Choice Australia did a test of different washing liquid recently and found the Aldi stuff to be one of the best and a bunch of expensive brands to be no better than plain hot water.
Well Costco brand is absolutely shit. Smells horrrrrible. Bought it and did my best to convince myself it wasn’t that bad I’d just finish the bottle, ended up tossing the whole thing
At Costco, I decided to get the Dawn Ultra Advanced Power, and man it knocks the socks off of grease, with just a small dollop on a sponge. While my cooking is simplistic and I wash sparingly in large batches, I don't eat out often and I've only used a 10th of the 2.66L bottle in 2 months.
If you don't use a sponge then I think any dishsoap will do, so long as you can tolerate the smell.
Yeah you should let your stuff cool before washing it.. but how many of us do that?
I used to love putting hot pans in the sink with cool water. Loved the sizzle and steam it created, and it was faster than waiting for it to cool down.
Then I would complain about all my pans being cheap and warped. I couldn't cook evenly because there was one bulge that got direct contact with the oven and the rest of the pan rocked back and forth and either burned or undercooked all my food.
Until one day, my wife pointed out that putting a hot pan in cool/cold water causes them to warp. She got mad at me because some of the ruined pans were actually expensive quality brands. I've learned my lesson; no more hot pans in the sink for me. Let them cool a bit before you wash them.
Dawn Powerwash is pretty great for general cleaning too, not just dishes. It’s great at removing soap scum. You can technically DIY it with dish soap, isopropyl alcohol, water, and a spray bottle, but the bottles they sell last a while and are cheap.
That's not enough to do what powerwash does. Normal dishsoap has to maintain a consistency so certain additives are just not feasible. This allows powerwash to have a higher ph, stuff that goes after calcium deposits and stuff that hydrates stuck on food.
Personally I really really like powerwash but the amount of plastic it needs is too much for me. They did to come out with bulk refills.