What the hell, detergent makers!?

So, we bought a dishwasher when our second was born. I HATE doing dishes, we cook everything from scratch, we have a kid with special medical needs, and a kid to breastfeed, etc. etc. Everyone is super busy and probably gets it.

So when we bought it, my Mother in Law pretty much TOLD us we needed a really expensive brand of dishwasher tabs, and picked them up from Costco for us, and continues to do so, and my partner just gives her the $30.00.

THIRTY dollars for dishwasher tabs. I'm super cheap, but my MIL is super weird about stuff, so I've never said anything.

So over the holidays, we ran out of dishwasher tabs, everything was closed, I was drunk, and I didn't want a houseful of dirty plates. So I googled some hacks. One said to put 3 drops of dish liquid in the soap holder, and fill the rest with baking soda.

MY DISHES HAVE NEVER BEEN CLEANER. WTF!?

I'll never pay for dishwasher tabs. Ever. Again.

Ever.

That's all.

Hahah I did this a couple of weeks ago.

Worked a treat.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I think that the dish washer soap isn't just soap but has some other ingredients in it, surfactants, to help with water spots and help with drying.

But I guess if you don't care about that. Just use the dish soap. Definitely cheaper.

Or maybe you shouldn't.

www.thespruce.com...

Substituting regular liquid dish soap for dishwasher soap is a terrible idea. Ordinary dish and hand soaps are intended to create lots of foamy suds. If you fill the soap container in your dishwasher with ordinary dish liquid, the resulting suds will fill your dishwasher with suds and then overflow from the appliance to the floor.

www.thespruce.com...

Here's how to make your own "emergency" dishwasher detergent:







01Fill your dishwasher's soap container about 3/4 full of baking soda
02Add a few drops of your favorite dishwashing soap (Dawn, Lux, etc.)
03Add 1/4 cup of salt if you have hard water
04Run your dishwasher

My dishwasher always used just dish liquid.
I am my dishwasher.
Maybe I will put some baking soda in the sink next time.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I don't skimp on laundry or dishwasher detergent. I used to, and then I realized I was only saving ten cents or less per load.

Can it work with cheaper stuff here and there? Absolutely. But I get my cloths dirty at work, and will tear up the kitchen at home. I presoak dishes though and give them a quick rinse.

My main concern is for the much more expensive appliances. Will cheaper products cause buildup of residual residue from lower tier goods?

Either way, to each their own. I am typically very frugal, but I've always had bad luck with low end detergents... Maybe I just did it wrong, I'm a youngish male with only ten years experience in this realm, so far from an expert.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

I never skimp on laundry detergent for nice clothes, but play and work clothes get whatever is on sale.

When it comes down to appliances, I don't know. I dont trust appliance makers. I worked for an appliance parts and repair company for years. After seeing 100's and 100's of issues, I've kind of lowered my appliance standards.

For washers I would personally only purchase a top load WITH an agitator and no digital anything.

Dryers are dryers, but again, no digital anything.

For a dishwasher, unless you want to go commercial, the cheaper options are a better buy if you just want a dishwasher. The more expensive options are really charging you for looks, or interior space, they really play on how a person might want to organize dishes in there.

I would also never ever buy a Samsung branded kitchen appliance of any kind.

originally posted by: butcherguy
My dishwasher always used just dish liquid.
I am my dishwasher.
Maybe I will put some baking soda in the sink next time.

I did that one time , was blending pancake ingredients then the lid flies off.

it leaked into a wall outlet , causing the power to go out.

Here i was standing in the dark with the bowl of my blender in my hand.

tossed it into the sink so i could go to the fuse box.

Had to dismantle the whole sink and piping to clean it properly.

Didn't make any more pancakes since then

originally posted by: grey580
a reply to: Atsbhct

I think that the dish washer soap isn't just soap but has some other ingredients in it, surfactants, to help with water spots and help with drying.

But I guess if you don't care about that. Just use the dish soap. Definitely cheaper.

Or maybe you shouldn't.

www.thespruce.com...

Substituting regular liquid dish soap for dishwasher soap is a terrible idea. Ordinary dish and hand soaps are intended to create lots of foamy suds. If you fill the soap container in your dishwasher with ordinary dish liquid, the resulting suds will fill your dishwasher with suds and then overflow from the appliance to the floor.

www.thespruce.com...

Here's how to make your own "emergency" dishwasher detergent:







01Fill your dishwasher's soap container about 3/4 full of baking soda
02Add a few drops of your favorite dishwashing soap (Dawn, Lux, etc.)
03Add 1/4 cup of salt if you have hard water
04Run your dishwasher

Remember that baking soda is an abrasive, and your dishwashers pump impeller might get some premature wear.

Ok now and then but really want to use the recommended product in a dishwasher. The components in a dishwasher are so cheap and flimsy, not made to stand up to harsher cleaning products. I took few brands apart over the years and they had many of the same hoses, pumps. Only thing really different was the baskets and controls.

Similar to using dish soap to wash a car. It works great but car soap has a mild wax in it to keep dirt from digging into the paint which will preserve the paint much longer.

a reply to: Stupidsecrets

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Those are excellent points. I think I'll have to dig into exactly what is in dishwasher tabs and maybe just buy it in bulk.

We do a lot of cooking, generate lots of dishes when I make it. I bring soups, breads, and pasties to the kids pretty often. We do not eat much prepared foods anymore. Making these foods generates a lot of dishes, I do them as I make them, doing dishes ten times a day so they do not build up. We have a dishwasher but do not use it anymore. It was more work to load and unload things than it was to actually do the dishes. We never used it for pots, they took a lot of room and we were running it twice a day and it sucked.

When cooking, keep a pot of soapy water in the sink and do them as you make them, changing it about every hour or so.

We buy our dishsoap from GFS, a gallon is around nine dollars with tax, it lasts us four or five months, it is really concentrated. We like the eight dollar something soap better than the thirteen dollar dishsoap there, it is easier on the hands and still plenty strong. Will thirty dollars worth of pods last four months washing an equivalent of two dishwashers of dishes every day?

a reply to: Atsbhct

I bought a Bosch for my previous home. Aside from fancy Finish tabs and Rinse Aid, this thing also took granular solar salt for its built in water softener. I think part of the reason for this was to exceed energy star requirements, as they elected to omit the heated dry, so the rinse aid and salt was necessary if you didnt want spots. Nevermind that the dishes were still wet when you went to put them away and you needed to dry them with a towel. Installing that unit was interesting too. Didnt take a standard supply line. Has 3/4 hose attachment like a washing machine. .... German engineering. Probably makes sense if your laundry and dishwasher were in the same room. Maybe a european thing.

The same with the washing machine. They always try and sell me the £15 worth of those tablets that'll keep your machine to last longer when in fact a £1 box of soda crystals [ a scoop added to every wash] does the exact same thing.
I also don't pay for Febreze but have a spray bottle with fa little fabric softener and a little antibacterial liquid and water and it works a treat.
To clean a washing machine every now and then [to get rid of limescale] just add one bottle of lemon juice [29p] and wash at high heat.

Kinda expected as far as the expense.

It is Costco, where a majority of their items are, of course, in bulk and usually start at around 12 bucks and up.

Personally, I can't seem to get out of Walmart without spending $50.00 a visit. 🤷🏽‍♂️

I'm a little concerned about that emergency recipe. I'm not sure the baking soda is a good idea as it may leave deposits in areas of the system leading to possible failures of components.

a reply to: Atsbhct

And never let it be said you can't learn something new when you're drunk.

This thread kinda brought up a thought I have that there are some things I will not compromise on; dish soap being one of those things. I always use Dawn dish detergent, Heinz ketchup and the cheapest ammonia for cleaning floors. Anybody else have things they liked enough to stick with?

a reply to: silo13
I'm hammered too
2.

a reply to: silo13

It's honestly the best time to let your dishwashing inhibitions go and embrace change.

a reply to: acackohfcc

I'm the cheapest person. I scrimp, save, save, save, save, invest, DIY, etc. But I won't cheap out on face wash. I have to have a certain brand, or my face feels so crazy and dry. I spend about $50 every 3 months on it, and I'll never not do it unless there's no money in the budget.