Recipe for homemade dishwasher powder

Many of you have asked us for this recipe for homemade dishwashing powder! And it took us a long time to find the one we liked.

But today, we’ve got something pretty cool for you! At lower cost, and with a minimum of waste, of course!

In fact, the super-efficient dishwashing powder, made from perfectly clean ingredients, is almost a myth in itself!

1001 recipes can be found on the web, which theoretically work for a few weeks, until a white veil appears on glasses and cutlery tarnishes, at which point you’re ready to switch to bicarbonate of soda to remove these unsightly marks!

Some recipes for homemade dishwashing powder are more effective than others, but in the end they’re often made up of the same ingredients in different proportions: baking soda and soda crystals,citric acid and sodium percarbonate. These substances are non-toxic to human health and the aquatic environment, and are rapidly biodegradable in nature.

Basically, in addition to the choice of ingredients, there are several parameters that will influence the effectiveness of your “homemade” powder:

• the hardness of the water in your area, i.e. its lime content
• the age of your dishwasher and
• the cleanliness of your filter.

That’s why it’s always difficult to guarantee the effectiveness of a recipe for all dishwashers!

Don’t forget to clean the filter regularly, as your dishwasher will clean even more efficiently!

So here’s our recipe for homemade dishwashing powder .

Mix in a large jar:

• 60g baking soda technical
• 80g soda crystals
• 80gcitric acid
• 80g sodium percarbonate

Add 2-3 teaspoons to the appropriate compartment and run your wash cycle at 60-70°C.

This is a powder variant, not a tablet. Why?

To make the little tablets, you’ll need a small amount of water. If you add even a small quantity of water to your mixture, the citric acid will react with the bicarbonate and soda crystals to create an effervescence (a light pschhhh), signalling that your mixture is ready for use. In the powdered version of your mixture, without the addition of water, the citric acid remains inert, thus retaining all its effectiveness for the moment when it’s in the dishwasher, cycle on.

And powder is even quicker than tablets!

We therefore recommend that you keep your dishwasher powder wellprotected from humidity, in an airtight jar, so that it doesn’t become a big hard lump.

Precautions :

• Mix under your kitchen hood, so as not to breathe in airborne powders. Avoid direct skin contact (soda crystals are corrosive).

• Identify the contents of the jar by labelling it or writing directly on the glass, so that it’s not mistaken for a jar of sugar or salt! And, of course, keep out of the reach of small hands.

Additional information:

• Replace rinse aid with white vinegar! It’s cheaper, healthier and just as effective as a scale remover and dishwasher cleaner.

• 1x a month, do a good vacuum wash, with a large glass of vinegar placed on one of the trays, or citric acid directly in the powder compartment. This removes grease and other residues. Accompanied by filter cleaning, of course…

And if you still want to use ready-made tablets from time to time?

There are a few stand-out brands that combine efficacy and non-toxicity, but it’s not easy to find your way around. The formulas are opaque, and it’s always difficult to make sense of the manufacturing instructions.

We recommend tablets from the French brand Etamine du Lystablets, which have a clean composition and are super-effective. Fragrance-free and wrapped in a water-soluble film, they contain 98% ingredients of natural origin, are biodegradable, and certified by Ecocert Greenlife.

In terms of efficiency and respect for the environment, some eco ranges from major brands are not bad either.

Do your homework, but keep an eye on the ingredients and avoid them at all costs:

• carboxylates, a dispersing agent used to prevent soiling from redepositing on dishes, which are not very biodegradable

• Phosphonates, used to soften water and prevent limescale deposits, which are also not very biodegradable.

• phosphates (in principle banned since 2017), which promote the proliferation of algae in lakes

• individually wrapped tablets in non-hydrosoluble plastic!

In the end, for long-term effectiveness and respect for the environment and your wallet, the best solution would be to alternate between using your home-made powder and commercial tablets, in the eco range of course!