My Dishwasher Woes: Problem Solved!

I had some problems with my dishwasher. The little cap for the compartment that stores the Jetdry solution melted. So my dishes were coming out covered in a film of dishwasher detergent solution (as the water from the wash would leak into the compartment). After going to the store I bought the dishwasher at years ago, I found it would be unlikely to get that part fixed. So I settled on just handwashing my dishes.

Well I came across a website called "Tipnut" that had recipes for homemade dishwasher soaps. Since I have well water, I figured that I would give the borax/washing soda recipe a try. Turns out it worked like a charm, except for the spots on the dishes. The spots (were barely noticeable, we had to hold the glass up to light to see them) are actually a whole lot better to deal with than a cloudy film of toxic chemicals that my traditional storebought dishwasher soap left behind. When I used the storebought stuff, I ended up washing my dishes 3 times....once before I put them in the dishwasher, once in the dishwasher, and then rinse them after they were in the dishwasher. That was just too much of an effort for me.

So the recipe I used was:

2 TBS of Borax
2 TBS of Washing Soda

Put them in your soap compartment and run your typical cycle.

To rid your dishes of spots, just put vinegar in the Jetdry compartment.

Since my cap is melted off, I am going to do this recipe, in which I won't need the jetdry compartment. Submitted by "MK Whittenburg" in the comments section of the Tipnut website page listed above.

1-55 oz. box of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1-76 oz box of 20 Mule Team Borax
1- 48 oz box of Kosher Salt
1-2 oz container of food grade Citric Acid (if you cannot find citric acid you can use 10-15 packets of unsweetened Kool-aid Lemonade as a substitute)

Store in an airtight plastic container.

I am excited about this for four reasons:

1. I don't have to replace my dishwasher.
2. I have a nontoxic soap replacement.
3. It's cheaper than the store bought stuff, and works better.
4. Since I start grad school in the fall, I won't have time to handwash all my dishes. Seems like I am handwashing dishes at least 3 times a day (if not more). I doubt I will have that kind of time when school starts again.

Good luck with the recipe, and the link I gave above has different recipes that you can try out. I suggest making them in small batches and see which one works for your water type. I have hard water so the borax/washing soda one worked well for me!

Update August 12, 2010:

After a while of using the borax/washing soda recipe, my dishes began getting a film on them. I added citric acid/kosher salt in the above recipe and it didn't seem to help either. So I went back to store bought brands. However, I decided to go with Seventh Generation dish soap, and added 1/4 cup borax/washing soda mix on the bottom of the dishwasher. Works like a charm. Seventh Generation is a tad bit more pricier than the other brands, but it is chlorine and phosphate free. Also adding the borax/washing soda mix helps stretch it out longer as well. I also tried another chlorine/phosphate free dishwashing detergent by EverydayLiving. It's actually cheaper than the name brand stuff and is safer for your family too. I add the 1/4 cup borax/washing soda mix when I tried that as well and it works fine. No need for harsh chemicals to have sparkling dishes. You can also use baking soda instead of washing soda in the mix.