DIY rinse aid

[tim...]

I am out of rinse aid (and am disinclined to make a special trip to the supermarket to buy some)

can I make some more by watering down washing up liquid, or will that not work?

tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Washing up liquid tends to leave smears, if not rinsed off.

[Jethro_uk]

From what I know, don't put WUL of any concentration in a dishwasher.

Also, when my dishwashers rinse-aid mechanism failed, about 5 years ago, the consensus here was not to worry. Which I didn't and things still clean up OK.

Might help that we're in a very soft water area ?

[spuorgelgoog]

Your DW tabs may already include rinse aid, if they're all -in-one.

You might not need rinse aid if you have soft water.

Some white vinegar will do the rinse-aidy job of de-smearing glasses, but might affect the rubbery parts of the rinse-aid compartment/mechanism.

Owain

[Andrew]

I use Ilford Ilfotol wetting agent intended for the final rinse when developing film. Brilliant for cleaning glass and leaving a streak-free finish.

It was £6 when I bought it in 2008 and a litre goes a long, long way

[Andrew]

Sorry, only for glass as in optical or see-through, not the stuff you eat off !

[Chris Hogg]

Don't use washing up liquid. Try this mix for a DIY solution

[tim...]

hence the confirmation that my suggestion is sensible

cos when I use to develop film we use a thin solution of washing up liquid as a drying agent

but that would be mixed per use, and it didn't matter if the solution was a bit bubbly

I guess that the hardness of the water helps

tim

[tim...]

nope

nope

okey dokey

[tim...]

well

I hardly consider

citric acid, rubbing alcohol lemon essential oil

as common ingredients

like I already have them in my cupboard - not

by the time I have put that little lot together I could have bought the commercial stuff

but thanks anyway

tim

[polygonum_on_google]

If I can substitute orange for lemon, then no problem. :-) Doesn't everyone have some alcohol and citric acid lying around?

[Jon Fairbairn]

We certainly do. But if ?rubbing alcohol? is surgical spirit, it contains something intended to taste nasty (most drinking alcohol won?t be strong enough), so I wonder whether American surgical spirit doesn?t?

[Spike]

Get some genuine stuff. Amazon's best seller:

2 x 800ml Finish rinse aid, choice of Original or Lemon, free delivery.

Get some dishwasher powder/tabs while you're at it...

[Jethro_uk]

Well us home distillers have - certainly up to 90% ABV

[RJH]

Or just use all-in-1 tablets - removes the need for salt and rinse aid. Haven't put either in my dishwasher for a long time . . .

[tim...]

Citric acid has long been on my list of items that I want in my cupboard as cheap generic scale remover, because I don't like the smell of vinegar

but I have never (since about 1970) seen anywhere openly selling it,

so no, I don't have some in my cupboards (I just suffer the smell of the vinegar)

[tim...]

there was me thinking home distilling was illegal

(personally don't care cos it's not my choice of tipple)

tim

[tim...]

actually, it seems very difficult to buy anything other than 3-in-1 ATM

I was looking for some more powder, but I ended up having to buy 3-in-1 tabs

but I'm still working my way through the last lot of powder

That's looking at own brands BTW, I think I could have bought a branded powder - at about twice the price per wash of the own brand tabs

tim

[Spike]

Same here. Due to lack of availability of our normal tab, we've been using Finish Powerball tabs - results so far are excellent.

Me neither...but the OP asked about rinse aid...

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

tim... has brought this to us :

Homebrew home wine shops stock it.