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.