Ok, so I ran out of dishwasher tabs the other night and couldn’t be arsed to go to the shop, so as an experiment used ordinary washing up liquid in the machine instead – hardly any.

The dishes came out spotless! I’ve done it twice since with the same result – frying pans, pots, etc. Everything came out perfect. Also, seeing as you’re not using the usual chemicals, I guess you could wash all your glasses in there too without them going patchy after a while like they usually do.

Have I discovered something great or am I a skinflint pikey?

you may end up with a kitchen like this;

although without the beams on the ceiling, obviously.

You are a skinflint pikey. But if it works, why not?

I suppose there is a risk that the extra bubbles will put the soap in areas you don’t want it to be – bearings etc?

I quite often run mine with nothing in at all, still comes clean unless you’ve got really dirty pans in there.

I use powder rather than tablets as you really don’t need much in at all. same for washing machine.

They do say not to do that. If you keep on doing it, maybe you’ll find out why..

Is it actually cheaper?

I use Lidl tablets which are a lot cheaper than those ones that have a dozen different cleaning actions…everything seems clean.

dishwashing tablets are extortionate IMO. And seems to be monolpolised by…that company. Finish?

actually I’ve found the tablets not much different from buying salt, powder and rinse aid over a couple of months.

also make you want to fill the machine before running it which uses less energy for runnign the machine itself too.

You could save even more money by washing by hand. No electricity!

you use cold water then?

Gas for water not electricity… 😉

No – it runs on hot water, and I’ve had no probs with bubbles. Seeing as you need to put in hardly any (approx a dessert spoon) it would seem a lot cheaper.

wwaswas – Is that a picture of that hanger the USAF had built to store its B2 bombers in? Is that after they accidently set off the fire suppression system?

I found out that you still have to put salt in the dishwasher even though those 3-in-1 tablet/capsule things say you don’t.

seems to be s&j;

foaming hanger

although the text indicates it was ‘intended’

wonder if the tablets/powder aren’t as corrosive as washing up liquid? really no idea, but you may find bits of the dishwasher start to stop working!

I’ve used ALDI’s tablets, and they are cheap as chips for seemingly just as good cleaning performance (ok, not quite as good as Finish on tougher stuff).