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Welcome to Clean Enough, a new kind of cleaning column for busy home cooks who have better things to do than scrub and sanitize around the clock. Every other week, neurodivergent writer and mom Emily Farris shares tips, tools, and products that can help you stay on top of the dirtiest spots in the kitchen while also dispelling a few cleaning myths and cutting down on clutter.
I picked up my first bottle of Dawn Powerwash dish spray last year and I haven’t been able to put it down since. Obviously, I’m exaggerating because I spend lots of time avoiding my hand-wash-only dishes. But in addition to spraying the blue soap onto crusty sheet pans and into delicate glassware, I’ve discovered it’s good for so much more than dishes. I use it to clean up spills on my rugs, dirt from my kids’ sneakers, stains from my countertop…the list goes on.
Dish spray, it turns out, is kind of magic. Because it’s a liquid, you don’t need any water to activate the suds. And because you can just spray a little on a soiled surface and wash it off right away or leave it until you have time to tackle the dishes, it’s super convenient to keep by the sink. As an added bonus, you don’t end up wasting more than you need—something that can happen with a squeezable soap.
But Dawn isn’t simply diluting their classic blue dish soap with water and putting it in a fancy spray bottle. What makes dish spray so effective (and also what thins it enough to make it sprayable) is the addition of alcohols and other solvents that add to the cleaning power of the surfactants, which are the compounds that help to release tension between grime and a surface. It’s called Powerwash because it is truly a more powerful detergent than liquid dish soap.
As is to be expected, since Procter & Gamble, Dawn’s parent corporation, released the popular Powerwash dish spray nearly four years ago, other brands have hopped on the sprayable dish soap trend. I decided to try a bunch of them to see if anything could compete with my beloved blue spray bottle.
After trying eight other dish sprays at home, and evaluating them all based on a combination of effectiveness, scent, and bottle/spray functionality, I found that the Dawn Platinum Powerwash is still the best dish spray you can buy. It cuts through grease like it’s no big deal, has a pleasant (if vaguely chemical-ish) smell, and the ergonomic sprayer is fun to use. Refills are available at most major retailers, and even if you pour the liquid into a prettier spray bottle, the solution still works just as well.
Other dish sprays I tried
Of course, Dawn Powerwash is not for everyone and there are still some really good alternatives—especially if you prefer something eco-friendly or with a more naturally-inspired scent.
Below, read my take on the eight other dish sprays I tried—and somewhat-subjectively ranked from best to worst.
Gain’s green dish spray is the closest product you’ll get to Platinum Powerwash, both in terms of functionality and performance. I prefer the discrete clean scent of the Dawn to the Gain, though Gain’s formulation includes an “Aroma Boost”—which I didn’t mind, but it is strong. When I was washing dishes with this one, my three-year-old hollered “What’s that stinky smell?” from the next room, so if you have a sensitive sniffer, this may not be the best dish spray for you.
Did I buy Dropps dish spray because of the adorable amber glass bottle? Absolutely. But I also love a lemon verbena scent and, hey, it’s my job to try these things and report back. As expected, this “sustainable formula” smelled lovely and did a pretty good job of cleaning my dishes, though it wasn’t quite as effective at cutting grease as the Dawn or Gain. And because it has a traditional spray head with an impressive trajectory, I went through the 8-ounce bottle in what felt like a matter of days. Luckily, the starter kit comes with a second bottle of concentrate that’s enough for six refills when mixed with water (it also comes with a tiny metal funnel) but after that, I started filling the bottle with Dawn. If you want something that will look right at home next to your pricey Aesop hand wash (or my favorite Target knockoff) buy this… at least once.
If you want all the benefits of Dawn Platinum Powerwash without so much added fragrance and color, there is a Free & Clear option. It has the same active ingredients as the blue stuff so it works just as well. I thought it smelled like a hair perm solution, but after reading through customer reviews and some of the brand’s responses, I learned it’s dye free but actually features a “light pear scent.”
Seventh Generation’s liquid dish soap was the top pick when one of Epi’s reviewers tested and reviewed popular dish soaps a few years ago, and I was generally pretty pleased with the foaming dish spray too. As noted in the previous review, Dawn was better at grease fighting, but the Seventh Generation earned brownie points for being more eco-friendly. Same goes for the foaming dish spray; it cleans well enough, though not as well as Dawn or Gain. As for the bottle, it’s a little less ergonomic than the other two, and has a fairly standard spray head that produces a powerful stream of the pleasant, but not-too-strongly-scented liquid.
This brand’s selling point is that each product contains nine ingredients or fewer, and the dish spray contains only eight—one of which is vinegar. I’m a big fan of vinegar for cleaning because the acidity cuts through grease and grime just as well as many harsh chemicals and can sanitize certain surfaces to boot. For the most part, this dish spray worked on dishes just as well as Dawn and Gain, and I like that it has the same ergonomic sprayer. The smell, however, takes some getting used to. Yes, it’s technically lemon-scented, but it’s lemon and vinegar without any of the sweeter, more pleasant notes that might get added to other citrus-scented solutions.
Clean Revolution's dish spray has a traditional spray head and is slightly more affordable than Dawn's. The product description claims the ingredients are biodegradable and "family safe," which is why I was surprised it was so heavily scented. The smell isn’t necessarily bad, but it unfortunately reminds me of whatever cleaning solution they use at my local thrift store—a place I don’t necessarily associate with squeaky clean surfaces—so this one’s a no from me.
Though this professional-strength precursor to Dawn’s Powerwash may seem like just a stronger version of the stuff you can pick up at Target, it’s too strong and fumey to use at the kitchen sink and the scent lingers on silicone, plastic, and even dish scrubbies. Leave this one to the pros—or do like I do and use it to clean your bathroom. Just make sure you wear a mask when you spray it.
Look, Palmolive’s dish spray straight up stinks. The chemical smell reminds me of the pro-grade Dawn but somehow it’s worse. I even coughed a little after spraying it on my dishes! I honestly didn’t bother using it long enough to see how its grease-fighting abilities compared to the other sprays because in addition to the strong scent and the standard trigger, the bottle is heavy and ridiculously slim so it kept falling/sliding off the edge of my cast-iron sink. If Palmolive wants their dish spray to compete with Dawn and Gain, this product needs to be completely reworked.
