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I know that using a dishwasher isn't very eco friendly but I'm a bit weird about how clean they are. So, does anyone know of a way to make eco friendly dish washer stuff. We've tried soda crystals but that leaves a white bloom on things. However we do use vinegar as rinse aid and that works brilliantly. Any ideas would be appreciated
Regards
Helen and Chris

I am still using up my stockpile of Eco-friendly bought dishwasher powder, but here is the recipe I will be using when it all runs out:

1 cup Borax
1 cup bi-carb soda (baking soda)
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup citric acid
30 drops citrus essential oil (lemon, orange etc)

Put it all in an air-tight container and mix well. Use around 1 tablespoon per wash.

All of these ingredients are available in the supermarket (well, they are over here!).

I just looked at a site selling soap shells ( theres a link on the forum somewhere, but I cant remember where) They say that you can use them in the dishwasher?

ecover do great dishwasher tablets.

Depending on how you use it a dishwasher is actually more environmentaly friendly than washing up. Of course disregarding the manufactering of the machine.

Just found this post sorry!

I use 1 tbsp borax and 1 tbsp bicarb, unless it is my baby stuff then I use ecover - I am just not 100% on the anti-bacterial qualities of borax/ bicarb but it shifts the dirt and grime and the temperature in there ought to sort out anything else.

we have a dishwasher, mainly for when we are making lots of jam, or wine, or bottling tomatoes or olives etc. its a AAA whirlpool, which i am sure uses less resources and water than we would to wash 100+ jars or bottles etc. we also have a lot of visitors, again i think (aside from its manufacture) it uses less than we would by hand.

when we havent got a big cleaning job, and no hordes of guests, the kids wash up by hand :)

funny though, we worried about residues from soap nuts in it, but then we use ecover tablets (and dont worry about residues!). its scary how the impulse to trust companies runs to deep!! perhaps i'll try some soap nuts and let you know.
btw just planted loads of soapwort seeds (they were a bit old, so i am hoping a few will come up)... exciting!

crazymumma wrote:
1 cup Borax
1 cup bi-carb soda (baking soda)
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup citric acid
30 drops citrus essential oil (lemon, orange etc)

Anyone knows what the citric acid does? I doubt I'll be able to get a hold of any.

You will def get citric acid from a homebrew shop.