Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Make your own Dishwasher Detergent

Phosphate free dishwasher detergents cost a fortune, even though they are made of very simple ingredients.

From TheNewHomeMaker.com comes this recipe for a DIY dishwasher detergent:

1 cup baking soda
1 cup borax
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup citric acid (which can be bought at a winemaking store, or might even be available in the grocery store with canning products)

In addition, vinegar makes a great rinse agent instead of Jet Dry

If you make it, let me know what you think.
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1 comment:

Susan said...

I used this for 2 weeks, having found the exact same formula elsewhere. Perhaps the vinegar rinse, which I'm not using (lazy,hurried), is needed in each wash to avoid the thin layer of well-adhered cloudy deposit seen best on clear glassware. I tried a longer wash-time, never the dry cycle, and tried a new batch verrry carefully mixed... which did not diminish this filmy deposit. Gotta be the pH?? What makes the deposit happen? What does citric acid do to get rid of all that base? My chem classes were sooo long ago. And I go nuts paying for detergent -and phosphates- in the store!