My observation...

I was running quite low on dishwasher detergent last Sunday when we went to Home Depot. As soon as we walked into the building, they had a large display set up of the latest Martha Stewart housekeeping chemicals. They are all made with natural ingredients and no fragrances to protect our world and it's inhabitants. Great idea! Right? Of course it is a wonderful idea that I believe we need to be taking advantage of whenever possible.

Well, so I bought that liquid detergent and their all-purpose cleaner. The detergent was about $10.00. I think that the spray cleaner was around $7 or 8.00. Brought them home and put them to work.

Unfortunately, we are very disappointed in the dishwasher detergent. I will not be using it anymore. The dishes came out NOT-clean. The ones that appeared to be clean had a nasty residue on them. For everyday use, we have those large square dinner and salad plates. They are dark brown and are very pretty--except for now. Our supposedly clear glasses are now heavily frosted. Yuk!!!

I know that it is not a result of our dishwasher itself. How do I know that? Well, our dishwasher is less than 6 months old plus I routinely use two super cleansers on the dishwasher to keep everything nice and clean. I had just uused it last Saturday. About every month or so, I fill the machine up with the hottest water possible plus I push the button on the super-hot water that is part of the machine. (Actually, I use that everyday.) The dishwasher is set for the longest cycle possible. As soon as the presoaker cycle is over and the dishwasher is filled with the new clean water, I add 1 cup of Lime Away to it. Lime Away cleans out the tubes, the bottom, the sides and the top of the interior unit which really makes a great difference! One thing that has really shocked me is all of the "HAIR" that the chemical pulls out of the propellers and leaves at the tips of them! I just reach in and pull it out. Easy!

Occassionaly, I purchase the chemical that is sold just for cleaning the dishwasher.

One important piece of information that you need here is to run either of these chemicals in an EMPTY machine!!! PLUS, never, ever mix these chemicals or anything else. The results can be extremely dangerous AND can possibly cause death.

As far as the all-purpose cleanser is concerned, it works fine. But when I read the ingredients on both of these items, I discovered that they consist of ordinary items usually found in homes. So my recommendation to you is to go online and see what you can find on homemade cleansers.

As far as we are concerned, we are going back to using our old faithfal Cascade!

VLE-B