Game changing DIY dishwasher powder

 The only DIY dishwasher powder that works: 15 g percarbonate, less than $0.15 per load.

It is well known that the major washing powder ingredient in many cleaning products is washing soda, sodium carbonate. The problem is, no matter how much you use, your dishes will be very clean, but there will be a nano film of white deposit visible on glass and metals.

Because the deposit is from hard water, therefore many DIY dishwasher powders work if you have soft water. At least acceptable. It wouldn't work at all if you have very hard water over 400 ppm, borderline drinkable water. But that's what a lot of households have in America.

To recap, all you need to remove the white film is to use about 10 g of citric acid crystals in the final rinse for the whole load, getting you crystal clear glasses.

The problem is how to apply that citric acid. It must be applied after the alkaline washing powder is rinsed away, or both the washing and the rinsing functions will be neutralized. Cleaning needs a high pH to work. The rinsing needs a low pH. The crystals should be applied before the hot rinse finishes and the dry cycle starts. You can even use cold water rinsing for a few minutes. But then you need to dry all over again.

I was thinking of starting a company to sell a gadget to time the release of crystals inside the dishwasher. I tried an automatic fish feeder and it sure works. You have more than an hour of a window to release the crystals. But it's messy with the food. It has to be custom-made.

I have been wondering how difficult is the problem. I looked at the ingredients of the dishwasher powder of 7th generation. I don't think the citrus in there works. It's the enzymes. So I didn't think we can find some common chemical to add to the powder to remove the white film.

But I was wrong. Percarbonate does it. It is washing soda plus hydrogen peroxide. So you can experiment with those two ingredients. Maybe you can add 50 cc of 3% peroxide into the washer after the initial drain of leftover water. I don't need to try that. I always have percarbonate because it's another universal ingredient. It's basically oxiclean without fillers and other stuff, pure.

Also, a dishwasher load is about 30 g. So you can add another 15 g of washing soda.

Unfortunately, the formula doesn't save you money. The 7th generation powder is about as cheap as pure washing soda from Walmart. The percarbonate is several times more expensive from Amazon. But then dishwasher powders aren't that good in general. That's why you have all sorts of fancy liquid detergents and pods. My formula is cheaper than those and probably better, depending on how much percarbonate you add.

I also use 20% to 30% citric acid crystal solution by weight as a rinse aid. That is for 100 ml of water, it weighs about 100 g. I dissolve 30 g of crystal in it. But no matter how you increase the dose of the dishwasher, it's never enough to achieve 10 g per load. And the refill of the rinse aid is very inconvenient.

But the washing machine is lovely. There is a fabric conditioner cycle for you to add anything. I learn from the dishwasher. My laundry formula is just washing soda for the main washer with optional percarbonate. And 30% citric acid as the fabric conditioner. So there should be no calcium build-up in the fabrics. So it's indeed a fabric conditioner.

The complete guide to touch-less environment friendly toilet unblocking and cleaning

 Unblocking

The well-known method is to pour boiling water and add some detergent. It does work but it may need a few pots of boiling water. And it works well if the toilet is slow rather than totally blocked.

When your toilet is totally blocked, the likely reason is too much toilet paper. In that case, you can pour like 50 gm of percarbonate into the toilet after putting hot water in it and leave overnight or for several hours. Percarbonate is the major component in OxiClean powders. So instead of buying the fillers in it, I brought the pure thing.

The hydrogen peroxide in the percarbonate seems to be the only thing that can "dissolve" toilet paper. It oxidizes (burns) toilet paper slowly and doesn't turn them into other solids.

Strong acids such as sulphuric acid wouldn't work. It just turns everything into black carbon that doesn't dissolve. It's a big mess. Washing soda is a strong alkaline (base) that is very good at dissolving organic matters like human solid waste. But it wouldn't work on unblocking toilets, because it doesn't attack toilet papers.

You can also use hydrogen peroxide for first aid. You can see that your skin is burning slowly with bubbles coming out. But the washing soda in the percarbonate is also good for cleaning the toilet.

So after unblocking the toilet you also have a very clean toilet.

Cleaning below the waterline

It's easy because you can soak the toilet with whatever minerals you desire for any time you want. Strong alkaline like washing soda attacks organic matters, which consist of mostly acids, like DNA, amino acids, etc. But I'm not an organic chemist. If you touch the washing soda solution, you feel slippery because your skin is dissolving. Organic dirt are dark, like human waste, and mold.

A mild acid can dissolve the dissolved solids in water like calcium and iron compounds that are deposited on the surface. This inorganic dirt are white, or colored stains from yellow to orange.

And hydrogen peroxide is the super-agent that accelerates either process because it doesn't react with alkaline nor acidic.

Since percarbonate contains hydrogen peroxide and washing soda, you can soak the toilet alternatively with 50g of percarbonate and a cup of vinegar. I prefer to use citric acid powder because it's easier to store and it's odorless. About 50 g of it will start to have effects.

You will have a very white toilet unless the surface is damaged. And hairline cracks will disappear.

Cleaning above the waterline

This is the tricky bit because any cleaning liquid just runoff. I use 100g of baking soda (not washing soda) and add 50g of hydrogen peroxide to it to make a paste. The paste can stay on the toilet walls and under the rim.

To apply the paste I use a wash bottle. 

Take out the inner tube. Invert the bottle. And you have a precise applicator that can produce a jet that reaches the underside of the rim.

After the paste dries, I remove it with 20% citric acid solution, 20g of citric acid powder per 100g of water. I spray the paste with the acid solution in a wash bottle. It's the principle of using alkaline and acid alternatively to remove organic and inorganic dirt. But somehow the mixing of baking soda and acid seems to produce extra cleaning power. It may be the gas that produces some physical movements. Maybe there are some transient chemical reactions.

Touching up

If there are visible dirts remaining, you can repeat the cleaning process. But very likely the speck of dirt can be dislodged by a stream of water from a wash bottle.

Now we are going to talk about some touching if you consider it that way.

If you have a speck of dirt that doesn't seem to move. A quick way is to rub the surface with an ice stick embedded with toilet paper in it. You can find ice stick makers for making ice in the freezer to put in water bottles. Before leaving the water to freeze, roll up a square of toilet paper to put it into the water, leaving a little bit out of the water. When you are done cleaning, throw it into the toilet; it's just water and toilet paper. If you can dispose of it in the toilet, it's as good as it never touched anything.

There are other things that you can use as a small disposable brush. A dental cleaning sponge is one. It's like a small lollipop but the end is a small sponge to wipe clean teeth. Or long q-tips.

If you still want to use a toilet brush, it's a lot quicker. If you follow some of the procedures you can use the brush or plungers when the toilet is almost clean. I can't stand using them when the toilet is a big mess.

Game changing for the dishwasher cleaning agents industry

The motivation for alternative powder and detergent for dishwashers is that the off-the-shelf ones that works well smell like bleach. Indeed they contain bleach and do you want to eat bleach? The smell does go away and the level is low. But low is high when zero is needed.

All the environmental friendly agents are powders. But they don't work that well and most of the ingredient is washing soda. Do you have to pay that much for washing soda?

There a lot of DIY receipts but many of them don't work one way or the other. A vegan who doesn't stir fry doesn't make roast beef and doesn't grill chicken wings is very different from a family of carnivores. There is also dubious science in adding salt. Also, soft water in a building and hard water are very different.

After extensive research for a few months, I concluded that the best is as much as washing soda you want for the prewash and main wash. Optionally, add half a teaspoon of SLS powder for the prewash. AND then a teaspoon of citrus acid for a rinse with warm water preferred.

Yes, all the dishwashers are designed wrong. The dishwasher pods say it all. You can see that there are separate ingredients inside and I bet they are designed to be released in phrases. So you can understand that environmental friendly powders are no match for the wrong machine design. I think they are originally designed for bleaches or similar chemicals. There were no computers for complicated cycles. After that, nobody dares to change it.

Arms and hammers is still making washing powder and Walmart is still selling it and loading it into your trunk too. Baking soda will work but you need more of it, ending up more pricey.

Organic (living matters) chemistry is about acids. Have you heard of amino acids in proteins? Lemon is as acidic as it gets. But there are stronger ones like oxalic used in bartenders' friend. So from washing powders to drain openers, alkaline (or base) agents work to react with organic matters.

You can rub baking soda on layers of grease accumulated over the years and it comes off. Washing soda is a lot stronger and you shouldn't touch it. The plastic film of pods makes sure you can't. Boil some hot water and sprinkle baking soda on it and see how reactive it is. You can sprinkle washing soda too and use it to clean mugs with years of coffee and tea stains. They will look like new.

After washing, the glass cups and flatwares may look cloudly and a white film may form when dry. You have to start a rinse cycle with half a teaspoonful of citric acid or more. Vinegar will work but it's not as convenient. Warm/hot water work best but a cold cycle will work, preferred if the cups are still wet and warm.

The cloudy film is most likely calcium deposits from water that accumulated on the dishwasher surface, especially plastic bodies, that washing soda won't help to remove. That is why you need to clean the dishwasher occasionally with off-the-shelf cleaners that are mostly citric acid in content. But what we do here is to clean it every time. Any rinse aid does not beat a citric acid rinse cycle.

Never use dry cycle because if you open the dishwasher door while hot, everything will dry in no time except for plastics. Also, there's no guarantee that the best washing machine and cleaning agent will remove all food residue in woks, grill pans, and baking pans. The dry cycle will make food residues worse.

These food residues are best removed using overnight cycles.

Now you can see how bad the dishwashing machines are designed. They should be like washing machines that allow you to add different agents in different cycles.

Instead of starting the dishwasher again, despite a short cycle, you can do the upside-down method. Put citrus acid in the prewash tray. So you are cleaning the dishwasher for calcium deposits first before the main wash. It may work but not as good.

You can also time the last drain cycle of the dishwasher. You can add the citrus acid before the final rinse.

Simple vacuum brushroll fix

My particular model is Hoover Cruise BH52210 stick vacuum and the brushroll part # is 440009913. It's so simple that it may be applicable to all brushrolls.

The symptom is that the vacuum will stop after 30 sec and the red light blinks. If you let the vacuum rest for a few seconds until the red light goes off, you can turn on the vacuum on again. But it will stop after 30 sec, more or less.

Take out the brushroll to see if the brush is hard to turn against the end cap. When it's normal, it should be effortless to turn the brush. This is particularly true for lightweight cordless vacuums. This causes the motor or battery to overheat and will cut itself off until it cools down.

Hair gets into the rotating axis of the brush and cause it to be stiff to turn. The brush itself is some $10 but shipping adds a few more. It's not worthwhile when the vacuum is only about $120 when new.

The solution is to pry open the cap on one end with a small flat screwdriver. The cap is soft and it won't break. The brush is solid and will never break. You should see some hair wrapped around the axis under the cap. Remove it and it will be running like new again.

DIY tire puncture repair

My tire got a big screw on it after a mild but wet storm. I didn't know but my aftermarket tire pressure sensor began to show decreased readings and I feel slight wobbling of the car due to the screw in the wheel. The tire was losing pressure so slow that I didn't bother to check and hope for the best. I stopped to kick the tires and they were still solid. It was night so I drove home and still went out to pick up my kid after school football.

On the way home the OEM TPMS alarm went off. But I know my car was drivable due to prior experience in my old car. I stopped to kick the tires again and carried on my way home. It was until the next morning that I discovered the screw.

I changed into the spare tire and loaded the punctured tire into the trunk ready to go for a repair. Then it dawned on me why I didn't repair myself. If anything went wrong, it couldn't be worse than a big screw in the tire. I still drove some 20 miles with that thing. It took the whole night for the tire to lose air completely.

The cheapest kit is less than 3 dollars! Since my screw looks big, but far from the maximum of 1/4" beyond which a tire should not be repaired, I opted for the more expensive kit with glue. The repair also looks quick and easy on youtube.

Then I noticed on the package that it is only intended for temporary repair. So I did some research. It will cost about $10 to $20 for a repair in the tire shop. I expect $10 for my tires from Walmart. And precisely I like Walmart tires because if they are damaged I can throw them away without sorrow. And I don't need to pay for insurance, nitrogen, and alignment.

The proper repair glue a flat piece of rubber onto the inner surface. The same material is then like welded together. That would be better than plugging the hole on the outside only. But even plugging the hole with wielding glue, some claim that it will last 10,000 miles to the life of the tires.

I decided to give it a try. I will notice if the pressure drops by even 1 psi. The OEM sensor will only warn for a 10 psi drop.

So I applied a lot of glue and did the repair. The difficult part is the threading of the plugging rubber into the huge needle. The rubber filler is very sticky and made my latex glove useless. I searched for the drying time and it was about 20 min. I waited for 30 min before I pump up the tire.

I thought it was a failure because the pressure didn't raise. But it took a long time because overnight the pressure reached zero. Usually, the tire has over 20 psi when you needed to pump it.

The pressure held; I checked with a digital gauge. It still holds the next day so I reinstalled the tire and went for a test drive. The pressure readings are normal, increasing when warmed up together with the other tires and held it there. The current mileage is 90K and I'll see if the repair last.

Dishwasher repair

WDF530PLYW5 WHIRLPOOL

There's no heat in my dishwasher. It's most likely the heating element as I found a plastic cover melted on it. I tried to measure the resistance but it was like zero. Before I can confirm I broke it.

So I ordered a new one, put it in, and then nothing happened. I measured the resistance of the new one. It was definitely zero. I asked the seller and he said I can get a replacement or refund. I opted for replacement. I measured the voltage at the control box and it was nothing. So I ordered a new control box too.

Before I rant more, the correct way is simple but not found in a web search. First, locate the service manual hidden somewhere in the kick plate. You may not need it if you are lucky but otherwise, you have to buy it online. Is that even legal? To sell Whirlpool's manual when Whirlpool provided for free but not online.

You don't need to take out the heating element to test it. Just unplug it at the bottom near the rear. You also don't need to flip the back of the dishwasher on it's back, lying flat on the ground. This model can rest at an inclined angle so you can get to the heating element from down under. Pull out the connector and you can see the terminals. The resistance should be a little more than 10 ohms.

If the resistance is 10 ohm, the current is 120/10=12 A. Normally the current rating is 15A max so your model could have a little less resistance. For 20 ohm the current is 6A, which is too small unless it's very energy efficient.

If your ohmmeter is old or you are not sure about the battery charge, you should test it with a small value resistor like 10 ohms. All my trouble started because my old analog cannot measure small resistance, while all other measurements are functional. So I was wrong about faulty elements; it was my meter.

You don't need a meter for testing the element. It's highly not recommended to pass 120V across the element terminals. The control board actually does this via relay switches. If you want to do this, you have to use wires, connectors, plugs, and sockets rated for 15A, or you fuse will blow or your circuit breaker trips. That's my second mistake. I thought the element actually has almost zero resistance but what burned my plug and tripped the circuit breaker was the excess current on my insufficient rated circuit elements.

It's true that you have to "reset" the dishwasher before it works again. Actually, you need to clear the error codes stored in the machine. Power off reset doesn't do it. Pick any three buttons 1,2,3. Press them in the sequence 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3 with 1 sec max between each button. Then the diagnostic routine will start. I don't think the fault codes will be automatically cleared when the routine finishes. Maybe it does. Whatever, you need to put in a working element so the diagnostic routine will pass and the fault may be cleared.

What happened is that in normal operation or in diagnosis, if a fault is detected, the power to that component, typically the heating element or the motors, is cut off for safety. The cut off will not be reversed unless you run a diagnostic routine.

On the first part of the routine, the machine displays up to 3 2-part error codes by blinking on the clean LED alone! Each code is separated by 5 sec of pause. There is a 2 sec pause in the 2-part code. So if the clean LED blinks 7 times, pause 2 sec and then blink once, you have an error code of 7-1. You can look up the Sears parts website but I never know what it is before I discovered the service manual.

After the error codes, you press the HI Temp button (or is it the Dry button?) to clear the fault codes. Then that button will blink twice to confirm. If there's no confirmation you have to open and close the door. So you can just run the diagnostic routine again to see if there are still any fault codes and that the button blinks twice. 

So actually I'm doing everything for nothing. My original heating element may even be working before I broke it. I just need to clear the fault codes, like resetting the circuit breaker. Simple as that! I ended up buying a replacement, a replacement of the replacement, and another from I think a more reliable source that is more expensive and cost over $11 to ship. But that's not too bad. The first seller just agrees with me that all the elements are faulty and refunded me instead of giving me free repair advice. The 2nd seller has a good refund policy but I lost shipping both ways. 

More, I bought a new control box but my old one could still be working. I just need to run diagnostics to clear the fault. So it's pointless to run the dishwasher normally to measure the voltage across the heating element without connecting it. Even if you can get the voltage you won't get it on the next run because the dishwasher will take it as a fault and cut off the power to it.

But that's not too bad. The box may be less expensive than a service call. I can even return it but I don't bother to open the door up and replace the new one with old one. 

If running the diagnostic routine doesn't reset the machine, there's little you can do without the service manual. The fuses are at the back of the circuit board. You can test things on it, like fuses and the thermister, only if you know the terminal or connector number. And you don't need to go down to access the bottom of the machine because the test points are all on the circuit board.

Opening up the door isn't that difficult. You need a T15 torx screw bit for the door and a T8 bit for the control box. Opening up the control box is a bit tricky without the service manual but doable. But there's no point to open it when you don't have the manual. 

Blind spot camera

First, blind spot mirrors are easy. Other than the many blind spot mirrors for mounting outside, I prefer bigger mirrors for mounting inside. You just need to mount near the side mirrors but inside, facing a little more outward than the side mirrors. If you mirror is fairly big, you just need to check if you can see the back corner of the backdoor window. And for those newer utility cars where you can just pry off the trim and put it back with your fingers, mounting on the A-frame is trivial.

The problem with blindspot mirrors is that, if they are not permanently and securely mounted, you don't know if they are even there at night when there's nothing bright at the back for you to see. Also, you still have to look left and right and up (for the rearview mirror) if you want to be safe. With a cam or cams, you should just need to glare slightly down on the dashboard instead of the windshield.

First, instead of left and right cam and some split screen viewer, just a single wide-angle cam will be fine. It's like something called lane-changer mirror; it mounts on top of the rearview mirror giving you a continuous semi-circular view on your back and sides. The problem of this kind of mirror is that you see the rear passengers as well, blocked by them or the interior of the car. It's perfect if the lane-changer can be moved a bit backward to the windshield at the back. But then you can't see the mirror anymore. A cam will solve all problems.

Now, of course, you need a wifi cam to stream to your smartphone. A wired cam with its own monitor isn't at all bad. You still need wires to get power to your cam and phone.

You need a night vision cam that sees through the glass from the inside of your car. Those relying on infrared LED won't work. Dashcams are perfect as they all work at night from the inside.

You need a mirror of the image facing backward. If not, it will be like flipping the view of the rear mirror horizontally, left becoming right.

So I bought one more YI dashcam. Everything is good except for the mirror image. There's no app for that. So you need some silicon pad to keep your phone level on the dashboard, and a real mirror standing up about 45 degrees up. That would be something like a HUD converter for phones mounting on the dashboard. But you need to cover the back of the semi-transparent "mirror" with black paper to increase the brightness.

You need a phone that can stay on maximum brightness for hours without getting too hot. And you need one where the adaptive brightness can be turned off. Some cheap phones cannot do that.

The best mounting position of the cam is the top middle of the rear windshield, pointing slightly down to a lot down.

With a wide-angle cam, things at the back are a lot smaller. But that's OK. As long as you can see something at your back, it's close enough not to brake suddenly. And the cars on you blindspot are very big, closer to you than the cars following you.

In the daytime, mirrors are superior when there is plenty of sunlight. The phone screen looks dim in comparison and it's hard to see because of the reflections from all sides onto the phone and then onto the mirror. At least you need a piece of black cardboard to shield off reflections from the top of the windshield.

The cam image is perfect on a rainy or cloudy day where you can see which car on which lanes at your rear. It's also very good at night to detect anything at your back. You can see headlights a mile back. But you shouldn't rely it as a lane changer on a busy freeway because all the headlights at your back will be confusing. Use it as a rear warning signal. On a road with occasional or moderate traffic at night, you can drive with your head on a pillow without moving.

The YI cam is OK but the software is not perfect for this application. There is a video server on the cam so you don't need to have an additional wifi router onboard. Indeed you cannot because the software is proprietary.  However, the video startup connection is pretty slow. It's not like you switch on the engine and drive away. Though you can make the connection once you drive away.

The startup is a bit clumsy for real-time streaming. Assuming the YI app is already started, you need to tap on the connect button. When the connection is completed after a few seconds, you need to tap on the full-screen button that is tiny! But why? So lame design! Then you need to tap again to get rid of the camera icon for you to take pictures with one tap. Also, the orientation of the image is fixed. For some phones, you also have to tap again to get rid of the "no internet" warning.

As for the mounting, the easiest is using transparent mailing tapes. You make a cardboard box to hold the cam. There should be taps, wings, or extrusions from the box for you to tape it onto the rear windshield. With tapes, you can take it off anytime without marks.

You can mount your cam with magnets outside at the top of the rear windshield. You need to weatherproof the cardboard cam housing which is easy. You also need to have enough super magnets for your maximum speed. But the problem is that you need a small cam with an unnotable housing. People are nervous around cameras.

For the YI cam, you still need the SD card or the image will be jerky. Your phone also cannot be too old. Some quad-core phone works smoothly but some don't.