best dish soap dispenser

February 17, 2020 7:13 PM

Do you use a dish soap dispenser that brings you joy? (Also helpful: soap dispensers that you hate or find annoying that I should avoid!) I need a new dispenser and I wash a LOT of dishes. I previously used this simplehuman 15 oz pump. I'm also open to getting the same one if the hive mind recommends it! Thanks for your help!
posted by sums to Home & Garden (19 answers total)

We replaced a soap dispenser similar to the one you linked with one that has a holding cup for a sponge or scrubby that doesn’t drain, and I am going to throw it out soon. Because it doesn’t drain, residual water and kitchen gunk makes it get brackish and smell gross in short order.

I’d get something made out of metal and rubber rather than nickeled plastic. We had an OXO goodgrips dispenser for a long time, and that’s what I’ll be going back to.
posted by mhoye at 7:31 PM on February 17, 2020

I read your title & came to recommend the Simplehuman one, but it seems you've already used one. I have used & also like the OXO goodgrips one mhoye suggested.
posted by wwax at 7:59 PM on February 17, 2020

We've been using this Oxo dispenser for 6+ months with no complaints. I don't think it'll last forever, but chances are I'll get tired of it before it looks tatty enough to need replacing so that's a good purchase in my book.
posted by DrGail at 8:15 PM on February 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have dish soap in a honey bear squirt bottle. I also refill a foaming dispenser from Dawn that has lasted 5+ years.
posted by theora55 at 8:30 PM on February 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

Another vote for the Oxo!
posted by mccxxiii at 8:32 PM on February 17, 2020

Friend uses a tall, glass olive oil dispenser (similar to this) that has a tiny metal lid. No need to flip or pump, just turn upside down.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:33 PM on February 17, 2020

I use a plastic 20 oz Diet Coke bottle, sans label, which accepts the Dawn squirt cap. It’s easy to grip, works one-handed, won't break or rust, and lives in a pottery crock about as tall as the bottle’s shoulders, so it’s not ugly and won’t get soap on the countertop.
posted by carmicha at 10:34 PM on February 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

I use KALKGRUND from ikea. It was on sale at some point for ikea family members and I got a bunch and use them for hand soap in the bathroom and kitchen, and dish soap in the kitchen. The dimensions are squat enough that it feels sturdy, like it’s not going to topple when you use it, and the larger “button” on top is easy to press, even with already wet hands. We ensure that the dish soap and hand soap in the kitchen are different colors and thus tell-apart-able. And the look is neutral/modern enough to match our MCM flat.
posted by tractorfeed at 1:07 AM on February 18, 2020

My partner reused a Body Shop container similar to this one (minus the label) and I love how simple and discrete it is. It’s small but holds a lot of dish soap.
posted by furtive at 3:42 AM on February 18, 2020

I use an old quart soda bottle with a pour cap on it. The vintage graphics on the bottle make me really happy. Plus, reusing.
posted by Miko at 4:42 AM on February 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Spray bottle with diluted dish soap, like this! I recently stayed at a camp where this was the soap dispenser available to campers, and loved using it so much I made my own back when I got home. It distributes soap more evenly, over a wider area, and uses much less soap in the process.

For even milder uses, and including for hand washing, I got 3 of these foaming pump bottles years ago and make my own soap with Dr. Bronners and some essential oil. Because I'm also able to refill the Dr. Bronners bottle, I haven't bought new plastic for hand soap in about five years.
posted by cocoagirl at 5:26 AM on February 18, 2020

I use one of those simple condiment squeeze bottles and it has worked amazingly well. When we bought our house it was there on the sink with dish soap in it, so we started using it. I imagine the previous homeowners were using it for a while. I think they snipped off a little to make the opening wider for dish soap. It's been almost a year and looks brand new still. Easy to find at any restaurant supply store. Clear bottle makes it easy to see how much is left. Oxo makes a version but it has a cap and smaller opening which I think could be annoying so I'd be tempted to snip that off.
posted by belau at 5:46 AM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

OXO Big Button is the best.
posted by oceanjesse at 6:16 AM on February 18, 2020

I use the same condiment bottle that belau does, and I'm happier with it than any function-made soap dispener I've ever used. So simple. (Edited to add: this is the exact one I bought in June 2018.)
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:40 AM on February 18, 2020

Even more satisfying than a condiment bottle, and a bit jaunty and fun, is an empty (cleaned) sriracha bottle. I have a big one in the kitchen window and a little one in my portable kitchen box - the tips screw closed, which makes them wonderfully portable. I buy industrial bottles of the most concentrated Dawn to fill it from, and it requires the tiniest drizzle or couple of drops to soap up my scrub brush for multiple dishes.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:23 AM on February 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

We use one of the bottles of vanilla flavor for coffee, like they use at Starbucks. It's big, so holds tons. It's tall which seems to work well. It dispenses little or lots.
posted by dripdripdrop at 10:24 AM on February 18, 2020

This is the one
posted by dripdripdrop at 10:26 AM on February 18, 2020

Hated the Oxo. Maybe it was the Seventh Generation dish soap? It would accumulate soap at the spout over time. Every few days, instead of a soft pour onto your fingers, you'd pump and a focused jet of soap shot off in a random direction. Super annoying.
posted by homesickness at 8:00 PM on February 19, 2020

Thirding condiment squeeze bottle. Easy to use, easy to keep clean, easy to refill.
posted by Princess Leopoldine Grassalkovich nee Esterhazy at 12:41 PM on February 20, 2020 [1 favorite]