Or Savogran TSP in the red box, not the worthless substitute stuff in the green box.
I'm looking for a source for a 55 gallon drum of dry food grade TSP cause you know the busybodies are going to try to get TSP banned next, at least at the retail level.
I am running a experiment as I type:) For seemingly forever my clothes appear to get stiff or hard:( Noticed it big time yesterday when I gave my dogs a bath the towels were rock hard. My polo shirts get inflexible and uncomfy. I have replaced them for that reason. Fabric softener doesnt make a difference.
This got me wondering iif the same hard deposits I see in the dishwasher are happening in my clothes washer too?
will post the results:) I tried a load with 3/4 regular dish detergent 1/4 TSP. its running right now.
I'd try washing the 'stiff' clothes without any soap, a couple of times. Mebbe do it at a laundromat. I've found that even without softened water, the amount of soap they say to use on the jug or box is WAY too high, and it builds up in the clothes and towels and such. A quick check would be to lay a stiff shirt or towel in the bathtub, and point the shower at it, and see if suds develop. When I moved into a place that did have a water softener (apartment), I actually made the manager swap out the washer, because I thought it wasn't draining right, because there was still soapy water in the second rinse. Washed everything twice, the second time without soap, for a month or two, before the penny dropped, and it occurred to me to use less soap to start with. I replaced the softener when I moved into this house 5 years ago, and keep it set as low (non-soft)as it will go, and I get good results only using about 1/4 of the amount of soap the line on the cap says to use.
Why go to the trouble? Home Depot has a one-pound box for ~$2.50. One pound is sufficient for a couple hundred dishwasher loads. (HD also has five-pound boxes.)
My next purchase of dishwasher detergent will be the powdered kind, then I'll do the math for mingling the right amount of TSP with the box of detergent.
You raise an interesting point. I did the math and it worked out to about 1 teaspoon per dispenser cup. And in fact, using that amount did make a dramatic difference in the performance of the dishwasher. But I see see the occasional bad batch of clean glassware, and if you go back and read one of the two articles posted earlier in this thread, they talk about phospahtes being up to
1/3 of older formulations. So - time for some more experimentation I think.
A while back I posted my problem with the dishwasher and received many good tips. Thank you all. My wife especially wanted me to thank those who suggested adding TSP to the new "imprived" dishwashing detergent. Half a tablespoon works wonders.
By strange coincidence, the cover story of the January 31 issue of the "Weekly Standard" was "Why Your Dishwasher Doesn't Work Anymore."
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Paul =====================
TSP wasn't removed from dishwasher detergents, sodium tripolyphosphate was. If I decide to supplement my dishwasher detergent, STPP is what I?ll use, and only at the bare minimum effective dose. My detergent cup holds a little under 2 tb for liquids, and I suppose about 3 tb for powders. Considering phosphates only made up about 8% of the old detergents, I might start with 1/4 tsp to see how it goes.
True, but TSP is more readily available to consumers than STPP is. The two are very closely related, but I haven't found a good description of what the difference is.
You are measuring by volume so there won't be any difference between liquid and powder. Using the minimal amount necessary to get good results is good for a number of reasons.
Not 100% of STPP results in elemental phosphorus. If you are interested in the chemistry, you should read the Chemical and Engineering News article here:
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The key sentence is:
Added to U.S. dishwasher detergents at up to 35% by weight, sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), the main detergent phosphate, was something of a wonder ingredient, helping to maintain pH, remove food and grease, inhibit corrosion, and suspend insoluble dirt.
That sentence speaks to weight and not volume, but my guess is that there isn't a lot of difference between the weight of dry dishwasher deterent and STPP so it shouldn't matter. It really depends on the chemistry of your water supply. You could start with a teaspoon of STPP and go up to a tablespoon if required.
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