W5 All In 1 Dishwasher Tablets

Price: £3.99 for 40 tablets

Score (out of five): 4 1/2

Review: I'm comparing these to Finish Powerball Tabs which we used to use. I bought those from Lidl regularly as well, as they were often on a special offer that was just cheap, not a special offer. 

My Lidl has a permanent few billboard spaces in the car park behind it, and I bought my first pack of W5 dishwasher tablets after these got a Good Housekeeping award and this was on a billboard. Being a sucker I thought I'd give them a whirl.

On their first outing I was a little bit disappointed. I'd put a greasy roasting tray in that I'd used for roast potatoes and everything came out with a slight sheen of grease on it. I was a bit worried that this would be one of the accidental Lidl buys - something that's actually a bit crap and you've got loads to get through. I think if I'd used Finish the grease would've been washed off, but that's probably because Finish contains chemicals I'd rather not use. I've now learnt to wash off any excess grease before I use these and they're now my standard dishwasher tablet and are excellent value for money. What's more, because they're gentler they're not running our cheap crystal glasses from TK-Maxx like Finish was.

In this Guardian article where a woman "downsizes" from Ocado to Lidl she is very disappointed with the dishwasher tablets. I can only think she went for the absolute cheapest, not these. I would definitely recommend these.