Hacker News Reader

Comment by danw1979 | Hacker News Reader

danw1979

Get yourself a big old tub of anhydrous citric acid from Amazon or wherever, make up a 10% solution and use that in place of rinse aid. Just check with your dishwasher manufacturer that it’s not going to cause issues first.

I got a new Miele unit a few months ago and the manual specifically advises the use of such a solution, with caution not to make it any stronger.

It’s been working like a charm.

View on HN

From my experience, this will eventually remove any printed on markings from your glassware; for example, all of the measuring lines on Pyrex cups, etc.

Not a huge deal, just worth noting

It can be a huge deal, making it worth nothing /s

Does it have to be anhydrous? Seems like a waste to go for the more expensive stuff when you're going to dissolve it anyway. Food-grade citric acid monohydrate should be cheaper.

The manual just said a citric acid solution so I guess whatever source will do. I suppose it’s just as easy to get a reasonably accurate concentration if you account for the water already present in monohydrate.

What do the dishes look like with this solution? I’ve never used rinse aid or any variants, and i wonder what I’m missing.

According to another comment - you're _not_ missing the printed ink on your dishes. If you are happy with the state that your dishes come out of the wash, then you are fine.

I'm not using rinse aid at all. Just dishwasher gel with no rinse aid included, and salt. Cheap-ish Beko dishwasher. No issues.

Agreed, but I’m also someone who thinks dryer sheets are a scam as well.

They’re not?

I personally find that if I don't use them, my socks, towels, etc all come out very stiff and dry.

Yes, I know it's not ideal for towels because the wax inhibits some absorption, but I couldn't stand it so I just went back to using dryer sheets.

Soon I'll be getting a good quality dryer with a steam sanitize mode, maybe that will help.

I use them on clothing, but not on towels. Best of both worlds.

So, you use the salt as a rinse aid?

What are the advantages over plain vinegar? Been using that my whole life without any concern beyond wanting to avoid expensive rinse aids.

Vinegar destroys the rubber sealings.

Vinegar can be a stronger acid than citric acid and has the potential to damage rubber sealings. That's why many manufacturers specifically advise against it.

Interesting. I’ve used 5% for as long as I can remember, seems to be recommended for that reason. Just never bothered to look into it before as my units haven’t shown any damage. Thanks!

Same. I've used normal 5% vinegar for years and haven't had any problems.

Besides chemical properties, citric acid may turn out to be cheaper, especially if bought in large quantities.

But in the end, I think the cost savings of citric vs vinegar vs rinse aid is negligible. Usage should be about 5mL per wash (matches my experience), and even if you use fancy rinse aid, it is still a small fraction of the costs of running a dishwasher.

Note that the article is concerned about professional dishwashers, they didn't reproduce their findings on household dishwashers. Professional dishwashers are very different from household dishwashers, and they use much higher concentration of detergent and rinse aid.

Vinegar is a solvent for many plastics.

According to this review, citric acid doesn't work as a rinse aid replacement:

https://www.test.de/Klarspueler-im-Test-Jeder-dritte-hinterl...

I stopped using rinse-aid entirely on my 10-year old Bosch, and barely notice a difference. Maybe plastics come out a tad wetter than before, but they were never fully dry even with rinse-aid.

The last time an article like this went around, I decided to do the same thing with my Miele. The metal starting becoming stained pretty soon, and just recently I decided to switch to 7th Generation organic detergent powder. YMMV but wanted to share my anecdata for anyone considering the same.

How do you make "organic detergent"? Was it grown without synthetic pesticides, or...? I'm pretty skeptical of the word "organic" getting thrown around in marketing... so I'm really curious what makes a detergent qualify as organic.

Apologies, I got the USDA certification wording wrong: it is a USDA Certified Biobased Product.

Doing the same for rinse aid. Didn’t find a practical alternative for the main cleaning solution.

I've found rinse aids that include citric acid end up pitting stainless steel cutlery over time, so I avoid them

Reply on news.ycombinator.com