Dishwashers have reduced the efforts of homemakers, especially with large families, to a great extent. We just need to put in all the dirty, unclean vessels in it, a considerable amount of detergent and start the dishwasher. Then, your work is done; the dishwasher will clean all the vessels and bring them out clean.
A special detergent is available to have a powerful cleaning capacity and is slightly more expensive than the other regular dish soaps. Hence a question arrives while using it whether we could use the ordinary dish soap for a dishwasher. This article provides you the answer to your question.
Can you use dish soap for a dishwasher?
As mentioned above, there are special detergents available for the dishwasher. Still, in many people’s minds, a question arises whether we could substitute ordinary dish soap with it, in case the detergent is over or if they find the dish soap more economical. The answer to this is a big no. Doing so may bring in unwanted problems in your kitchen and may cause harm to a great extent.
What actually happens when you do so?
The regular dish soap used for cleaning is comparatively cheaper than the detergent used in dishwashers. However, that does not mean you could prefer it over the latter because the chemical compositions of both are entirely different. The dish soap is made in such a way as to create a lot of foam and froth, whereas the dishwashing detergent is made to do powerful cleaning.
In case you put the dish soap in the dishwasher, it may result in the creation of excess froth in the machine, which might start overflowing and come out of the dishwasher and flood onto your kitchen floor, causing a lot of inconveniences as well as damage to the other electrical appliances kept in the kitchen.
What to do in case you have already used dish soap?
If you use dish soap as a substitute for a detergent, it is undoubtedly observed that there are froth stains on all the vessels, and the foam is accumulated on most of the vessels and plates. Hence as soon as your dishes are cleaned, it is advised that you rerun the machine without any detergent so that the vessels get rinsed with water entirely, and no stains are left-back. This consumes a lot of time, water as well as electricity.
Hence it is advisable that though the detergent powder might seem to be expensive, it should be preferably used under any conditions to keep your appliance as well as your kitchen safe.
How do you substitute the dishwashing detergent?
Though it is now clear that any other dish soap should not substitute detergents, there is an alternative. A DIY dishwashing compound can be made in just a few simple steps, which involves the following steps: add a considerable amount of baking soda, a few drops of detergent, and some salt in case you have hard water. There! Your homemade dishwashing detergent is ready. The baking soda in this compound reduces the foam produced, and hence a regular detergent is created.
Another method for creating this detergent is to take a cup of baking and washing soda respectively and a cup of kosher salt. You can store this in a container and use it as a detergent for a long time, with visible results.
Hence, you understand that detergents cannot be substituted by a dish soap only, but by adding a considerable amount of baking soda in it and then using it. This does not create any problems for your dishwasher.