Great article in New York Times about laundry and dishwasher detergent

uolypool

I also use to use way to much washing powder and dishwasher stuff masses of bubbles , and always had to be the most expensive brands ,not now i use a measure spoon which holds 5 mls for washing powder add some soda crystals for whites .The clothes come out lovely and clean ,Bought a 10kg bag of powder from ebay in January still loads left !! also buy broken dishwasher tablets for £6.99 for 10kg from ebay, most of these are in halves or quarters only ever put 1 piece of tablet in again no problems pots and pans etc come out beautifully clean.Saved me a fortune this year

Butterfly_Brain

Another scary fact is that it also is one of the main causes of drains blocking up especially in the winter - another potentially very costly repair job :eek:

treaclebob

I'm glad everyone got good tips from the NYT article. But I'm still at a loss as to how to cut down on dishwasher detergent? The broken ones off ebay sounded like a great option but because I live in Northern Ireland, the postage is high. And if you don't use the all in one type tablets then you need to add salt and rinse aid. Any ideas anyone?

Sunnyday

treaclebob wrote: »

I'm glad everyone got good tips from the NYT article. But I'm still at a loss as to how to cut down on dishwasher detergent? The broken ones off ebay sounded like a great option but because I live in Northern Ireland, the postage is high. And if you don't use the all in one type tablets then you need to add salt and rinse aid. Any ideas anyone?

Always use salt regardless, there is a detrimental effect but i can`t for the life of me remember what it is. I seem to remember reading that it can damage the machine somehow?

For rinse aid use cheap vinegar - i use brown vinegar at 13p per bottle.

I also use cheap shops own brand powder (prefer Morrisons) and use half as much.

HTH

SD

karren

i use shot glass as w powder measure these days so the large box of powder i had will last ages!!!!

i used to snap the dishwasher tablet in half but got out of habit so propose in new year to do the same and save in an old coffee jar

moments_of_sanity

[QUOTE For rinse aid use cheap vinegar - i use brown vinegar at 13p per bottle. SD[/QUOTE]

Do the dishes and cups have a vinegar taint to them, I mentioned it to DH and whilst he is up for most of the money saving tips I get from here, this one isn't going down very well due to him believing that everything will taste of vinegar?

meritaten

run a load using vinegar and dont tell him! if he doesnt detect a vinegar taint then it isnt there!

moments_of_sanity

meritaten wrote: »

run a load using vinegar and dont tell him! if he doesnt detect a vinegar taint then it isnt there!

My deceipt know's no bounds!!! I will try this and see what happens :rotfl:

Eenymeeny

I can recommend Costco's own brand laundry powder (Kirkland) a big plastic bucket full for about £12 last time I bought some, probably a year ago! One small scoop does the job, no allergic reactions and a nice clean wash. I also add a scoop of soda crystals to each wash which helps keep the machine clean too. (and brown or white vinegar as a final rinse, it doesn't make any difference honest!)