to do it). Turn your dishwasher to the hottest (pot and pan or tough setting) and start the dishwasher.

That’s it. Boy, the dishwasher was so shiny afterwards! This cleaned it so well. The only thing (and it isn’t bad) I would say is after I opened the dishwasher for the first time after it cleaned. There was a strong smell inside.

NOT a bad smell. just a strong scent from the cleaner. I left the dishwasher door open overnight to help the smell dissipate. There is still a slight smell, but I am running the dishwasher today (first time since I cleaned it 2 days ago) and I’m sure the smell will be gone once I run a cycle.

I would still recommend!.

Did an incredible job cleaning the scale built up on the stainless and plastic surfaces on the interior. Your hot water heater or dishwasher must have enough heat to melt the wax plug on the opening on this product.

Tip: when ready to start cleaning cycle, run your kitchen sink until hot water is flowing. Start the longest, hottest sanitize cycle on your dishwasher. When cycle is complete, wipe down the inside with a towel for best results.

Made my dishwasher look like new. Only negative is a chemical smell from the chemicals used to break down scale. I assume oder will go away after a few cycles. Not as offensive to me as what some have said.

There may be other options that smell better but this product does a great job cleaning scale.

As a long term user of Finish dishwasher tablets I have always believed that using a cheaper brand of rinse aid would be OK as the tablets do most of the work getting the dishes clean. It appears I was wrong! The difference it made to my dishes, especially my glasses, was instantly noticeable, everything was sparkling! As soon as I opened the dishwasher door the fresh lemon smell greeted me, it smells amazing and the smell lasted for several days.

Not only were my dishes cleaner, my whole dishwasher was sparkling clean. Although this is a bit more expensive than the current brand I use, I will have no hesitation in buying it in future as the difference really is amazing and I’m happy in the knowledge that I’m protecting my dishes and dishwasher for many years to come.

A fabulous product from Finish, I would highly recommend it.

These claim they are a dishwasher cleaner you add to a full load on the bottom of the dishwasher along with your regular detergent. I had cranberry colored glasses and clear glasses in the load. This product left the glasses with a white could on them.

Currently washing them now without deferent and vinegar. Called the number on the package for suggestions and was told to wash them in 50/50 vinegar, lime or lemon juice. Representative said it’d be terrible if the cloud didn’t come off.

So…. I will definitely not be using this product again as it’s caused twice the work and possibly more or resulting in ruined glass-ware that won’t be inexpensive to replace.

We have Maytag MDB dishwasher that grinds up food into particles that are so small they can stick to the interior areas in and below the filter. It’s really difficult to get in there, I couldn’t disassemble the parts needed to get to the filter to clean it, so I tried these.

Thank goodness they worked. The funky smell left behind in our glasses is finally gone. I use these once a week for three weeks then use citric acid in a cleaning cycle for one or two weeks, then back to these.

I do use these in an empty dishwasher but you don’t need to do that, it’s just that I have some dishes I don’t think will hold up to stronger cleansers.

We recently purchased a brand new stainless steel Whirlpool dishwasher. Because we have hard water, we used to run a cycle once per week with an Affresh Dishwasher tablet in our old dishwasher that had a non-stainless interior.

We never have any problems in doing this. However, we placed an Affresh tablet in the stainless tub of our new dishwasher as part of a delayed cycle that would start in 2 hours. The next morning, when we unloaded the dishwasher, the finish had been removed from the exact location that the Affresh tablet was resting on the tub.

We attempted to run another cycle with just an Affresh tablet (i. e. no dishes) in the dispenser, but when we opened the dishwasher after the cycle had finished, the stain/removed finish was still present.

So now we have a brand new Whirlpool dishwasher that mentions using Affresh in the user manual (and also has an Affresh-branded feature built into the dishwasher which is supposed to let us know when we should drop an Affresh in if the hard water buildup hits a certain level) that has an unsightly stain right in the front of the bottom of our stainless tub because we used the very product that the manufacturer officially recommends.

NOWHERE does it state that Affresh will remove/damage the finish of a stainless tub – not on the Affresh bag, not on the tablet packaging, not in the Whirlpool manuals, not on the Affresh website – nowhere.

However, this is exactly what happened. If you have a stainless steel tub and don’t want to see it become stained/have the finish removed, DO NOT use an Affresh product.

Dishwashers are pretty gross, and one of those things that no one thinks to clean very often. I’m always pretty particular about rinsing all my dishes pretty well before they go in, but it still gets residue and crud.

The tablets are super easy to use and it definitely freshens it up and has made an improvement for us. I like that you get a whole package rather than just one or two of them, because it’s something I will buy once or twice a year and have them when I need them.

It’s great to to be able to set it just like washing the dishes, and then come back to it being clean without having to scrub and put in extra work. Since I’ve used these I believe the dishes come out clearer as well so I really regret not finding them sooner!.

As a dishwasher cleaner, I didn’t notice any miracles after using the Cascade Platinum Dishwasher Cleaner, it was comparible to the results I’ve gotten using similarly based citric acid products. What ruined it for me was the overpowering fragrance that permeated our 3 bedroom house as the cleaning cycle ran.

Immediately after the cycle finished the inside of the dishwasher reeked of fragrance. Two days later the inside still reeked of fragrance. And on the third day when I ran a load of dishes the overpowering fragrance once again permeated the entire house.

I give credit to P&G for being the only manufacturer of home and personal care products that I know of that rightfully list the fragrance in a product as an allergen, the so-called “natural” companies aren’t even this transparent and honest, yet they continue to include frivolous unnecessary fragrances in their products.

Why P&G? After running the first load of dishes after using the cleaner I started to look for fragrance free dishwasher cleaners, which I found there are many and quite a few of them carry the EPA Safer Choice Label which after reading that labeling requirement found that a product cannot contain fragrance since it is 1 of the top 5 allergens in the entire world!!! P&G is not alone in heavily fragrancing its products which I attribute to product developers and chemists across the globe have lost all sense of smell after years of exposure to fragrances so they have to increase the amount of fragrance in a product in order to be able to smell it themselves but that doesn’t excuse them and their employers from polluting our indoor air with a known allergen.

I love these. I found these when I moved into my old place because the dishwasher though it wasn’t super old had not been well taken care of if and was in serious need of a deep cleaning. After doing a general quick inside clean and clean of the filter I ran it with these and oh my goodness it was amazing.

It was like a brand bee dishwasher. I love it. I have a brand new dishwasher now in my new place so we don’t really use these monthly because we don’t as actively use the dishwasher as a dishwasher anymore, it’s more like a big drying rack.

However I do still use these every couple of months just to make sure I’m keeping up on the maintenance and my dishwasher still looks just as great as the day they installed it. Highly recommend because these are amazing and worth the price.

Having allergies we are very sensitive to scents. Just opening the package it reeked so badly that it had to be thrown out. When will companies realize that scents are very annoying to many people. As a PhD chemist, I don’t see what the problem is in just having a product that has the citric acid and the surfactants would be.

Likely your product development people are nose blind to the scents that they are adding and as such add way to much to the formulation. (similar to the snack food company I am aware of that keeps putting out extreme and ultra extreme flavors that flop in the market.

). At least label it clearly as strongly scented.

Great price, great product. We saw what was inside our dishwasher pipes when a repairman disassembled it and it was GROSS. We began using this product to keep things cleaned out.

Got rid of a ton of hard water stains. Dishwasher looks absolutely brand new! Very impressed. I just wish I had before and after pictures. The difference is unbelievable. The dishwasher was failing because the hard water stains had gummed things up so bad.

Runs every time now.

Did a great job cleaning up my old dishwasher. Much cleaner and fresher smelling. Hope the washer machine version works as well. Haven’t used that yet but I have it.

Great value for the money. Our top load washer had a stagnant water smell when a load of laundry was first started and I assumed there was water pooling in the drain hose. We used two Plinks in the first ‘cleaning’ load and it made a huge difference! Since it had been smelling for a while I did a load of laundry and then did another two tablet Plink cleaning load.

The smell is gone! I’m going to do a Plink cleaning every two weeks to prevent the odors from coming back. For the cost of this clothes Washer and Dishwasher product it’s a great value and so easy to do! I followed the exact directions.

The product has a very nice scent. Pouring disinfectant on the bottom of the dishwasher does the same thing for a lot less money. If your dishwasher needs these tablets, clean the drain. All we needed was a screwdriver.

Thought this would prevent that job, but had to do it the right way after all. Save your money.

So we bought this on the weekend I used it today in my washer(top load) used my clean cycle on hot settings. Of course this isn’t something that you can tell rigjt away it takes time but so far (just got done) my washer smells good like lemons but not overpoweringly so.

I wiped it down after with a Lysol wipe to get any residue off. I think if they had the wipes come with it also like some do then it would be better. Wasn’t too expensive I think if this works great we may end up purchasing again.

The Machine Cleaner does a great job making sure my machine is free from any gunk. I purchased this not because I had an issue, but for more of a preventative reason. I had one issue which was that near the top of my top-loader, justttt above the tallest water line, was this line of soap or gunk that was formed due to the soaps and dirty water; This fortunately came off incredibly easily with a paper towel slightly soaked in this machine cleaner fluid.

But to be honest, the line reappears right after I wash a load after the cleaning, so it doesn’t prevent that. I’ve see other customers write about them having a prior foul smell and hoping the cleaner would fix it; I haven’t had any issues with the smell, since I leave the top open to dry.

But the cleaner helps keep it clean and in tip top shape, at least is what they advertise. One bottle is enough for two cleans, so if you use it once a month then this 2 pack will last you 4 months. You put in 1/2 cup of cleaner fluid into your washer and the rest is mixed with the water.

You wash it on a normal cycle and tallest water level in your hottest water setting. Both front and top-loader compatible. It may seem like you put very little cleaner in, but the washer does foam quite a bit once it’s being “washed”.

Only reason for 4 starts instead of 5 is that it is a bit on the pricey side ($4. 66 per bottle [$2. 33 per clean] in this two pack), and unfortunately the Walmart price is competitive level. It’s a little disappointing to spend that much money without it seeing fix any problems, make’s me feel like it’s useless, but that’s on me since I bought it to prevent issues in the first place.

Although, I did go 5 months previously without using a product like this, and never ran into any issues. So whether or not I will continue to purchase this, or rethink my cleaning frequency, is something I will reconsider in the future.

Now this manufacturer’s other product like their Dishwasher cleaner is a MUST for me. Like I mentioned earlier, I can’t vouch for much since I use it for preventative purposes, but so far the machine has not broken down nor had any cleaning problems.

I have tried other brands of washing machine cleaner so my expectations for this one was about the same. However, after using Glisten, I noticed a difference between this brand and the other brands. The first thing I noticed was the lack of chemical smell.

Although Glisten washing machine cleaner says “Fresh Scent”, I smelled no scent. Which to me equates to clean with no harsh chemicals. The second thing I noticed after using it was how my washing machine drum was actually CLEAN looking.

With other brands, it’s more of a mental note that the drum got clean because I used some kind of cleaner. But with Glisten, I actually could see that it got clean. My only complaint and reason for deducting a star, is that I wish the bottle and/or cap could be made to measure out the 1/2 cup of product needed.

I didn’t want to use one of my cooking measuring cups so I had to eyeball it. Which means I could either use too much or too little of the product. I guess I could go to a one dollar-type store to pick up a measuring cup and keep it on or next to the bottle, but it would be nice if the product itself had it.

Received the Glisten washing machine cleaner the other day, that removes odors, build-up and limescale. I like that it is a liquid formula that leaves no residue, the fresh scent and the natural power.

I also like that one 12 oz bottle can clean up to 3 times. and cleans better than bleach for all washers. I also like that it can be used monthly and is easy to use. I like that it is powerful and is specially formulated to eliminate and prevent hard water mineral and detergent build up that causes odors, reduces machine cleaning effectiveness and damage fabrics, that it is a safer certified product that contains no bleach or chemicals to harm machine or fabrics and that it is versatile and penetrates deep to clean the entire machine and leaves no residue behind.

I used this in my top loading machine and after the wash cycle it smelled clean and fresh. Will use it every month until it is gone and then will buy some more. I have recommended it to friends and family, especially to my daughter-in-law who has a front loading machine because she said hers smells.