Hi there Allan! That is an excellent question! To help with this, I have this link (https://bit.ly/37PfQa1) to the user manual for this model. Page 31 shows the separate auto detergent, and manual detergent compartments. According to page 45, you can disable the auto detergent feature from the options menu. You'll need to select "Dose Per Wash", and then select the "off" option. ^Jecca