Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Tabs & Powder

Ever wondering what is inside your store-bought dishwasher detergent tabs? Well, let me break it down for you. It contains mainly tripolyphosphate, sodium silicate, sodium carbonate, sodium sulfate, surfactants, chlorinated compounds, water, and other additives. Aside from these chemical ingredients, the tabs most of the time comes with a soluble plastic film or plastic packaging to protect the tabs in the box. Do you know that the transparent so-called soluble plastic film is made from a water-soluble polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)? There are created for the sake of our convenience but if you spend long enough time searching on the internet, you will find that it’s made from a pretty toxic monomer and harms aquatic lifeforms, and potentially causes cancer.

So you get my point, there’s a lot of chemical and plastic waste. The chemical ingredients don’t just stop reacting after each washing loads, it continues to react in our sewage system and finally into our water system.

Over the years of my career in wastewater treatment engineering, I always came across the different difficulties of non-biodegradable compounds in water treatment plants. Moreover, I understand also the severe impact they are on our ecology system. So starting by DIY some household detergent with some natural ingredients, it’s a good start towards a more environmentally friendly and zero-waste home.

HOW TO DIY Your Own DISHWASHER DETERGENT Or POWDER

These dishwasher detergent tabs and powder will quickly become your staple household cleaning products alongside your homemade laundry detergent, homemade laundry softener, multi-purpose cleaner, or toilet product.

This recipe is made entirely from 100% natural products that are easily found in organic grocery stores, and some in supermarkets. They are free from chemicals and phosphates. In addition, it cleans your dishes effectively. The preparation of the product is fairly simple. The recipe is made up of four natural and biodegradable ingredients that will clean and shine your dishes.

• Citric Acid will act as a descaler and stain remover.
• Sodium Carbonate will serve as an oil-degreaser.
• Sodium Bicarbonate cleans and deodorizes. It also acts as a disinfectant by removing bad odors.
• Coarse salt will play a water softening role depending on the hardness of your water.

HOMEMADE DISHWASHER DETERGENT TABS & POWDER RECIPE

Ingredients

I understand that sodium carbonate is not readily available in most of the supermarkets, you can however make sodium carbonate from baking soda, check out how to do it here!

DIY Tools

• Mixing bowl
• Metallic Spoon
• Rectangular Silicone Mold
• 10ml Spray Bottle
• Storage Jar

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Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Tabs

Recipe by Calleigh/www.scentofdripsndrops.comCourse: Household RecipeDifficulty: Easy

Yield

32

tabs

Prep time

10

minutes

Drying Time for Molding

10

hours 

Total time

1

hour 

10

minutes

Ingredients

• 110 grams Sodium Carbonate

• 170 grams Sodium Bicarbonate

• 110 grams Citric Acid

• 180 grams Coarse Salt / Kosher Salt

• Approximate 20ml of water

Directions

• Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl. Stir with a stainless steel spoon.
• Use a spray to spray some water during mixing. The water will react with the mixture and create bubbles. So don’t add the water all in one time. In this step, you will want to create a mixture enough to mold into tabs but not too wet and neither too dry.
• Add mixture to the square silicone mold. At this step, use a metallic spoon to compact the powder into the mold. You will not want to have air gaps in between.
• Allow them to dry completely in the mold before take them out. It took about 10h to dry completely for mine in my kitchen.
• Slowly pop the tabs out from the mold. Store in an airtight container away from direct sunlight.

Notes

• It is up to you to choose to make the powder mixture into tabs or let it in powder form. They are both same as efficient. The only difference is that detergent tabs take more time to create but they are mess-free when you use them.
• It took me about 10 hours to totally dry the tabs in the silicon mold. You will need to gently tap them out from the mold as you don’t want them to be fallen apart because the whole purpose of it is to make them into tabs.
• This recipe created about 32 tabs. The number of tabs varied according to the size of the silicon mold you choose.
• Each time you spritz the water, do it 2 times and then following by stirring and mixing.

Directions for DETERGENT POWDER

1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients.
2. Stir to combine.
3. Transfer it to a storage jar and label it.
4. Ta-da, it is ready to use right away.

Cleaning Hacks:

Add about 1/2 cup of vinegar into the rinsing agent area 2 times a month. Your dishes will shine like a bright star. (Note: vinegar that is only 5 percent acetic acid)

how to use homemade dishwasher detergent powder and tabs?

For the detergent powder, scoop the right amount of powder and start to fill in the soap dispenser of your dishwasher. Inside the dispenser, you will find the level of the detergent you should add-in. Please do adjust the volume you should add in according to your dish’s volume. Over-fill it will not make your dishes any cleaner.

Side notes

If the cleaning result is not 100% satisfying like if there’s a greasy film on the surface of the dishes, it means you might need a bit more sodium carbonate in the recipe. If there’s a white film on the surface of the dishes, it might be due to the hardness of the water. What you can do is adjust to a higher percentage of salt in your detergent powder.

Life is like a science experiment, just like a bit of fine-tuning the recipe along the way of usage makes it more fun. With a bit of twist and tweaks, you will find the perfect recipe for your dishwasher.

Is it worth making your own detergent?

Store-bought dish detergent is as effective as it needs to be and yet is constantly being reinvented for marketing purposes. Any further improvements in detergent should be made on the fronts of environmental sustainability. Instead, the major detergent makers focus on minor tweaks to improve aesthetics or convenience, addressing first-world problems rather than the real-world problems that they should be tackling.

So is it worth making your own detergent? Definitely yes! I always wonder what can I do and contribute to reducing the water pollution problem. It is a great start towards my zero-waste home journey by making these dishwasher detergent tabs and powder. This homemade recipe is not only efficient but also a great cost-saving substitute. On top of that, it is also an environmentally friendly product (phosphate-free and plastic-free). The raw ingredients chosen are always come in biodegradable packaging. Join me for this journey of reducing household chemical and plastic waste. The future of our planet lies between our hands.

Don’t have a dishwasher? Not a problem. In my next post, this homemade liquid dish detergent recipe is for you.

Last but not least, happy DIY!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please consider donating a coffee! As you know all the inspirations come from a cup of cappuccino.

Calleigh

Hi, I am Calleigh, MEng Chemical Engineering and a process engineer, and I'm here to show you how to DIY your skincare and household products with the correct formulation and using only natural ingredients. I believe that eating good food (Yes I have cooking recipes too!) and living in a chemical-free environment are the keys to having a healthy lifestyle. And that doesn't need to be expensive.