If anything, newer refrigerators and dishwashers are worse than they used to be, because they have to conform to increasingly strict energy usage laws. The new dishwasher we have now is shit, reuses water between cycles, uses some weird system for drying, etc. Basically we use more energy to pre-wash or post-wash stuff now.
At least with dishwashers, part of the reason is actually that home dishwasher detergents are no longer allowed to have phosphates.
And for a lot of people the no-phosphates thing happened around the same time they got an energy-efficient dishwasher.
And then they blamed the bad dishwasher performance on the energy efficiency, when it's actually that home dishwasher detergent is far less effective now.
Except restaurants still get to use dishwasher detergent with phosphates, which is why their dishes continue to be sparkling clean.
(And I don't know about your dishwasher, but the last two I've had default to energy-efficient, but it's a single button press to put them on hi-temp mode.)
It won't work -- putting aside the phosphates, it's a totally different formulation, because restaurant dishwashing machines run for 2-4 minutes, rather than 30-60.
On the other hand, if you searched online, I'm sure you would be able to find the exact type of phosphate that was removed from dishwasher detergent, where to order it independently, and in what proportion it could be mixed together with modern dishwasher detergent powder, to restore the sparkly clean dishes you might have grown up with. You would also want to research the legality of such, as well as whether it would actually have any environmental impact or not where you live.
Counter point: my basic old crank and go Frigidaire is still a workhorse with modern soap. I use barely any of the powdered stuff probably a lot less than is in a pod, and it still works. I’m wondering now just how little soap I can get away with to be honest.
