Description
What this bottle is, and the one place it must never go
This is Dawn EZ-Squeeze Ultra dish soap in the Original scent, a 22 fluid ounce bottle from Procter and Gamble. EZ-Squeeze is the inverted bottle format that stands on its cap so the liquid sits at the dispensing end, which is a small design change that solves the last quarter of every bottle.
Dawn is hand dishwashing liquid. It goes in a sink, on a sponge or on a cloth. It must never go into an automatic dishwasher. Hand dish soap is formulated to produce suds and a dishwasher is engineered on the assumption that its detergent does not, so a squeeze of Dawn in a dishwasher dispenser produces foam across the kitchen floor. That confusion is easy to make because both products live under the sink and both are called dish soap, and one listing in this catalog for an automatic dishwasher detergent actually refers to itself as dish soap in its own copy. Keep the two distinct.
The 22 ounce size is described in the title as a refill, which sits slightly oddly alongside EZ-Squeeze being a dispensing bottle in its own right. In practice it is a mid size bottle, and it is the everyday kitchen size rather than a bulk buy.
The claims, and the footnotes attached to them
Procter and Gamble makes several claims here and almost all of them come with a footnote that changes their meaning. The listing states fifty percent less scrubbing, and footnotes that against Dawn Non-Concentrated. It states the formula gets through more dishes with less liquid, footnoted the same way. It states Dawn helps save water, footnoted against running the tap with Dawn Non-Concentrated.
In other words, the three headline performance claims are comparisons against a weaker product in the same brand’s own range, not against a competitor. That is legitimate and it is disclosed, but it is not the comparison most shoppers assume they are reading.
Two further claims are worth separating. The listing describes Dawn as the leading brand in North America, footnoted as based on sales, which is a market share statement rather than a performance one. And it states the product is made with one hundred percent biodegradable surfactants, which is a specific claim about one ingredient class rather than about the whole formula, and no standard or test method is cited. No full ingredient list appears anywhere on the listing.
The wildlife rescue association
The listing states that Dawn is the only brand of dish soap trusted by rescue workers to clean wildlife impacted by oil spills, and that the company has worked with wildlife rescue experts for more than forty years. That is a genuine, long running and well documented program, and it is fair for the brand to point to it.
It is not, however, a statement that the product is formulated for skin, for pets or for animal bathing, and the listing makes no such claim. Wildlife cleaning is done by trained handlers under veterinary supervision, in specific circumstances, on animals coated in petroleum. Using dish soap routinely to bathe a pet is a different proposition entirely and is a question for a veterinarian rather than for a detergent label. Nothing here supports it and nothing in this review recommends it.
Where it works beyond the sink, and where to stop
The listing openly promotes uses beyond dishes: pre treating greasy laundry stains, cleaning greasy tools and car wheels, and general grease and grime around the house. Those are reasonable, because a concentrated dish detergent is essentially a general purpose surfactant, and using it as a spot degreaser is a long standing household habit.
Three cautions belong with that. Dish soap on a laundry stain must be rinsed out before the item goes into a washing machine, because a surfactant designed to foam will over suds in a drum, particularly a high efficiency one. Dish soap should not be used on car paint, where it strips wax, though it is fine on wheels. And it should not be used on unsealed wood, natural stone or any waxed or oiled surface, since it removes finishes as effectively as it removes grease.
For dishes it is not a substitute for a scrubbing tool on baked on residue. That is what a pad such as the Blulu scouring pads is for, and cast iron in particular wants mechanical cleaning rather than prolonged soaking in detergent.
Using it, storing it and the mixing rule
Use less than instinct suggests. A concentrated dish liquid needs a few drops in a full sink or a small amount on a wet sponge, and the most common waste in any kitchen is a long squeeze into running water. Rinse dishes properly, since detergent residue on a plate is both unpleasant and unnecessary.
Store the bottle upright on its cap as designed, out of reach of small children. Dish soap is one of the most common substances involved in household exposure calls involving young children, precisely because it is brightly colored, pleasantly scented and kept at floor level. Do not decant it into an unlabeled container, and never into a drink bottle.
Never combine it with another cleaning product. Do not mix dish soap into a bucket with a bleach based cleaner, and never mix chlorine bleach with an ammonia based product or with an acidic descaler anywhere in the house, since both combinations produce toxic gases. Rinse a sink thoroughly before switching products.
One specification note: the product dimensions field reads 9.2 by 9.2 by 9.2 inches, an exact cube, which cannot describe a 22 ounce bottle. Treat that field as a data error. Amazon ranked this bottle third in Dish Soap when the data was captured.
Cost per wash and the alternatives
Concentrated dish liquids are compared best on how far a bottle goes rather than on bottle price, and the whole point of an Ultra formulation is that a smaller dose does the same work. A 22 ounce bottle used at a few drops per sink lasts a long time in an average household.
Against it, the Palmolive dishwashing liquid is the mainstream competitor, and the Seventh Generation dish soap and Mrs. Meyer’s liquid dish soap occupy the fragrance and formulation exclusion end of the market at a higher price per ounce. The full dish soap listings cover hand washing, and the separate dishwasher detergent listings cover the machine, which is the distinction this whole review turns on.
Who should buy this and who should not
Buy it if you hand wash dishes regularly and want a concentrated, widely available liquid in a bottle that dispenses to the last drop. The EZ-Squeeze format is a genuine small improvement over a standard bottle.
Do not buy it expecting the fifty percent less scrubbing figure to describe a comparison with another brand, because it does not. Do not use it in an automatic dishwasher under any circumstances. And do not read the wildlife rescue program as guidance on washing pets, which is a question for a veterinarian.
