Eco-Dishwasher Detergent, Or, The Saga of the Streaky Silverware (and worse!)
By Karina | September 7, 2009
I have been having a big problem lately. The problem is this: no matter what eco-friendly dish detergent we use in our dishwasher, we still have nasty cloudy streaky dishes! It’s terrible! I live in an area with kind of hard water, but I will say that when we were using up the last of the non-eco-friendly detergent, it just didn’t work at all. We’ve tried lots of different kinds of soap - from palmolive “eco+” detergent, to Earth Friendly Products brand and now we’re using 7th Generation powder detergent. I will add that I don’t have access to a fancy eco store unless I make a special trip, so these are all detergents that are available at our regular grocery store.
My first thought when I started having these problems was: OH NO. I’m not going to end up like these women, am I? And my second thought was: argh, and I still have plenty of homemade dishwashing liquid to use up! why am I even screwing around with a dishwasher? But since then I’ve been trying all kinds of types of detergents and while the 7th Generation is doing better, there is still a white film left on many of the drinking glasses. It’s horrible!
I even did some searching and started to pour plain vinegar into the rinse aid dispenser in the machine - and it’s not helping much either. Then more searching has turned up a recipe that sounds pretty good for homemade detergent, Umbra’s advice on rinse aids, and more specifically, this glowing descriptoin of Ecover’s rinse aid.
But I wanted to turn to y’all, my friends and experts. Do you use dishwashing detergent in a machine? How about a rinse aid?
[[Photo from flickr user braveheart via creative commons license.]]
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Topics: General |
Try Method Smarty Dish. That suff is absolutely amazing. I use a rinse aid too (I’ve used vinegar and some eco-friendly one I bought at Kroger and didn’t notice a big difference between the two). I had tried at least half a dozen eco-friendly dishwasher detergents before the Method one, but I don’t think I’ll ever try another one again. It even works better than the Cascade I used back before I switched! It’s so convenient, too, since you can pick it up at Target and some grocery stores!
I can’t remember the last time I had a dishwasher… actually I had one in an apartment about 6 years back, and it was months after moving in that I even noticed it sitting there in the kitchen. Which is odd. So, no experience at all with dishwashing detergents… but I know who’d be happy to take that DIY hand-dishwashing goop off your hands, if/when you’re looking to offload it!
I’ve heard of great results using this recipe:
1 tbsp baking soda & 1 tbsp borax, plus vinegar for the rinse cycle.
It may not work the greatest on plastics, but for regular dishes and glasses it’s supposed to work really well.
Baking soda will leave a whitish film in hard water. I’ve had much better luck with washing soda.
We use the Trader Joe’s brand liquid dishwasher soap. I’ve been happy with it. No streaks.
We use Ecover, and I’ve noticed no streaks or film. I tried the baking soda and Borax, and it didn’t work at all. And we don’t even have hard water!
We have a small kitchen and no dishwasher. I think dishpans of hot soapy water and rinse water get the dishes perfectly clean, and washed that way (with no running water) is much more efficient than a dishwasher, which usually can’t be filled efficiently anyway (bowls don’t fit well, etc, or you have to scrub them before you put them in). Hand washing can be kind of soothing. I have my partner put away the dry dishes, otherwise the whole job is just too tedious if I have to do it all myself.
We’ve had the same problems with the eco detergents as well, and so we use the Ecover Rinse Aid too, and it does work. I can immediately tell the difference on our dishes when the little dispenser in the washer runs out.
I use Ecover’s dishwasher tabs and like them better than any other eco-detergent I’ve tried. I don’t bother trying new ones anymore.
[…] Tiny Choices laments the ineffectiveness of many eco-friendly dish detergents. […]
I use Biokleen’s Automatic Dish Power and have never had any issues (and don’t use rinse aid) - plus, you only need 1 tablespoon! http://biokleenhome.com/products/household/kitchen
[…] Eco-Dishwasher Detergent, Or, The Saga of the Streaky Silverware (and worse!) […]
I use:
1 part borax
1 part washing soda
1 part kosher salt
distilled white vinegar for the rinse aid.
I think the salt makes a huge difference. We have really horrible well water that is softened. This recipe works well for me. As with all of the green detergents I’ve tried, you have to prerinse the dishes to get off the food bits. This won’t disolve them.
My experience with eco-friendly dishwasher detergents is that depending on your hard water they often have more problems. I lived in one place where 2 T of borax added to the bottom of the washer was enough to give us perfectly clean glasses. I’ve lived in others where 4T of borax with a rinse aide gave us mainly clear glasses. Borax assists in conditioning (or softening) the water. And the odd thing is that if I were to compare how hard the water felt I’d say it seemed harder where I had to use less borax. I had switched to borax because the powdered Calgon for water softening was twice as expensive for less product.