What is Jet Dry and how toxic is it?

[Nosy]

We've been in our rental for about 6 months, and our dishwasher has never functioned properly. Finally, it seemed it had stopped working at all. We called our property manager, who sent out a repair person. He said that we just didn't have a very good dishwasher, that we could never expect to get dishes really clean with it, and that we should use Jet Dry. I've been looking for Jet Dry ingredients, but can't find them. What non-toxic substitute could I use?

[Contrariety]

:

[snitker79]

I started subbing vinegar in place of our Jet Dry for a few months now. I also use a supposidly less toxic liquid detergent and found that I have to wash everything on pots and pans/heavy wash. I also use baking soda in the prewash section. I do have to brush off any semi stuck on foods or I find that it doesn't clean very well. But I do really notice the difference in the "chemical" smell not being around since I started doing this. I use to cough and choke when the cycle was done and it was drying, now I don't.

[hipmummy]

Ecover makes a natural rinse aid that works great. With the natural diswaher powder I hav to use a rinse aid. There are two other natural ones as well.

[artemis33]

I was going to mention that I have seen a couple of natural brands - check the HFS.

I just skip it all together. I sometimes have to let my dishes sit a little longer for the water to evaporate but it isn't a big deal.

[Nosy]

Thanks, I've never had a dishwasher where I had to use a rinse aid, and my dishes have been fine. I think I'll try vinegar or one of the natural rinse aids, but I suspect the issue is just a bad dishwasher.

[lovemyfamily6]

We used to use a natural one- I think it was Wave Jet or something?? I got it at Whole Foods. Then I read about using vinegar and have just put white vinegar in the dispenser for the last year or so. It works great, and it's cheap!

[Contrariety]

If you use vinegar, does it last as long as the jet dry? How often do you refill the dispenser??

[moderngal]

I use the Ecover one, too. It works well.

[Barbee]

i use vinegar as well. i just add it to the bottom of the dishwasher with a squirt of dish washing soap. in the prewash section, i add my dishwasher soap and i put nothing in the main soap part. in this way, my dishes are rinsed twice. this method works great for us and we never have spots on any of our dishes.

[AddysMom]

yeah vinegar its basically the miracle cleaner.

[Usually Curious]

Ooooh, I'm so glad to see this thread. I didn't want to buy Jet Dry because it is so toxic. Man, what can you NOT do w/white vinegar?!

[SusanInItaly]

So you pour white vinegar into the little spot that says "for rinse agent" or for JetDry or whatever? Mine has a little screw-off thingy, I guess I just put the straight vinegar in there?

[ladyinred]

After reading this thread I tried putting vinegar in my rinse agent thingy and OMG I can not believe the difference! I've never used a rinse agent before and I use natural detergent and I always felt (even when using non natural detergent) that there was a bit of a film on the dishes and always lots of water spots. Using vinegar my dishes actually felt more clean and way less water spots. Yay vinegar!!!!!

[lindberg99]

Originally Posted by SusanInItaly

So you pour white vinegar into the little spot that says "for rinse agent" or for JetDry or whatever? Mine has a little screw-off thingy, I guess I just put the straight vinegar in there?

You can do that or you can just open up the dishwasher during the rinse cycle and pour some in there.

[texasmommatotwo]

http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/20...t.html#article

recipe for homemade detergent....

ditto on the vinegar...what can't that stuff do????

[blueberrystamps]

I had read somewhere on here that vinegar will eat away at the parts inside the dishwasher. any one have any info on that I would love to just use it but I do not want to ruin my dishwasher.

[slymamato3]

Originally Posted by blueberrystamps

I had read somewhere on here that vinegar will eat away at the parts inside the dishwasher. any one have any info on that I would love to just use it but I do not want to ruin my dishwasher.

Are you sure it wasn't the Jet Dry folks that wrote that? I use the Ecover rinse aid but I have also found vinegar to be miraculous in so many ways

[snitker79]

Originally Posted by blueberrystamps

I had read somewhere on here that vinegar will eat away at the parts inside the dishwasher. any one have any info on that I would love to just use it but I do not want to ruin my dishwasher.

I haven't heard anything about this, but I would be very interested as I don't want to ruin my dishwasher. I've been using vinegar for some time now.

[Slabobbin]

I just had a dishwasher repair man out to the house (the problem turned out to be a build up of minerals on the screen from our well water) but he told me to run vinegar through it every once in a while. I told him that I use vinegar in my rinse cycle and he seemed impressed. So if it was a problem, surely he would have told me.

(I did have to use something toxic to get rid of the build up but I should only have to use it about once a year so I compromised).