First off, that container is not designed for pods but rather for powdered/gel dishwasher detergent. Pod style detergent packs are not compatible with the pre-rinse cycle; if you place them in the dispenser then they will not dissolve during the pre rinse cycle, and if you do not place them in the dispenser then they dissolve during the pre rinse cycle and not during the wash cycle. From this you can tell that it very much does matter where you put the detergent in the dishwasher, as where the detergent goes will determine which wash cycle it is used during.
I highly recommend against using pods, they’re both more expensive and less effective than powdered/gel detergents because of their incompatibility with the pre rinse cycle
First, the box was originally designed for you to pour a fixed amount of the detergent into the box. Pre-packaged dissolving pods are a relatively new thing. The idea was the powder-like detergent will be dumped into a pool of water at the bottom of the dish-washer, ready to be mixed and sprayed.
Second, *when* it deploys matters. There are a few cycles of water that are deployed and the dishwasher will open the little box when it’s ready.
It’s not where that’s important, it’s **when**! There’s a pre-rinse that gets all the easy food bits off, then that water is discarded, and then the actual wash cycle begins.
If you threw the pod into the dishwasher itself instead of using the little box, then all the soap would be washed down the drain with the pre-rinse and there would be no soap for the actual wash. The purpose of the box is to release the soap after the initial water-only rinsing phase is done.
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