For me, moving away from pods to a dishwasher liquid (cascade 3x from Costco) made the most difference. I add some liquid in the prewash and some in the main compartment. I had to figure out the right amount to add in each via trial and error. I don't pre rinse or run the hot water beforehand, my dishes come out clean.
We had to switch from pods to liquid because the pods make way too many suds, so the emergency float shut off was getting stuck.
Source; that time I replaced my fucking dishwasher because I couldn't figure out why it kept leaking so much everywhere.
I had the opposite problem. I used the gel and the dishwasher wouldn’t completely drain. I had someone out to look at it and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I tried a pod as a last ditch effort and it worked.
I’ve since moved and use the powder with my current one, as recommended by Technology Connections, and have had good luck.
I'm surprised you made the switch to liquid and not to powder. It's so much cheaper and not as fussy as liquid. That plus a tiny bottle of rinse aid that lasts forever winds up giving me the cleanest dishes.
I tried using powder as well, but the dishes weren't coming out as clean. I will give powder another shot when my current liquid runs out
We use pods, don’t mess with pre-rinse, dishes come out clean. Don’t worry about water temp. We do use jet dry otherwise the dishes come out wet.