Thursday, September 17, 2009

Some alternatives to additives

If you search internet for home made additives for Dishwasher, you would get lot of details, I'm going to share my experience and how much you could save.

Non-Iodized salt and Vinegar are said to alternatives for Dishwasher Salt and Rinse Aid respectively. For Detergent some sites have mentioned few alternatives and I checked with (Borax, Washing Soda, Vinegar) it worked to certain extent but could not match Dishwasher detergent in performance.

Let's see how much we could save with these alternatives...



Non-Iodized salt is an alternative for Dishwasher Salt. I'll start with a word of caution. You need to use crystal salt that DOES NOT contain Iodine, if you use the one containing Iodine then the membrane inside the softner unit would get damaged and you may have to change it completly. I bought it from agencies that sell Industrial salt though they may expect you to buy atleast one bag (~ 25 kgs). I bought 25Kg bag for Rs 75. That's Rs 3 per Kg. I have changed my softner setting to maximum to match the performance and I refill every 7 days and that works to about 5 kg per month (maximum). That works to about 15 Rs per month or Rs 0.50 per wash.



Vinegar (synthetic should be fine) is an alternative for Rinse Aid, it costed me about Rs 30 per 500 ml bottle. I increased the rinse aid level in the dishwasher by one point so that it could match the performance. For me 50ml gets consumed in 15 days and that works to Rs 6 per month or Rs 0.20 per wash.



Dishwasher Detergent - Though I could find some alternatives given in the internet like Home Made detergent - Borax, Washing Soda, Vineger it doesn't match the performance of Dishwasher detergent. I did try adding half quantity of Dishwasher detegent added with half quantity of Home made detergent however the results were satisfactory only. For this reason I'm not considering this as an alternative thougth we could save some money with mixing them with Dishwasher detergent.


The overall revised cost works to



Dishwasher Salt : Rs 0.50 per wash
Dishwasher Detergent : Rs 2.80 per wash.
Rise Aid : Rs 0.20 per wash.
Electricity Expense : Rs 3.37 per wash.


Total Rs 6.87 per wash or Rs 206 per month