Mild, odor-free, non-corrosive dishwasher detergent

[runcyclexcski]

I mostly wash dishes by hand, but I occasioonally need to run the dishwasher for smth I cannot wash by hand (metal items to be degreased). Could anyone recommend a mild, non-irritating, non-corrosive dishwashier detergent?

Every item I find on amazon has "oxygen-based bleach" which is hyrdogen peroxide generated in situ, and I have reservations about that (maybe wrongfully). Ideally I would buy the active ingredient (a low-foaming surfactant), but these are trade secrets and only are available in drum quantities.

For washing by hand, I use Fairy, and it works well. But it's foamy, i.e. won't work for the dishwasher.

Thank you all in advance!

[JazzySalmon]

I've been using the standard Finish tabs for years, but of course what irritates and does not irritate my asthma is unique to me. I did find the Finish tabs to be much stronger in smell when I briefly tried those. I have heard that the cheapest dishwasher powder you can find is the best thing you can use, but I've never actually powder to purchase anywhere. I can't imagine they're using a lot of scent in cheap powder so it might be worth a try for you.

May I ask why you mostly hand wash? I've never been a fan of doing the dishes but the day I moved into a flat with a dishwasher was a huge liberation to me. I have so much of my time back.

[runcyclexcski in reply to JazzySalmon]

We do not generate much dirty dishes, and I find it easier just to rinse right away after use. Helps me earn "husband points", too.

[Nimrod2]

I don't use a dishwasher. I use Ecover washing up liquid. I also use Ecover laundry liquid and fabric softener. Not highly scented and works well. Not sure if they do dishwasher tablets.

[runcyclexcski in reply to Nimrod2]

I use EcoVer Zero for laundry, and I am very happy with it. I just checked and found that they do offer "zero" dishwasher tablets, so I will try them. Thank you for the hint!

ecover.com/products/zero/ze...

[Nimrod2 in reply to runcyclexcski]

Worth a try. Good luck.

[DannyQ]

To be honest I don't use the dishwasher to clean metal grisy pans, what I find works if you clean the pan, frying pan or air fryer whilst it's still hot after you finish using the item in question the fairy liquid removes all the grease and in seconds aswell, you could give it a try and see what you think.I hope this helps

[peege]

If you're on Instagram look up Nancy Birtwistle, she makes all her own green products. I've a couple of her books with recipes in my kindle app so will edit later if I've found anything useful.

I usually wipe oily pans with tissue before I put them in the dishwasher which I run twice per week (because I abhor washing up)!

Recipe for Green dishwasher 'detergent' (there's also one for rinse aid):

100g Green bleach

300g washing soda

100g bicarb

500g jar

20g measuring spoon

RINSE AID 200ml white vinegar 10ml surgical spirit 15ml vegetable glycerine 20 drops lemon essential oil small funnel

DETERGENT ;

Make up a jar of detergent by combining the green bleach, washing soda and bicarb in a jar, give it a good stir and find a spoon that measures exactly 20g to keep in the jar. I have a plastic medicine spoon that just happens to be an exact measure. Use an eco, full wash cycle rather than a quickie wash, and when the plates are heavily soiled and the dishwasher is really full, run a rinse cycle first. As a routine, if there are plates in the dishwasher but it’s not yet full, I run the rinse cycle most days. Mine is just 15 minutes and not only does it prevent food drying on really hard it also prevents any odour. Use a 20g measure of the detergent in each cycle and try to get into the habit of giving the contents of your jar a stir before using. NB The green bleach tends to find its way to the top of the jar, so a stir every time it is used will ensure a well-combined mix.

Rinse Aid: Make up a bottle of the rinse aid by funnelling each of the liquids into your container and use 1 tbsp per cycle, measuring it into the rinse aid compartment at the same time as you load the detergent.

Copied from Nancy Birtwistle's Green and Clean book (I've probably broken British copyright laws 😬) the book isn't expensive & less so if you have the kindle App

[runcyclexcski in reply to peege]

Thank you Peege! I need to check what this Green Bleach is. Other than that this does not even have any detergent, so I wonder how it will handle oils... I guess it's the high pH from soda and bicarb is what matters, althogh the pH from that is prob not higher than 10.

Update: Green bleach appears to be sodium percarbonate, this is the same oxygen-based bleach ingredient as in many other products.

[peege in reply to runcyclexcski]

sodium percarbonate, is that bad then runcycle?

[runcyclexcski in reply to peege]

I do not have much experience with sodium percarbonate. I know that it generates hydrogen peroxide when the tablet is dissolved, and I always thought that hydrogen peroxide, in turn, generates atomic oxygen which may not be good for the lungs (like ozone). But I have not found any evidence on this on google scholar. It is definitely far better than chlorine bleach.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodiu...

[Hidden]

I don't have a dishwasher, I have to be careful of the odour of cleaning products. I use Fairy Platinum for washing up and use Ecover Zero for laundry.

I just checked and Ecover do Zero dishwasher tablets, fragrance free.

[runcyclexcski]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I do use Ecover Zero for laundry as well, so I will check their dishwasher tablets (somehow they did not come up when I looked).

We are a family of 2 and we do not cook much, this is why we normally do not use the dishwasher and just wash by hand. I also believe dishwashers over-do it in terms of water and energy, but I haven't done the math.

This time I have built new air filtration prototypes from sheet metal, and these need a thorough wash to get rid of the grease and dust before I put them into use. Last time I used a "default" dishwasher liquid, and it corroded galvanised steel parts and left salty residue all over the place >>> not good. Also, since these are air-purification parts, I do not want any fragrance oils stick to them. I am thinking to drop galvanized steel for my next prototype and switch fully to titanium and stainless, but galvanized steel is cheaper and is more readily available.

[Butterfly2honey]

I use finish plain and the simple ones I can get.

I can’t use any make that has lemon in the fragrance as the smell get to my chest and my food ends up having a lemon taste to it.

I have just bought Tesco’s own plain dishwasher tables but I haven’t tried them yet.