Homemade Automatic Dishwashing Detergent?

[~gd]

Ive heard of people getting the big cheap boxes of generic laundry soap and using it at half the rate of the more expensive dish powders. I'm not sure if they add something to it or not, but soap is soap, right?. Nope ask the soap makers on this site The fat or oil used makes a pretty big difference. BTW I don't remember when I last saw a box of Laundry SOAP (most are detergents) it was either 'ivory snow' or 'octagon'

A lot of times your just paying for packaging. Kerosene is sold at a higher rate and called mineral spirits, and at a higher rate called lamp oil, and at an even higher rate where they call it "charcoal lighter fluid". It's all the same grade of petroleum. Looks, smells, pours, burns the same.

~gd

 

[Marianne]

Yes! what do you use? I make my own and use 50/50 dry borax and dry baking soda. Seems to work great and is cheap, but I'd be willing to try other stuff.

Do you have any problems with cloudy glasses? Mine are so etched now, it probably wouldn't make it any worse....

Did your cloudy glasses come from comercial Auto Dish Detergent? if so the Cloud MAY be removed by soaking in a strong basic solution (lye?) not acid. the cloud is usually sodium silicate (water glass) which is used to prevent corrosion caused by chlorine products. Few things will etch glass but many things will form a coating on glass that makes them cloudy.

Sorry, I didn't answer your question. No, the cloudiness came from the homemade stuff. I thought that if soaking in vinegar didn't do it, it was etched. Now I understand that it wasn't the right product. I just looked at the glasses again, and they aren't as cloudy as they used to be. I'm kind of iffy on using lye to get them cleaner looking.

Hey, isn't wood ash lye? Would a paste of wood ash and water take the cloud off? It sure cleans the glass on the front of the wood burner well.

 

[~gd]

Do you have any problems with cloudy glasses? Mine are so etched now, it probably wouldn't make it any worse....

Did your cloudy glasses come from comercial Auto Dish Detergent? if so the Cloud MAY be removed by soaking in a strong basic solution (lye?) not acid. the cloud is usually sodium silicate (water glass) which is used to prevent corrosion caused by chlorine products. Few things will etch glass but many things will form a coating on glass that makes them cloudy.

Sorry, I didn't answer your question. No, the cloudiness came from the homemade stuff. I thought that if soaking in vinegar didn't do it, it was etched. Now I understand that it wasn't the right product. I just looked at the glasses again, and they aren't as cloudy as they used to be. I'm kind of iffy on using lye to get them cleaner looking.

Hey, isn't wood ash lye? Would a paste of wood ash and water take the cloud off? It sure cleans the glass on the front of the wood burner well.

Wood Ash does ~gd

 

[Leta]

I use 1# of generic oxyclean and 4-5 packets of lemon Kool Aid. I use the oxyclean scoop (filled to half) as my measure, and I don't put it in the soap compartment, I throw it in the bottom of the dishwasher. This costs me ~$1.25 and lasts me 4-6 weeks doing about a load per day. I tried Cascade, it was awful. I tried Eco Palmolive, and it worked, but it smelled so strong that I didn't believe the "Eco" bit for a second. The homemade stuff works fine in my old dishwasher, but our dog acts as a pre-rinse cycle, so there usually aren't many food particles to remove. My glasses aren't etched, and I don't get cloudiness like I did with baking soda.

 

[Marianne]

I use 1# of generic oxyclean and 4-5 packets of lemon Kool Aid. I use the oxyclean scoop (filled to half) as my measure, and I don't put it in the soap compartment, I throw it in the bottom of the dishwasher. This costs me ~$1.25 and lasts me 4-6 weeks doing about a load per day. I tried Cascade, it was awful. I tried Eco Palmolive, and it worked, but it smelled so strong that I didn't believe the "Eco" bit for a second. The homemade stuff works fine in my old dishwasher, but our dog acts as a pre-rinse cycle, so there usually aren't many food particles to remove. My glasses aren't etched, and I don't get cloudiness like I did with baking soda.

That's something that DH doesn't like, so I generally don't do it....unless he's not home and there's a big pot of something that could use the pre-rinse.

My dishwasher has a short pre-rinse cycle at the beginning, so all the detergent would be down the drain in a hurry. Doesn't yours have that, too? Why don't you use the dispenser?

I never thought about trying oxyclean. And gd was right, my glassware isn't etched, I'm managing to get some of the film off gradually with baking soda and elbow grease now that I'm back in wash by hand mode.

 

[jdopler]

I use a very similar recipe and occasionally glasses or Stainless get cloudy, but a soak in hot water with a little dish soap and about half cup of vinegar and it wipes right off..
Can not imagine going back to high priced commercial detergent when baking/washing soda and borax will work for dishes and clothes for such a great price! but the citric acid really helps, as does the vinegar rinse aid.

 

[me&thegals]

I do 50/50 borax and washing soda. It doesn't get the stains on the dishwasher itself, so once a month or so I will use some bleach-based store detergent to clean that out.

 

[Leta]

I think that it's primarily because our dishwasher is old, but the soap just sat in the cup. Things get cleaner if I just toss the soap in the bottom. We have a optional pre rinse cycle which I never use (see dog).

 

[hqueen13]

Yay! This is exactly what I was looking for! I have made our own laundry detergent for a year now, and have had pretty darn good success (even when I accidentally got 2 bars of Dr. Bronner's soap instead of Fels Naptha Soap....). The 5 gallon bucket lasts us a YEAR which means it costs us pennies per load.
Now that I have this I'll have to experiment! I know where I'll be coming back to if I have any questions!
Yay! (Its all about the little things!)

 

[rd200]

My homemade dish detergent recipe is 1 cup Borax 1 cup Washing soda 1/2 cup coarse salt and 2 tsps citric acid. I also do the Jet dry dishwasher baskets cuz my dispense is broke. The baskets are expensive, but with our crappy water and such, if i dont use them, the rinse cycle sucks. So, the detergent is pretty cheap and convient to make. I just throw the stuff into a quart canning jar and shake well to mix. I dont even measure, just eyeball it and it will be fine. I used to buy Cascade complete cuz that was the only thing that worked, and gosh that stuff is expensive!! -rach