A package of 20 tabs costs us around $8 at Walmart, and we run our dishwasher almost daily although occasionally we will miss a day. Even though this is an item that is costly and something we use a lot of, I wasn't entirely sold on making my own for several reasons. First, the Cascade with Dawn tabs work so well and smell so good, plus they are already phosphate free. Yay!
Second, in all the research I've done and of all the people I've talked to, there seems to be a low success rate with DIY dishwasher tabs and detergent, and most were "settling" with what they ended up with based on the cost saving. I'm just not sure this is going to be an area where I can switch to DIY, but as part of my "greener with our cleaner" goal for 2014, I decided to give it a go! I'll take you through my first attempt, my revised 2nd attempt, and my final outcome.
My first attempt involved the following ingredients:
-1/2 cup Kosher salt (or Epsom salt)
-2 cups washing soda or baking soda
-2 cups Borax
1/2 cup vinegar OR lemon juice
-4 ice cube trays
I opted to use the baking soda (and then later regretted it so don't be like me and keep reading to see what I eventually added to correct this.) I mixed all the ingredients together in a big bowl until it was the consistency of wet sand. Yes, it will foam when you add the liquid. :) Once it is all mixed, press the mixture FIRMLY into the ice cube trays, being sure to keep each tab small enough to fit into the compartment of your dishwasher.
Sadly, like so many others before me, the ice cube tray mold idea for making tabs didn't seem to want to dry out or set up for me. I don't have a spot inside where it's very sunny, and it's quite blustery and cold outside here still, so maybe that played a factor. Regardless, I know that I'm unlikely to want to have homemade dishwasher tabs sitting around the house for a week or longer to dry each time I make them.
Onto Revision, Part 2: I dumped them all out and added more liquid in hopes that would help them bond. I mixed them all up with more lemon juice and packed it down into the trays again.
On about Day 4, I finally got a few to fall out like this:
Unfortunately, the minute I picked the tabs up, they crumbled into a pile. It was at this point that I considered throwing the entire batch away, but that seems wasteful now, doesn't it? Plus I'm hardly one to admit defeat at a DIY project, so I was going to have clean dishes, by golly, or else! I decided to try some of the mixture in my very dirty dishwasher full of dirty dishes and see if it worked.
I put 1T of the mixture into the detergent compartment, added just two tiny drops of liquid Dawn detergent, (never add more than that!) and filled the spot rinse compartment with white vinegar. The results were pretty impressive!
Since the mixture had deemed itself worthy of saving, but was still so wet in the bottom of each cube, I decided it was time for a last ditch effort to save this batch of ingredients, so back into the bowl they went!
I added 1 cup of washing soda (which is what I should have used in the first place, in hindsight) and two packages of unsweetened Kool Aid lemonade mix. I mixed, and I mixed and I mixed...and then I dumped it all into a jar with a scoop.
And since I know the common complaint amongst folks using DIY dishwasher detergent in loose powder form is that it hardens in the jar, I decided to add a small satchel of cheesecloth filled with rice to help absorb moisture and prevent clumping. (Only I was out of cheesecloth, so I improvised and tore apart a tea bag, dumped out the tea, filled it with rice, and stapled it shut again.) A pouch of silica gel would also work.
What I have come to believe from talking with others who have tried their own dishwasher detergent and from spending countless hours researching online, you really have to take a basic recipe, tweak it to find what works best for your water and your dishwasher, and go from there. No one recipe seems to work for everyone. People with hard water will have a much more difficult time eliminating film or spots.
We used the final recipe in our dishwasher tonight, adding two drops of Dawn before closing the detergent compartment, and making sure we had white vinegar in the rinse aid compartment. Again, we had splendid results, so I think this is one lifestyle hack and DIY project I'll be keeping!
My final recipe, give or take a few adjustments. (Start with the original, and tweak it for what works for you!)
-1/2 cup Kosher salt or Epsom salt
-2 cups Borax
-1 cup baking soda
-1 cup washing soda (or eliminate the baking soda and use 2 cups washing soda)
-1/2 cup white vinegar or lemon juice
-2 envelopes unsweetened lemonade mix
Mix thoroughly and adjust to find a dry-to-the-touch consistency. Add a moisture absorber such as a tea bag of rice or silica gel. Use 1T with 2 drops of Dawn in dishwasher detergent compartment. Fill rinse aid with white vinegar for a rinse.
Blessings & Happy Crunching!
Kimberly
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