Dishwashers are supposed to make your life easier, right? Not when they make your dishes look GROSS!
When we first moved to our house, we didn’t have a dishwasher. For two years! It was awful.
Once we finally got our dishwasher, I thought that every problem that I had ever had has been solved! I wouldn’t have to worry about spots on my dishes or having to spend all day scrubbing them.
Not for me!
I learned very quickly that we have hard water. Hard water makes it very difficult for dishes to get completely clean. It can also make your dishwasher less effective. It builds up over time in the mechanisms in the sprayer heads and makes them only work at half or less capacity. This is a very big problem especially if you had just bought a brand new dishwasher and expected it to work perfectly. Like me.
I quickly discovered that our hard water was like nothing that I had ever dealt with before.
Where we live, there always seems to be an abundance of hard water. Some would say that the hard water, which is limestone in the water supply, is a good thing. Some would say that makes crops healthier and make the ground more fertile. That’s all well and good, but it does nothing to make my dishes any cleaner. In fact it made my dishes look dirty, cloudy, and just disgusting.
Our first experience with hard water was at our old house. One day, our dishwasher started spewing white chunks onto all of our dishes. No matter how many times I ran the dishwasher, the dishes were still coated in these hard, white chunks. They weren’t food, they were actually limestone build up that had gotten so bad that it started coming out in our water in the dishwasher in chunks.
A very wise plumber came out, took one look at it, and gave me a packet of citric acid. I had no idea what the stuff was, but he swore by it. Especially for this kind of hard water. He told me to put a tablespoon in and run my dishwasher and repeat until there weren’t any more chunks on the dishes.
Sure enough, despite my disbelief that anything other than a serious chemical would ever break apart the nasty build up, it actually worked! Not only did it clean up the inside of my limestone-covered dish washer, it also cleaned up all of my cloudy glasses. This discovery changed everything for me!
Fast forward to getting my brand new dishwasher and opening up my dishes for the first time and seeing they were cloudy. And not just cloudy, but they also had the hard water spots on them. I went and I bought citric acid just like I had before and I put half a teaspoon in with my detergent before I ran it. Sure enough, it worked like a charm!
I’m much happier using a natural alternative to a dangerous chemical.
There are so many different rinse agents, spot removers, hard water build up removers out there, but none of them seem to be something that I would ever want touching my dishes that I use to eat.
Citric acid is a common ingredient in a lot of food and soft drink products. Is in a lot of different bath bombs as well. As far as I’m concerned, I’m perfectly fine using it in a dishwasher.
So what does my homemade/ hippie dishwasher routine look like?
I use a packet of the Costco Kirkland-brand dish detergent (best bang for my buck AND Costco brand is the best). I also put in a quarter teaspoon of citric acid in with the detergent pod and another quarter teaspoon of citric acid in the bottom of the dishwasher. I use plain white vinegar as a rinse agent and it works even better then any other rinse agent that I’ve ever used. I also put in 2 – 3 drops of sweet orange essential oil to make it smell nicer. Truthfully, I don’t believe there any added benefits in adding the essential oil, but I just like the smell.
In our family of 5, we go through a box of the Costco dish detergent probably every 9 months (I like to PACK my dishwasher full). It took a while for me to figure out exactly how much citric acid I needed to put in to each load of dishes for it to be effective and not wasteful. For us and for the amount of limestone in our hard water, a total of a half a teaspoon of citric acid works perfectly.
If you have cloudy dishes or if your dishwasher looks like it has hard water build up on the inside, I definitely think you should try out adding citric acid to your dish routine. If your dishwasher isn’t working well, you might have hard water build up that you don’t know about. If that’s the case, run an empty load in your dishwasher on the highest heat setting with a teaspoon or more of citric acid. If it’s really bad you should do it more than once. It’s definitely less expensive then any other hard water solution on the market AND it’s also less potentially detrimental to your health!
Sarah Eliza says
Ooooooooooooh I needed this post!! We recently moved to TX and the water is much harder than I’m used to. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!! Hoppin’ over from Totally Terrific Tuesdays today… 😉
Laura Lane of Harvest Lane Cottage says
Any suggestions for using it with hand washing? I don’t have a dishwasher, but I do have very hard water.
Caroline says
Hi Laura! That’s a really good question. Maybe try filling up your sink with hot water, adding 1-2 tsp. citric acid along with 1/2 c. white vinegar, mixing it around, then soaking your clean glasses in it for a while. Use it kind of like what a rinse aid is in the dishwasher. In theory, this should work! Honestly, I haven’t tried it myself (I’ve basically been throwing everything into the dishwasher since we got it!), but that should do the trick. Maybe let them sit in the water overnight and see if that helps! You have to let me know if that works for you. I hope it does!
Debbie W. says
Thanks for sharing. I’m trying this. HOPEFUL!
Caroline says
I swear by it, Debbie! It’s the absolute best!
Sarah says
We have huge problems with our hard water too. I started making my own detergent for this very reason. We use lemi shine in every load of dishes along with the vinegar. It’s amazing the difference!
Morgan @ Morgan Manages Mommyhood says
Love this! We have very hard water, which is definitely difficult to deal with. While we don’t have a dishwasher, I wonder if you could add the same ingredient to dish soap to have the same effects.
Gina says
I’ve been having the same cloudy problem ever since I moved into my apartment last summer! I’m so excited to try this out! I can’t believe that the answer could be so simple. I think that there might still be some citric acid on clearance at my grocery store too! Score!! Thanks so much!!!
Pat says
Caroline,
I can attest to your solution! We have well water that makes my glasses look absolutely GROSS! But that citric acid does the trick! Love the idea of adding the vinegar as a rinse agent, tho…gonna have to start that, too…
Found your post on ClassicalHomemaking ~ thanks for sharing it there. Hope you’ll stop by Coffee & Conversation some time this week, too!
Britney says
This was a super helpful post, thanks! I’m glad to know there is a simple yet natural way to keep your dishes clean!
Lindsey says
I definitely need to try this. I have no idea where to buy citric acid, so I’ll have to look that up, but my dishes could really use a good shine. Pinned and tweeted this!
Caroline says
The repair man who first introduced me to it told me that you can get it at any home improvement store, but I just ordered mine off of Amazon!
Deborah Davis says
It’s so nice to learn that a little citric acid can make such an improvement in dishwasher operation and the appearance of dishes. I also love the fact that you chose a more natural solution! Thank you for sharing this nifty solution for spotty dishes at the Healthy Happy Green Natural Party! I’m Pinning and sharing this!
Emily says
We have hard water, too, and our dishes are always cloudy and spotty. I am definitely going to try your citric acid trick! Thanks for linking up with Merry Monday this week.
Azaria Lynch says
We have hard water where we live too so this tip is very handy.
Azaria
Debra says
I wish I had this when I lived in Texas. Our Water was terrible there! Thank you for linking up with us at Get It Together. We hope to see you there this week.