DIY Dishwasher Detergent: An Easy Homemade Dish Detergent

When tweaking the recipe to work best for your dishwasher and/or water type. Where do you start? We have city water and a older dishwasher. I like the easiness of this recipe, but my cheap plastics have a white film on them and the rinsing cycle doesn’t seem to be working despite using white vinegar. TIA!

I actually add a spritz of vinegar to the dry ingredients then pack into ice cube trays to dry. Then I have pre measured blocks to put into dishwasher!

Remember those huge fish kills where millions of fish died? That’s why the government banned phosphates. They’re a major biohazard.

I have very hard water and I tweaked your original dishwasher detergent recipe (citric acid, kosher salt, washing soda, borax and 2 tiny drops of blue Dawn ). I throw a half-cup of white vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher. I used to listen for the rinse cycle but I’ve discovered it works whenever I put it in. My dishes are squeaky clean with no residue.

I agree with the poster who said Sun Oxi from dollar stores works better than Oxiclean. I’ve discovered so does sodium percarbonate (the primary ingredient in Oxiclean), and it’s much cheaper.

I buy sodium percarbonate in bulk, and also sodium carbonate (soda ash), which is washing soda but much cheaper. I also buy bulk citric acid and sodium tetraborate (Borax). All of these are much less expensive in bulk and no reason to pay for a brand name. Make sure you buy products that are food grade and the same strength as the store brands and you’ll be fine.

Question about the vinegar.
1. The splash of it, do you add it to the powder compartment?
2. The small cup of it, do you actually fill it, and place it in the top rack, or just pour it onto the items in the top rack?
3. I noticed in your other post you just splashed it into the bottom of the dish washer…could we do that and then also add a splash into the powdered compartment?
Thanks so much! :)

I’ll give this one a try for the sake of experimentation, but my experience with homemade detergents has been my glasses are left spotty, vinegar and citric acid notwithstanding.

The only thing that I’ve truly found to get my dishes and glasses clean and spotless is the OxiClean-type powders. While I used that brand originally, I found the dollar store version actually does just as good a job (if not better) for a quarter of the price or less. A 16 oz. container costs $1, and at 1 tbsp. per load you get 30+ loads from a container, or about $0.03 per load.

It should be remembered, though, *why* almost everyone has problems getting their dishes and glasses clean these days: the government forced detergent manufacturers to remove phosphates from their formulas, so now the products don’t work anymore.

I did try adding phosphates back into my homemade recipes in the past using TSP found in big box DIY stores, but that left a white film on everything so it was quickly abandoned.

As I said, the only thing I’ve found that consistently works are the oxygenated cleaning powders, and the dollar store ones are tops. But in the spirit of experimentation, I’ll give this one a shot.

When tweaking the recipe to work best for your dishwasher and/or water type. Where do you start? We have city water and a older dishwasher. I like the easiness of this recipe, but my cheap plastics have a white film on them and the rinsing cycle doesn’t seem to be working despite using white vinegar. TIA!

I actually add a spritz of vinegar to the dry ingredients then pack into ice cube trays to dry. Then I have pre measured blocks to put into dishwasher!

Remember those huge fish kills where millions of fish died? That’s why the government banned phosphates. They’re a major biohazard.

I have very hard water and I tweaked your original dishwasher detergent recipe (citric acid, kosher salt, washing soda, borax and 2 tiny drops of blue Dawn ). I throw a half-cup of white vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher. I used to listen for the rinse cycle but I’ve discovered it works whenever I put it in. My dishes are squeaky clean with no residue.

I agree with the poster who said Sun Oxi from dollar stores works better than Oxiclean. I’ve discovered so does sodium percarbonate (the primary ingredient in Oxiclean), and it’s much cheaper.

I buy sodium percarbonate in bulk, and also sodium carbonate (soda ash), which is washing soda but much cheaper. I also buy bulk citric acid and sodium tetraborate (Borax). All of these are much less expensive in bulk and no reason to pay for a brand name. Make sure you buy products that are food grade and the same strength as the store brands and you’ll be fine.

Question about the vinegar.
1. The splash of it, do you add it to the powder compartment?
2. The small cup of it, do you actually fill it, and place it in the top rack, or just pour it onto the items in the top rack?
3. I noticed in your other post you just splashed it into the bottom of the dish washer…could we do that and then also add a splash into the powdered compartment?
Thanks so much! :)

I’ll give this one a try for the sake of experimentation, but my experience with homemade detergents has been my glasses are left spotty, vinegar and citric acid notwithstanding.

The only thing that I’ve truly found to get my dishes and glasses clean and spotless is the OxiClean-type powders. While I used that brand originally, I found the dollar store version actually does just as good a job (if not better) for a quarter of the price or less. A 16 oz. container costs $1, and at 1 tbsp. per load you get 30+ loads from a container, or about $0.03 per load.

It should be remembered, though, *why* almost everyone has problems getting their dishes and glasses clean these days: the government forced detergent manufacturers to remove phosphates from their formulas, so now the products don’t work anymore.

I did try adding phosphates back into my homemade recipes in the past using TSP found in big box DIY stores, but that left a white film on everything so it was quickly abandoned.

As I said, the only thing I’ve found that consistently works are the oxygenated cleaning powders, and the dollar store ones are tops. But in the spirit of experimentation, I’ll give this one a shot.