**Update December 2024 : I’ve received several comments from users who have said the detergent hasn’t worked for them and has left white streaks in their dishwashers and on their dishes. I did a little research and it seems not all hard water is the same. “Hard water” is something we might assume is a blanket term, but the type of minerals and the severity of the water’s hardness can vary from location to location and I think this may be the reason the detergent has worked for me and others, but failed some users. I found a USGS article that explains the hardness of water in scientific terms and the article contains a map of the U.S. that visually outlines the varying degrees of hard water across the country (for reference, I’m in an area with very hard water, notated by a red dot on the map).
As I’ve talked about previously, we moved to a small town late last year. And the move has required some adjustments, from learning to slow down and enjoy small town life, to learning how to deal with hard water.
If you’ve never lived in a place with hard water, you may be scratching your head wondering how a certain water type is something that needs to be figured out. Well, let me tell you, the excess minerals in the water here (which is what hard water is), effects the way my laundry turns out, it has wreaked havoc on my naturally curly hair, it can cause dry, itchy skin, and it can make the dishwasher not clean as well as it should.
If you recall, I made my own laundry soap last year shortly after moving here and the DIY powdered laundry soap is still working very well for us, and it’s pretty cost effective. The dishwasher has been a struggle since moving in. I’ve had issues with spots on my glassware, clear plastic containers look cloudy and dull, and a portion of almost every load ends up not getting clean…and don’t get me started on the hard water build up that collects inside the dishwasher!
I did some digging online and found several recipes for DIY dishwasher detergent. After reading more about the ingredients, I combined elements from several recipes into one of my own that works well with hard water. It’s made with only a few ingredients, and although I’ve had great success with the homemade laundry soap, I was skeptical of the dishwasher detergents since I was kind of winging it on this one. Since it was something I was making up, and in the interest in conserving supplies, I only made a half a batch.
However I’m pleased to report that the DIY dishwasher detergent has been a major upgrade for me! It actually works much better than the commercially made pods I was purchasing. My dishes come out clean and the silver and glassware end up sparkling instead of dull, cloudy, or spotted.
Recipe:
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of baking soda
1/2 cup of powdered citric acid
1/2 cup of kosher salt
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together and place in an air tight container. Because of the salt content, if moisture gets into the container, the detergent will clump, making it harder for it to dissolve in your dishwasher. I’ve found that using 1 tablespoon per load works best. In my research I found some recipes called for anywhere between 1-2 tablespoons, but for my machine, I’ve found about half the detergent doesn’t dissolve when I’ve tried to use 2 tablespoons.
Note: the pictures of the detergent above are of this recipe cut in half, so don’t be surprised if you make it and it yields a larger volume 🙂
If you try it, I’d love to hear about your experience, so leave a comment and share.
Amanda Bretz 
Gave it a try….it left white streaks on everything including the dishwasher interior. I ran it with hot soft water. I hope running it again with regular dish soap solves the mess.
I’m sorry to hear this didn’t work for you and left you with a mess! I haven’t experienced that, but maybe your water has a different type and amount of minerals than mine and it reacted differently.
This is the same recipe that Wellness Mama and several other bloggers have posted. I was hoping there would be something different about it aimed at eliminating the white streaking. 😕 Guess not.
This is a similar recipe to other homestead blogs I have seen, and it just simply doesn’t work. Cloudy glasses, muddled up Tupperware, white all over the dishwasher interior, etc.
I know there’s got to be a better way than buying commercial laundry detergent, but the recipes of those that promise they work just don’t, unfortunately.
I made this and my dishes came out with white hard white stuff all over the dishes