DIY Automatic Dishwasher Detergent

Detergent for the dishwasher has two components that I don’t like: the trash and the chemicals in the average dish detergent. Even the ones that are “natural” are chock full of things I don’t want my family possibly ingesting… Like what’s in this detergent:

Ingredient	Purpose
Water	Consistency
Sodium Carbonate	Water Softener
Sodium Silicate	pH Control
Sodium Salt of Polyacrylic Acid	Controls Thickness
Sodium Hydroxide	pH Control
Sodium Hypochlorite	Prevents Spotting
Disodium Decylphenyl Ether Disulfonate	Cleaning Agent
Polyquaternium	Prevents Spotting
Zinc Chloride	Prevents Corrosion
Sodium Stearate	Controls Thickness
Fragrance	Pleasant Scent
Titanium Dioxide	Makes Product Opaque
Sulfuric Acid	pH Control

Pretty nasty stuff, right? I mean, if you can’t pronounce it, why on earth are we using it?

Does it really do that good of a job cleaning? For me, it didn’t. I used to try everything on the market, especially in my coupon days and I found they all pretty much worked the same. As in they didn’t.

We have very hard, high iron, well water and it takes a lot to get our dishes clean. And, the commercial stuff just wasn’t cutting it. An when I really started researching the chemicals, I knew that there had to be another way to get our dishes clean!

So, me being ME, I decided to make my own Homemade Auto Dishwasher Detergent with 4 Simple ingredients that I had on hand (like always!)

Add 1/2 cup plain white vinegar to the rinse cycle and there you go:

I figured that this cost me only a few dollars to make…and this batch will last about 4 weeks, using 2 Tablespoons per wash load.

The best part of this was that it really worked on caked on food and grease, which is good because my kids aren’t the best at pre-rinsing. I didn’t have to worry about any type of nasty residue being left over and getting into our food and bodies.