Cascade Commercial Dishwasher Detergent Discontinued--Alternative Home Recipes

[sms]

Cascade has dropped their commercial dishwasher detergent sold by ReStockit and Amazon. Finish still makes one that works but it's very difficult to purchase and quite expensive per load (about 72¢).

I've been looking at homemade alternatives as the retail dishwasher detergents don't work well .

There are a lot of recipes out there. The one that seems to be the most widely acclaimed to work well is this one:

76 ounces Borate Powder (20 Mule Team Borax) (Walmart) 55 ounces Washing Soda (Arm and Hammer) (Walmart) Not baking soda. 1 1/3 TSP cup (Home Depot) Be sure to get the real TSP. 4 ounces Citric Acid (Amazon) Buy in 5 pound bag. 2 cups Vaseline Intensive Care moisturizing beads (Walmart) 64 ounces Canning Salt or Kosher Salt 4 pounds

[Ed Pawlowski]

Looks like a lot of work. When I bought my new Kitchen Air DW, it came with a sample of Cascade Platinum. It is absolutely fantastic! Everything comes out perfect, most things look as good as the day they were new. About 24¢ a load from Amazon, few pennies more at other stores.

When I have perfection already, I'm not going to mix all of that stuff together.

[Pavel314]

We use Cascade and throw in a teaspoonful of real TSP with every load.

Paul

[sms]

That's an option too. But while I would be fine with that, I need to make this child-proof and spouse-proof, so anything I put under the sink needs to be pre-mixed. I could mix in the TSP and put it back in the Cascade or Finish box (which I did prior to buying the Cascade commercial product) but as long as I'm having to mix something up I may as well do it from scratch and make up a big batch.

None of the currently available consumer dishwasher detergents work well without doing something like you do with the TSP. Finish commercial is one option but it's difficult to purchase. I guess I could also buy Bubble Bandit, but it's very expensive .

[Percival P. Cassidy]

We buy large packs of Cascade or store-brand dishwasher detergent at Costco. They work fine in our Whirlpool-built Kenmore dishwasher.

Perce

[Don Wiss]

How hard is your water? If your water is soft, any decent detergent will work. It is in locales with hard water where phosphates are needed to keep glassware from getting covered with lime deposits.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Percival P. Cassidy]

We have a water softener.

Perce

[Don Wiss]

Thank you for starting this thread. I learned and I have ordered four packages of the Bubble Bandit for $49.80 for my mother. In New Jersey her water is very hard. Her glasses are all covered with lime deposits. The sterling silver has a dingy look.

The rep at Bubble Bandit did recommend running the dishwasher empty with it three to four times to clean the deposits off the insides of the dishwasher. My mom says it is covered inside.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[sms]

I'm about to mix up a batch of dishwasher detergent to see how it goes.

We have hard water too, and the consumer brand dishwasher detergents don't really work.

I have plenty of sodium carbonate from the pool store (soda ash) but I depleted the regions borate supply (from the three closest Walmarts) for my pool. I was going to go to the next closest Walmart this morning to buy some, but, due to protesters, I decided to wait. To think, I voted for this guy twice and then he disrupts my plans! . I ordered citric acid from Amazon. I need it anyway and I was buying it in tiny packets before .

[Ed Pawlowski]

Cascade Platinum. Everything comes out perfect in my KA machine.

[Ashton Crusher]

I was disappointed in several of the commercial DW detergents and started adding TSP. Then I decided to try the CostCo DW "pods" and found that they work quite well. Don't even bother with the TSP anymore.

[Stormin Mormon]

Watch TSP taken off the market, now. Thanks, guys.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, What kinda dish washing you do? Have hard water problem? A DW not working well for some reason? We have Bosch washer with Finish Platinum or Bosch detergent. always works very well.

[Baron]

Before mixing up somethng with quite a lot of ingredients, you might try adding a little TSP to whatever dishwasher deteregent you normally use. I have found that running the dishwasher empty with a little citric acid (Lemi-Fresh) before using it once or twice as directed with a regular load works really well. The citric acid is also not toxic so you can keep it around without taking extraordinary precaitioins.

God Luck.

[RobertMacy]

a 'heads up'....

Years ago an outlet chain called Lucky's grocery stores carried an excellent dishwashing product called FINISH. We had found that unlike Cascade, in our water and system [plus Jet-Dri] produced spotless, clean glassware. So we ecstatic when the price was dropped to half as a special. and being discontinued at the store. We stocked up.

Then, upon using the product the glassware suddenly came out with what looked like water spots all over them. Very irritating because this was wedding glassware [goblets, wine glases, etc, imported from Sweden, and not replaceable, as also discontinued] and has special value. Wash again, but the spots NEVER came off. Looked like calcium deposits. I tried everything including mechanically trying to remove to no avail. Later found out that the dishwashing product had ETCHED the glassware !! Upon calling Finish found out that 'old' shelf life product will sometimes etch glass! Say what ?! They claim that they had stopped shipping to Lucky's years before and that product was probably Lucky's attempt to dump their stock, clear it out. But, according to Finish employee, old product has the ability to ruin glass.

So heads up.

[sms]

As long as I have to mix stuff I'd rather just do it from scratch and save money. The homemade stuff is about half the price of what I was paying for the Cascade professional product.

Citric acid must be one of the most expensive powders when repackaged. In a bulk 5 pound bag it's about 20¢/ounce. In little packets it's about $2 per ounce.

[Chi Wen]

No, no. Just add pinch of Koshihikari Japonica style. You will like

[Ed Pawlowski]

Don't forget to add in the cost of going to any stores that are an extra trip, etc. Do you put a value on your time for labor?

[sms]

That's why I love Amazon and Google Shopping Express. Free shipping and stuff comes the same day for GSE, and two days at the most for Amazon. And of course lower prices for most items.

I might have ordered the borate for my pool from Amazon, even though they charge shipping for it, had I known they carried it. I did make four trips, to different Walmarts, for the borate for the pool because I needed such a large quantity.