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Comment by FredPret | Hacker News Reader

Another possibility: dishwashers are more rare in Europe - the soap residue some of them leaves on irritates some stomachs.

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That sounds counter-intuitive? I doubt most people take the time to rinse everything off with clear water. Dishwashers on the other hand always have a rinsing step

Maybe the problem is rinse aids in dishwashers? These prevent spotting on glass by adding detergent.

I just put water in the rinse aid dispenser of my dishwasher.

redacted, see correct info in replies

I don't believe that's true. To quote wikipedia: "Rinse aid (sometimes called rinse agent) contains surfactants and uses Marangoni stress to prevent droplet formation, so that water drains from the surfaces in thin sheets, rather than forming droplets."

Looking at the back of a bottle of Finish Jet Dry (which I have refilled with water), the original stuff's first ingredient (after water) is "C 12-15 Alcohols Ethoxylated Propoxylated". These are nonionic surfactants, and are not what one normally means by "alcohol" (ethanol).

I can understand where the idea came from. Drinks like wine will exhibit sheeting on the sides of glasses too. The concentration of alcohol needed for that to happen is probably too high in a dishwasher, I'd imagine.

> I just put water in the rinse aid dispenser of my dishwasher.

Curious... Rinse cycle already uses plain water, so you are adding water to... water?

It's to keep the annoying "fill the rinse aid dispenser" light from always being on.

Yeah but dishwasher soap is a different kind of soap, it's way stronger. Plus dishwashers also use rinse aid which has its own set of problems.

There is enough residue left over that even diluted 1:10 its still cytotoxic. [1]

I seem to recall a post here a while ago showing that dishwasher residue was genotoxic as well but can't find it atm.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009167492...

It was about the rinse aids in commercial dishwashers at commercial dose levels. Residential levels were not shown to be harmful.

I've healed several friends' tummies by telling them to stop using rinse aid.

It's very, very definitely a thing.

Here is the full text of that article:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009167492...

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1174175/dishwasher-owners...

I'd love to see this stat but I don't have access - mind posting the gist of it?

the travel makes people on average bodily better. usually a lot of walking involved, which has a lot of health benefits, especially for folks who come from the US

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