Hard Water and Dishwashers

Sorry for the delay between posts; I just finished up with my midterms. Whew am I glad that is over; now I can concentrate on what I love; talking about green cleaning.

I saw this article in today’s Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_us/bootleg_detergent. The article talks about the difficulties Spokane residents are having at getting their dishes clean now that phosphate soap is banned. Yes, that’s right, the residents of Spokane Washington can no longer buy Cascade or Electra dish washer soap which contain eco killing phosphates. Soon there will be a state wide ban on the use of phosphates. The residents are noticing that the eco or green soaps are not getting the dishes as clean and are leaving greasy spots on their “clean” dishes. Many say they are now washing them a second time by hand and question whether the ban, which is in place for environmental reasons, is not itself causing another environmental problem.

As I read further in the article I saw why the green detergents are not working; hard water is interfering with the breakdown of the molecules, thereby leaving the detergent intact or partially dissolved. “Ah, ha”, I thought, “I can solve this problem. I already have where I work”.

Mound House Nevada has got to have the hardest water on record! No kidding, I have lived in four states, including Washington State, and have never come across water as hard as this. How hard is it? It is so hard, that when spilled on concrete or wood floors and left to dry, you can see the minerals and deposits. All drains must be cleaned out monthly or they back up and clog. You can actually see the minerals build up around the drain pipes. It is so bad that our brand new dishwasher stopped getting the dishes cleaned six months after we bought it; at least that is what we here at work thought. After talking to the repair man from Valley Appliances where we bought the machine I learned the culprit is our hard water, so being the green advocate I am, I tried to fix it without expensive rinse aids. After trying just plain vinegar as the rinse aid and failing, I came up with a nice combo that works well for our situation.

Use white vinegar as your rinse aid, but also add two tablespoons to your detergent.
Wash your dishes on the hottest setting possible (no, this is not the most eco friendly setting but it is better than washing the dishes twice).
What comes out are squeaky clean dishes. The best part, you will find you do not have to use as much detergent plus the inside of your dishwasher and water spouts will clean and fresh smelling.

Let me know if this works for you. As always write me at sarij@sbcglobal if you have questions or want to see a subject tackled.