I have been using some homemade dishwasher detergent for the past few months and I really like it except I do not care for the way it clumps together( I looked but I can't remember where I found the original recipe that I'm using). Over time you'll have to use an ice pic to break it up. My little measuring cup's handle has had it. It's been bent so many times I fear it will break off the next time I have to straighten it out. I even tried a bag of rice made using cheese cloth (recommended). That didn't work so I was kind of getting ready to give up on the stuff.
The original recipe is as follows:
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Citric Acid (food grade, you can find it with the canning supplies)
1/2 Non Iodized Salt
These are the basic ingredients and it would appear that the citric acid is the "clumping culprit". You see my big jug of citric acid? I have such a big jug of it because I make bath bombs. The ingredients are a little different but it dawned on me the other day to make dishwasher bombs! So to do this you'll need a few additional ingredients/items:
Water Spray Bottle
**Ice Cube tray (Traditional or a silicone like I'm using)
**Wooden block or Spoon (For Tamping)
STEP 1
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Smash any lumps with the back of a spoon or you can use a sifter if you don't mind washing one more thing when you're all finished :)
STEP 2
Put some water in your spray bottle. You won't need very much, maybe 1/2 of a cup.... This is the tricky part. You want to add water to mixture but you do not want the fizzing action of the bath bomb. To do this you want to mist the dry ingredients and stir. This way you can dampen the mixture. After spraying and stirring a few times the mixture will start looking like this.
What you want to achieve is a mixture that you can "PACK" into a mold. Spoon some in your hand and squeeze it, if it sticks together then you're ready. I use these Silicone molds from Bed Bath and Beyond to make bath bombs, but ice cube trays work just as well. I wouldn't spend the money on these unless I needed them to make something else.
This batch will fill up one silicone tray (yielding 15 cubes). The easiest way to do this is to fill up the tray with the loose mixture. Use the back of a small spoon to pack it into an ice cube tray. If you have one like mine, you'll need something like I have. I use a piece of a 1" square dowel to tamp down the mixture. Once you do that you'll have packed 1/2 of each cube. Now you have room to put the rest of the mixture in the tray. Pack it in really well.
Set it aside for approx 12 hours so that it will dry out and become really hardened. I leave mine out over night. It's a little tougher to get them out of this type of tray. Turn it over and push the bottoms. It's flexible so you can push them out far enough to pull them the rest of the way out.
Stick them in a jar and just throw one in with a load if dishes. Pretty easy and now I Do not have to fool around with clumped powder any more. Yippeee!
P.S. You can use white vinegar in the place of expensive rinse aids. It works just as well if not better!!
