What’s so special about Dawn dish soap? For years now I’ve heard it credited with magical cleaning powers far beyond getting grease off my dishes. What’s it got that Palmolive lacks. Is it all hype?
Other than a slightly different chemical formula? I suspect some of it is PR, perhaps most.
Donating your company’s cleaning product to remove crude oil from cute animals does score PR points, but the truth is I buy dish soap to wash dishes, not wash baby ducks (although if it also washes wildlife safely that is a good thing).
Here is a link to an article purporting to discuss the difference. Note I have not had time to fact-check this but it sounds reasonable. They also mention promotional hype.
Short- it has better degreasers.
It’s the only household cleaner that will eradicate poison oak oil from skin and clothing.
There’s precious little difference.
Dawn - Smartlabel ingredients.
Palmolive - Smartlabel ingredients
Both are primarily Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) with other surfactants added. I suppose from what little chemistry I know, that it’s possible that Palmolive is a bit milder, having more mild surfactants listed and presumably less SLES.
There’s nothing special about those though. Many shampoos are also primarily Sodium Laureth Sulfate as well, as are many other detergent products like floor cleaners, liquid laundry soaps, etc…
I’d bet 99% is marketing nonsense, and 1% is that Dawn is probably just this side of being too harsh to use as an everyday dishwashing liquid, so it appears to be magical because it’s stronger than others (more SLES is probably the reason).
A related question: Is the cheaper Dawn, hiding down on the bottom store shelf, significantly worse than the more expensive variants higher up?
If by “cheaper Dawn” you mean the off brand versions of dish cleaner, then yes. We tried the generic one once because it is much cheaper than name brand Dawn, and it was terrible.
It is great for cleaning but bad in toothpastes. If you find you are getting little mouth sores, switch to a SLS free toothpaste.
I just checked our kitchen and we have the WalMart bottom shelf 7.5 ounce Dawn marked “50 % less scrubbing” and with the word “Ultra” in tiny letters.
Looking at Walmart.com, the ones that are more expensive per ounce are mostly marked “Platinum” and/or “4X.”
It’s gets peanut butter outta hair.
Why is there peanut butter in someone’s hair? You might ask. Because that’s what you use to get gum outta hair.
I swear by this process. Works everytime.
And then what do you use to get Dawn out of the hair?
It eventually comes down to swallowing a cow, I expect.
I am the queen of store brands and cheaper brands, and none of them compare to Dawn. It’s one of the few name brands I stick with. A little bit goes a long way and truly cleans better.
I was thinking gum, just to complete the circle.
Easier to swallow than a cow, for sure!
I only use Dawn too. I’ve tried the cheapos, the store brands, the hippie ones, and Dawn is the reliable one. I use it for everything – handwashing clothes, scrubbing nasty things out in the yard, cleaning the bathtub … I don’t wash myself or other animals with it, it’s too harsh unless you are covered with crude oil and you need something like that.
Hey, Dawn rinses clean🙂
If I remember correctly, Dawn was introduced in the early 1970s and my mom talking about how good it was compared to her normal brand.
Maybe it had some special formula that “takes grease out of your way” that they patented and was better than other brands at the time until the patent ran out?
This thread inspired me to go take a good close look at whatever dish soap I happen to have in my kitchen. It’s Ajax, and I didn’t select it for any memorable reason. It seems to work alright. I honestly don’t think I would ever be able to tell if one major brand was better or worse than any other.
I’m not married to Dawn. I’ll buy what’s on sale.
I have to say the hippie brands ain’t worth to craps. Smell good is about all.
Never buy green dish liquid. I can’t remember the reason but I was told that early in my life.
There’s Dawn, Dawn Ultra, and Dawn Platinum. Dawn Ultra is more concentrated than plain Dawn. If you put your dish detergent on a sponge and then wipe off a dish, that doesn’t make much difference; if you squeeze the stuff into sink and then fill it with water, it does. Dawn Platinum has more surfactants, so it will do a better job (and keep suds in the sink longer) with especially greasy pots and pans.