For the umpteenth time -- even before I started trying out new dishwasher recipes -- I had to listen to my wife nag about the need to get the dishwasher serviced or repaired or to get a new dishwasher altogether because of film and spots on the glassware. While the DIY remedies seemed to exacerbate the situation, after hearing it again last night even after using Cascade I decided to do some digging.
And what I found out is that it's not you or your dishwasher. As with most things, it was caused by the government.
Seems a couple of years ago in an effort to "protect the environment," the government banned the use of phosphates. Detergent manufacturers began eliminating it ahead of time until now there's no detergent on the market that includes phosphates in its formulation. But that has led to the spotting/filming problems we've probably all experienced, DIY recipes or not. It's probably created more environmental damage too since people use more water to pre-rinse glasses, then wash them, then clean them again afterwards. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bjmctaBEzwI found thought that if you add a product called LemiShine to the dishwasher detergent it helps reduce the spots and film (interestingly, it's also phosphate free!). But after trying it out -- and getting better but not great results -- I was concerned that it might be more of a chemical formulation than something natural, yet when I went looking for the ingredients I couldn't find them. Not on the container and not on the website. Not even the product's MSDS lists them -- they're a "trade secret."
A search of the company site found one forum where the only assurance it was an all-natural product came from an employee posting there swearing it was all-natural. Not exactly confidence building. Others on that thread though suspect it's really just citric acid, which can be bought for the same price -- or less than -- LemiShine.
That seems to conform to a lot of other DIY dishwasher detergent recipes I've found that call for adding citric acid to the mix. Because of my initial enthusiasm for finding a solution for the spotting and filming, I bought a couple of containers of LemiShine so I'll use them up first, but then I plan on trying to replace it with citric acid and comparing the two.
As I said my first attempt with LemiShine was so-so, but that's because I tend to do first then read second. I had loaded up the dishwasher with plates and glasses and then when I read the instructions it said to run LemiShine alone through an empty dishwasher first to clean out the system and then use it with your regular detergent each load thereafter. So I'll be doing that next.
Also, because I had my wife looking over my shoulder at the time, I used Cascade rather than the DIY recipe, but I'm going to try out the latter -- with the TSP -- with the next load I do.
FWIW, the trisodium phosphate (TSP) that was recommended above should replace the phosphates that were removed after the government edict. My experience though was the film was worse, but perhaps with the addition of the LemiShine/citric acid we may get a combination that truly gets the glasses clean and spot-film free! I'll post my results as they occur.
Rich
