Liquid Dishwasher Detergent Recipe

[hqueen13]

Yippy! I just found a recipe for Liquid Dishwasher Detergent!

http://lavinashealthyhome.blogspot.com/2012/01/homemade-dishwasher-detergent-without.html?

And I JUST happened to use the last of the diswasher detergent that we had...

(its all about the little things!)

 

[snapshot]

That sounds good! I'll be trying it soon!

 

[~gd]

That sounds good! I'll be trying it soon!

I would advise leaving out the salt, It has no cleaning power but can be corrisive to many metals incluiding stainless steel. I am not talking about your flatware but any metal parts of your dishwasher exposed to the liquid. Commercial products add a corrisive inhibitor but that can be hard to get in a home-safe form.

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks for the tip, gd! That makes it even easier!

 

[barefootfarmer]

Anyone else have issues with a film or residue left on the dishes after the dishwasher? We make a powdered dishwasher detergent (borax, washing soda, castile soap i think...) and use vinegar for the rinse cycle.

 

[~gd]

Anyone else have issues with a film or residue left on the dishes after the dishwasher? We make a powdered dishwasher detergent (borax, washing soda, castile soap i think...) and use vinegar for the rinse cycle.

Suspect the castile soap. Soap and hard water form soap scum. vinegar may remove it but the washing soda and borax residue (if any will be attacked by the vinegar first. try a trial batch without any soap it should work for all but greasy soils. Do you use any other cleaners in your household (not based on soap) Things like 409, spick n span or even laundry detergent will give a better result than a soap based product. Start with tiny amounts because suds remove nothing and actually inferfer with your machine. an oversudsed dishwasher can be a real mess.

 

[barefootfarmer]

Well, I was corrected...we do not use the castile soap in the dishwasher. Sounds like for good reason. We are going to try out this liquid soap in this post. Looks like a good idea.

 

[hqueen13]

I ran the first load last night, and didn't get a good look at the dishes on the way out the door this morning, but the one thing I noticed is that my two large pyrex's that cooked pork shoulders the night before didn't come clean. However, I doubt they would have come clean in the dish washer with regular detergent... They were REALLY dirty, LOL. I should have scrubbed them by hand, and I knew that, but I was feeling lazy, and with the two of them I had a full load, so I ran it just to see what would happen. I'll be hand scrubbing them tonight like I should have in the first place!

I will check the rest of the dishes and give another report. Everything appeared to be clean when I pulled out the bottom rack though, so we'll see how the top rack looks.

 

[hqueen13]

Alright, unloaded the dish washer this afternoon - I was actually really pleased! The dishes all came out clean, the glasses nice and clear, and the rubbermaids were all clean, even if they were still wet (we quit using the heat dry cycle a while ago). The only thing I noticed that I didn't really like is that the silverware was pretty cloudy looking. Not horribly so, but *almost* still dirty. Admittedly the silver basket was REALLY full, especially with spoons, which are the worst for "nesting" together and not getting as clean as they should.

I'll keep experimenting with it and we'll see what happens. Thus far, I'm really happy, other than the silver issue, which I can probably live with. If anybody has any suggestions it would be appreciated.

 

[hqueen13]

Got the second load out, and it really seems like the silverware is the only thing that is really not getting clean. I've been really pleased with everything else. I've tried to be careful and rinse things pretty well, especially since the dish washer only runs about once a week or so.

So I can't decide if I should attempt to adjust the recipe, or just try to make sure that the silver is cleaner before I put it in.