<p>Well, I opened my dishwasher this morning and the silverware was dirty. I had been carefully looking things over since I first saw this thread, since I was not yet out of my supply of old detergent with phosphates. I had opened the first bottle of liquid without phosphates a few weeks ago, and all had gone well since, until today. There was rice stuck to the forks; knives were dirty; I was upset.</p>
<p>Then I noticed that the detergent cup was still closed. Ooops, I forgot to run the dishwasher.</p>
<p>Have a nice day. (I will still be waiting to see if this phosphate free stuff is going to leave my dishes less than clean.)</p>
<p>I have been using Finish tablets ever since we got our Miele dishwasher 3 years ago. The thing still works, and the dishes, plastic, and silverware all come out clean and shiny. I even wash pots in the dishwasher due to my extreme laziness. So far, so good.</p>
<p>anothermom - ROFL! It happened to me once, too, right before a large dinner gathering. That was semi-disastrous, since I did not have too many extras and I had to quickly wash some stuff by hand.</p>
<p>Two year old Miele dishwasher. Never have used phosphate detergents. Use half recommended amount. I’ve never had a problem getting dishes clean. </p>
<p>I do, however, have 150 degree hot water. </p>
<p>I also don’t like CF bulbs. So I use LED bulbs. 50,000 hour life and very low cost to operate. Lots of light !</p>
<p>LED lightbulbs cost a fortune, but last a lifetime. There is plenty to choose from, and they will fit your regular light bulb sockets, just like the ones sold here:</p>
<p>Please don’t tell my green children, but we bought a case of restaurant-grade diswasher detergent.
I feel like a spy knowing the real facts… dishwasher makers had years to figure out how to deal with phosphate-free detergents but they didn’t
Your dishes are now filthy and the guys at Home Depot etc are selling new dishwashers.
You can buy the old stuff on line since restaurant dishwashers aren’t required to remove phosaphates.
You can raise holy heck with the state and local requirements so that manufacturers make machines that work with the detergents that they sell.</p>
<p>PS - my tea mugs come out sparkling white, my stainless flatware is spotless, my black utensils are black, my plates are shiny white.</p>
<p>I feel really guilty mudding the water with phosphates - but can I zero that out with other choices? People need to know how to choose (plus of course the fact that the golf course down the road flushes way more phospates into the water system…)</p>
<p>not about dish-washing, but on recent topics:
Yep, I like the dimmable options in newer tech bulbs and use them. But what about lamps that have switches for 3-way bulbs? I really like having the choices.</p>
<p>dragonmom - I got a lecture from my green daughter about what phosphates do to the water. . My son would probably take a box of my phosphatey dish soap (which would be better than the dishwashing soap he put in the dishwasher in his new apartment - can anyone say BUBBLES). But my tea mugs are so clean and I don’t think my stainless flatware has ever been so shiny. I am still taken aback every time I get a spoon out of the drawer. </p>
<p>I just got a new car, much smaller than my previous one and with good gas mileage (29/40), so hopefully that balances my scale a little.</p>
<p>can’t afford LED house lights. But bought some LED stock for my spec IRA. One of the bets that will help my IRA to recover from the safe positions prior to Oct 2008.</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom,
You daughter’s lecture would end real quick if you tell her that she can handwash all of the pots and dishes that come out filmy after being washed in phosphate-free detergent. LOL
It’s just reality that for many of us, the phosphate-free stuff just does not work!</p>
<p>Well she does hand wash dishes at her apartment - eventually (when there is nothing clean left to use). I don’t think saving all that washing is in order to benefit the environment though ;)</p>
<p>We recently had to replace our dishwasher (circuit board burned out in the control panel), and have been using the Finnish Power ball tablets, along with Jet Dry rinse agent ever since. So far, I’m pretty happy with the way my dishes come out. But then again, I’ve never tried washing them without rinsing them pretty aggressively before stacking (I just can’t stand the idea of food solids sloshing around in there during the wash cycle). Before we switched to Finnish, we’d been using regular Cascade liquid, and finding our dishes coated with a white haze. Very frustrating. </p>
<p>The only thing I don’t understand is why many of our stainless steel case knives have developed a strange dark iridescent patina, which isn’t present on any of the other pieces. This occurred before we changed detergents, so I assume that has something to do with it. But why just the knives? Has anyone else experience something similar? </p>
<p>I too, hate the horrible compact florescent bulbs, and fail to understand how the mercury in them makes them a better environmental choice. However, my biggest pet peeve concerning them is the horrible light they give off—dull, and weirdly brown—at least for the first few minutes after turning them on. I love the GE Reveal incandescent bulbs. They give off a clean, bright white light. Lighting affects my moods tremendously, so I’m pretty upset about them now being outlawed. The prices of those LED bulbs take my breath away. I hope they come down in price.</p>
<p>I had this happen to me, too, but in my case we had just bought a new dishwasher not long before all this started. With the timing, I just assumed the problem was with the dishwasher or its installation. Luckily, it was still under warranty, so I didn’t have to pay for a service visit. The film over all my (new) glasses was horrible - you couldn’t even scrape it off by hand. It especially accumulated in the indentation on the bottom of the glasses. Since the newer machines don’t have a true drying cycle, the film just sat there. </p>
<p>The repair guy knew right away that the problem was the detergent. He said to use Finish powder , just a little (not more than a teaspoon), and also to add a little bit of Glass Magic directly to the detergent dispenser each time. He also recommended putting an entire container of the Glass Magic through the cycle every month or so. I had to order the Glass Magic - couldn’t find it in the stores. Before any of that, I had to run all the cloudy glasses through the machine with a bowl of vinegar. Haven’t had any problems since.</p>
<p>That’s the idea… we hope they last that long. We bought a couple of the floods so far. The compact fluorescents that we put all over the house were supposed to last for years but in fixtures or lamps that were turned on and off frequently they dind’t even last 3 years like the average incandescent. Since LEDs arent’ supposed to be stressed by the off/on cycle we are hoping for better performance.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on the LED bulbs. I hope the prices do come down. Like you, poetsheart, I’m a fan of the Reveal bulbs, and like you, dragonmom, our CFLs haven’t lasted nearly as long as expected.</p>
<p>Our Costco occasionally sells LED light bulbs for $10 or so apiece. I think they are worh it. In about 12 years we lived in our “new” house, H changed so many CF bulbs that the toxic residue from them could easily cause another Minamata-scale disaster. We were snookered into buying them by the manufacturers’ claims that the bulbs last “like, forever”. Grrrr…</p>
. My son would probably take a box of my phosphatey dish soap (which would be better than the dishwashing soap he put in the dishwasher in his new apartment - can anyone say BUBBLES). But my tea mugs are so clean and I don’t think my stainless flatware has ever been so shiny. I am still taken aback every time I get a spoon out of the drawer. </p>