I broke down and bought some Cascade Complete and I hate having it in the house

[juliasmum]

but the Seventh Generation dish detergent was just not cutting it and I was getting really tired of having gross junk on my dishes when they came out of the dishwasher. I'm definitely not one of these anal clean people, but I just can't bring myself to use a dish that has old food on it.

The cascade compete smells so awful and it is the only chemical cleaner I have in the house.

So I'm just wondering if there are any other non-toxic detergents that work better or if there is a "mainstream" detergent that is a little less non-toxic than others

We have hard water and I'm not sure the pressure is really great.

Our dishwasher is new so it shouldn't be the dishwasher that is the problem.

Thanks for any info you can give me.

Jen

[Quaniliaz]

You could try 1/2 borax 1/2 baking soda, but with hard water you'd probably have white stuff everywhere...

Hmm...I'll keep thinking.

[juliasmum]

Yes, the borax/baking soda mix was an absolute disaster.

It took a lot of scrubbing to get the residue off the dishes.

Thanks for trying, though!

[MiaPia]

I just use regular Cascade - BUT I only use about half the amount called for. I only fill up the "closed" cup on the dishwasher dispenser. I also keep a shaker full of baking soda (I use a cleaned-out parmesan cheese canister) and I lightly sprinkle dirty dishes/bowls as they go in. I always have clean, sparkly dishes with no residue. I do still use the stuff, but feel better since I'm not using as much.

I know how you feel though, because the dishwasher detergent is the only harsh cleaner in my house. However, it really is necessary to have a heavy-duty type cleanser to "automatically" clean your dishes.

[BowenTherapist]

i haven't used it, but i heard the one from bi-o-kleen works really well

[TwinMom]

YOu should check your owner's manual and see how much detergent you're really supposed to use. I do use Cascade, but my owner's manual says that 2 tablespoons of detergent is enough to clean a moderately dirty load. So I put that much into the little container with the lid and my dishes come out clean every time.

Sorry I can't help you with finding a different detergent, but it's definitely worth a try using less detergent.

[papabliss]

This is really "friend of mine". Forgot to logout dh.

Anyway, we use Bi O Kleen (1/2 the recomended amount) and like it. About every 5 washloads though I'll do a load with the harsh stuff. As the dishwasher itself begins to look pretty gross and so do my tea cups.

If you have hard water you really should get a water softner. Especially with a new dishwasher. Hard water will distroy your dishwasher in no time.

[SMPH]

Hard water will distroy your dishwasher in no time.

Really? I had no idea. Any idea why? We have a softener but haven't had any salt in it for about a month (we think anyway). Guess we should get some!

[Cajunmomma]

We've just started using 7th Generation, switching from Cascade. And we haven't noticed any difference. Maybe it's because we had such an old dishwasher for so long that we are in the habit of really rinsing everything well before we put the dishes into the dishwasher. I don't know if that would help.

[wawoof]

We like Allen's Naturally dishwasher detergent (www.allensnaturally.com). It's very concentrated so you don't have to use much.

[tessamami]

Have you tried rinsing with a vinegar solution? That would remove the buildup from any soap. Just a thought.

[Mere]

I know in Clean Home, Clean Planet the author did concede that she could not find a decent, chemical-free substitute for automatic dishwasher detergent. Like everyone else though, she did say that you didn't need to fill up those cups.

[Laurel]

I used bio-kleen but was getting a white film on the dishes that wouldn't wash out. Then I found this stuff called Lemi-shine. I got it at my normal grocery store, but it's got all-natural ingredients. It's like a rinse aid but goes in the regular cup. I fill the cup with the lid half full of this stuff, then add 1 1/2 tsp of biokleen, and then put 1 1/2 tsp of biokleen in the open cup, and my dishes are finally looking good. (We have very hard water too.)

[ShannonCC]

I use Ecover and it works great. And I'm not so good about rinsing the dishes though (I just get the chunks off and rinse any tomato products). We don't have hard water though, and our water pressure is good.