Home Made Dishwasher Detergent - Part II

Update 5/25/13:

Well, unfortunately this detergent Also leaves a residue on our dishes.  I'd hate for you to read the whole post thinking you'd found something useful only to find out at the end it doesn't work, so I figured I'd list go ahead and let you know.  I don't think it's our water, because regular store-bought detergents seem to work just fine.  So, we'll call this another less-than-successful experiment, and I'll try a different recipe some other time.  One of these days I'm bound to come up with a home made, cost effective dishwasher detergent that works.

A few months ago, I wrote a two part post on how to make liquid castile soap from a bar, and how to use that castile soap in a liquid dishwasher detergent recipe.  The liquid castile soap is still working out pretty well (I don't love how viscous it is, but it works really well), but as you can read in the 'results' portion of that post, the detergent didn't work out quite as well.  I was really disappointed, but as with any experiment, unexpected results doesn't mean failure.  In this case, it just meant I needed to tweak my recipe or find a new one.

Life got busy (RM and I Finally got married, so I actually Am a Missus now!) and making things at home got put on the back-burner for a while.  But now the honeymoon is over, and it's back to life as usual.

Additionally, our washing machine died last night, and fixing it was going to cost us more than buying a new-used washing machine.  So, the new-to-us used washing machine was purchased and installed today, and the bite that took out of our budget has especially spurred me back on to finding ways to save money here and there around the house.

So, to the point of this post; I have decided to try a new/different dishwasher detergent recipe I found online.  I had initially tried to make a liquid detergent, because the region I live in is humid and I didn't want to deal with a powdered detergent clumping.  This new recipe I found makes solid detergent cubes.  And, unlike the last recipe I tried which was a mish-mash of a couple recipes I'd found online with my own idea thrown in, I followed this new one to a T.

The website I found this new recipe on is here.

The ingredients couldn't be simpler; 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, 1/4 cup Epsom salt, and lemon juice (about 9 tablespoons).

First, I gathered my ingredients and supplies:

Next I measured my dry ingredients and mixed them well.  Try to eliminate as many clumps as you can.

I like to keep a pen(cil) and a printed copy of the recipe on hand the first few times I try something, so I can make notes as needed.  In this case, I took the time to weigh the ingredients for a cost analysis (found near the bottom of this post).

When I mixed a cup of dry mix and 4 tablespoons of lemon juice in a separate bowl, I found that a fork really did a better job than a whisk.  When it's all mixed, it looks kinda like scrambled eggs and has a texture like damp sand.

I patted it down into the ice cube trays bit by bit, trying to minimize air bubbles by layering it.  I was a little surprised at how quickly it firmed up.  By the time I got the 2nd cup mixed and started patting it down into cubes, the first few I'd done were already starting to harden.  So, you don't exactly need to rush this part, but don't walk away and expect it to be easily pliable if you come back more than 15 minutes later.

In the second ice cube container, I decided to do 1/2 cubes, since I like to play around with what quantity you actually need to get things clean, and also in case a whole cube doesn't fit in my detergent container/dispenser in the washer I can see if two 1/2 cubes would work instead.

Once I had all the mixture in the trays, I set them up in my windowsill.  After 24 hours had passed, I knocked them out of the trays (they actually came out pretty easily, which was nice!) and, after a little fiddling with a block to make it fit, ran a load of dishes I had waiting for the first trial run.


Cost breakdown:
1 cup borax (Approx. 6.4 oz):  $1.08
1 cup washing soda (Approx 10/25 oz):  $1.82
1/4 cup Epsom salt (Approx 2.35 oz):  $0.04
Lemon juice (Approx 4.5 fl oz): $0.28

Total cost for 18 (whole) cubes of detergent: $3.22, or 18¢ per cube.

I figured 18 whole cubes because 4 of the 1/2 cubes could be condensed to 2 whole cubes, and I figure the remaining 1/2 cube would just be distributed among the rest).

The Cascade brand 'Complete all-in-1 pacs' that are those little detergent packs you put in the dishwasher are $14.99 for 48 packets at my local grocery store, or $10.97 for the same 48 pack at Wal-Mart (seen here) (I hate shopping at wal-mart, I always spend way more than I meant to on stupid crap I didn't really need or have any intention of purchasing when I walked in to the store, plus there isn't one convenient to my home, so it it Really out of my way and thus I hardly ever shop there).  This means that the home made cubes cost me half as much as the ones I buy at my local grocery store, or if I was willing to drive further and didn't take the cost of gas into account, they would still save me about 5¢ per load of dishes if I bought them at Wal-Mart.

Results:
This recipe seems to be a success.  I say 'seems' because my last attempt/recipe took a couple weeks of dish washing before we realized it was leaving a build up of residue on our dishes that didn't want to come off.  However, the first few loads I have run have come out clean, and I have high hopes for this recipe.  So, let's assume at this point that I've found a great way to save money while getting my dishes clean, and I'll update this post in the future if I find any problems in the efficiency of these dishwasher detergent cubes.

Update 5/25/13:
As started at the beginning of the post, it turns out this detergent leaves a residue as well.  So, it's back to the drawing board!

What I'll do differently next time:
This is a new section.  In most of my posts, I generally am posting what my experiences were in my first attempt at a process/recipe/method I found online. This holds true with this post.  I had never previously made dishwasher detergent cubes, so the problems I had are problems that others may run in to when they first try it.
Remember how I said I made some half-size blocks because I was concerned about how the full sized ones would fit in my detergent dispenser/container?  Well, I had the right idea, but it didn't work out quite as I'd hoped.  It turns out that the full size detergent blocks are a smidge too tall, and trying to put two half size blocks in doesn't work because then they are a smidge too wide.  So, I pulled out a cheese grater and a bowl and smoothed down the rough tops of my full size blocks.  The couple smallest blocks didn't need this at all, and the few biggest ones had to be grated down a bit more than just smoothing the rough edges.

The blocks on the left are smoothed out with the grater, the ones on the right are how they looked straight out of the ice cube tray.

I had quite a bit of powder left after I finished smoothing down the detergent blocks.

I used some of the powder I got from filing the blocks smooth in the pre-wash container.  We'll see what, if any, difference it makes.

Now that I know what size I need, I'll probably make 3/4 size blocks, or try to fill the trays a little more neatly.  As for the powder from smoothing them out, while I didn't really want powdered detergent, I might as well use it up.  I got about a rounded 1/4 teaspoon of powder from each block, and  I also crushed the 1/2 blocks I had since I didn't have much use for them, so it added up to quite a bit.  I had to crush the 1/2 blocks with a hammer because my small food processor wasn't up for the challenge.  I was surprised by how hard these blocks are!  I'll probably use the powder in the pre-wash cups on heavier loads until it runs out.