Cleaning Tips That You Have Used With Success!

Dishwasher salt.

A good way to save money and still keep the dishwasher clean and effective is NOT to buy the packets of salt at the supermarket, how long do they last a week? two weeks?

Go to a DIY store and buy a 25Kg bag of the big salt tablets for normal water softners. Use that instead.

We find that a 25Kg bag lasts us about 4 - 5 years, with the dishwasher being used 2 - 4 times a day.....

25 x 1 Kg packets from the supermarket probably cost about the same, but with only one delivery!

So far less fuel/driving involved. But the 25 packets would probably not have lasted much more than a year at best!!! So the environment also has far less salt to "absorb" as well. Thats good too.

We have done this for our last three dishwashers (kitchen changed and threw the old kit out each time, still working!!

The reasons are simple, the tablets are huge and extremely hard, therefore they take a very long time to get small enough to be "washed away" in comparison to the crystals of normal size packet salt.

But the water still "takes/makes" a saturated solution, so the water softner is still regenerated properly.....

All pros and no cons (except the weight when carrying the bag!!!)

I cook rice in a stainless steel pan. I've got it down to a fine art whereby I judge the amount of water such that, if I turn it off at the right time all the water gets absorbed an we get perfect rice.
If I get distracted the pan gets burnt.
A wire brush in an electric drill soon restores the SS to a good finish.
Ok it's not subtle but it works.
Del_{<sniff sniff, anyone smell rice burning?>}

Sounds like someone needs a rice cooker...

Not really, various types of rice need different cooking. Most are best steamed - not boiled. (a bias acquired in Japan in particular, but existent throughout the region)

With machines; if you are absent minded, or not fastidious, mold can invaded and it's a comprehensive pull down to get rid of it, or all future batches are tainted.

Pans are simpler to do either method.

I drink (black) tea every day and also I tend to drink it from stainless steel insulated mugs that are not supposed to be put in the dishwasher. The mugs (I have 3 in all), get very badly stained (Tannin?) after a few weeks usage.

I experimented around and found a simple cleaning method, with no scrubbing, that gets them like new in a few hours.

Whether it would work on coffee stained stainless mugs I don't know, maybe one of you can find out.

(Cups that can go into a Dishwasher rarely need this!)

I fill the mug to the brim with a 15 - 20% strength of Chlorine (bathroom cleaning stuff) to water. 15% Chlorine to 85% water approximately.

I let it stand for between 1 and 2 hours somewhere safe, where no small children can get at it for example......Make a safety notice for the rest of the household, not forgetting pets that cannot read!( Stupid things!!)

After that time the walls of the mug are clean and there is a white precipitate in the bottom. I then carefully fill the next stained mug from the first, topping it up to the brim with extra water if needed, but NOT letting the white precipitate go into that next mug, as it tends to stop the base of the mug (inside of course!) getting clean properly for some reason.

I clean 3 mugs with the same solution, one after the other. It works as well for the first as for the last!!!

Maybe more mugs could be done, or maybe the strength of the solution could be reduced.....I have not tried either of those things.....chlorine is SOOOOOO cheap.

Wash mug with plenty of clean water afterwards for safety, but it leaves no smell or taste in the mug at all, just clean as a whistle!!

Chlorine is used to sterilize drinking water, in a much weaker solution, in most countries......just don't drink it pure!!! You will go "CLEAN ROUND THE BEND!!"

A joke that many Brits will understand from TV ads of some years ago......

Yeah, that's a prob they have in motorway service stations, in their commercial dishwashers they often have to use a 3rd product "sanitizer" to rmove the tanin stains from all the cups (the other 2 products are the detergent and rinse aid) I think it's basically a chlorine /bleach type product.
Del

I use sodium bicarbonate to clean the brown stain from the teapot. One or two teaspoons followed by a kettlefull of boiling water, leave for 20-30 mins and wipe (or lightly scour, depending on how long since the last clean). Works a treat. Just make sure you let the others know you haven't just made a pot of tea!

Can't vouch for this, as I'm not a tea conniseur. Once scrubbed my nother teapot and she went ape ! Apparently the accumulated tannin improves the flabour. Hang on, curiosity is getting the better of me.......hmmmmm... #15 ? More hmm.

_{No, Del, I said pee in the washing machine. Reason being that people might notice the yellowish coloured foam when you're stuck in it ! Sleep in the dishwasher and you're doomed ! heeeeelp, I'm stuck in the matrix}

Ordinary soap

and a little brushing, will remove tea staining.

It's also an excellent pan cleaner in partnership with steel wool and safe on aluminum.

Yes I do the same using a dash of Lidl's cheapo dilute bleach and fill with water, let it stand and dump it then into the next cup that needs treatment. Hardly any chlorine smell which can be dispersed with a dash of hot water after normally wash up.

For some reason if you use milk, I think it binds the tannin, you get far less staining.

Also the addition of milk cools the tea sufficiently to reduce the incidence of oesophageal cancer that is prevalent in those who take their tea too hot and neat.

Sorry Andy I'm partial to cast iron don't go for non-stick stuff. In use of years the grease and oils that get bake on to the surface to make the cast iron non-stick gets a little thick. Also turns black and can chip off. The cure is a good fire. Take them camping and throw them in it. It will burn it all of. They come out almost looking new. Just have to start the process of seasoning the surface again.

Note do not try with cast aluminum. My brother did once looked nice sitting in the fire all in one piece. Until he struck it with a stick to knock off all the ash from burned build up. Disintegrated into the fire. Should have seen his face. Mom was kinda fond of that two burner griddle it was lite weight.

I find that the dish detergent made specifically for dishwashing machines is not particularly good at breaking up grease. It seems they rely on heating the water to break up grease. It is, however, very good for killing germs as most of them have chlorine bleach as an ingredient.

So for breaking up grease and removing burnt on Feta, I find that alkalines seem to work better. I have tried small amounts of lye, but I'm really uneasy with it. Lye is really good at breaking down grease, but it's not a particularly nice chemical to work with. Instead, I tried baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). I do something similar, a small amount of water, a tablespoon or two of baking soda, heat it for a minute on the stove top and let it soak. Sometimes I'll also add some hand dishwasher detergent, not the machine stuff, the manual detergents are far better at breaking up grease.

Ozzb, you bring up a good point. Aluminum pots, pans and griddles do NOT like alkalines! Don't bother using baking soda (and definitely no lye) on them, it will pit them and corrode them. As for cast iron, I will take my cast iron frying pan and soak it in a diluted Lye solution to reduce the build up. Rinse it well and re-season and it's good for a few years. I like your solution better, you can make s'mores while you clean your pan.

Del, don't you find that a wire brush seems to shorten the life of your pot?

To clean a barbecue grill, I spray on "magnetic particle cleaner". Takes the burned on stuff off quickly without scrubbing. It's a pretty potent solvent so I don't recommend it for everyday use. Stainless steel pots and pans are probably the hardest to clean. Once you get a "hot spot" on SS, the pot or pan will always stick in the same place. Overheating any metal utensil will ruin it, except possibly cast iron. One time I put a large pot of rice to cook. I was awakened by the firemen. Thick black smoke was pouring from the windows. It took weeks before I could get the smell out. Naturally that pot was toast and I threw it away.

Hey, does anyone know how to get rid of that awful white residue left on everything that goes through the dishwasher? It may be calcium carbonate, but not absolutely sure at this point without testing it. This problem just started occurring the past 3 months. We've have been using "Cascade" powder or "Cascade" detergent (or supermarket generic equivalents) for years, together with "Jetdry". I've tried almost everything to get this unsightly residue off pots, pans, cups, plates and silverware.

We're on a Village water system where the source is a half dozen wells, but the Total Hardness (as CACO3) in the past has been typically less than 120 mg/L. Problem started occurring even before we retired the Culligan water softener a month ago; it was pretty much useless anyhow. I'm guessing that the water quality may have changed or fluctuated significantly recently (last 8 months or better). The village water dept. says no, but I still wonder and I am likely to perform some lab tests myself just to verify what exactly is the water chemistry lately. I'm beginning to wonder if water records are being "fudged" somewhat.....it won't be the first time I've run into such record keeping to stave off State Health Dept. investigations and mandates.

I haven't tried the product "CLR" or even white vinegar yet, but willing to give it a try. Any other suggestions short of hydrochloric acid? LOL

Has anyone run into this problem with their dishwasher? Am I missing another dishwashing chemical that I should be using?

TIA!!!!

Yeah, just pee in the dishwasher.
Del (Kris made me say it)

Empty it first

You can buy (or order) a water hardness test kit from most good Chemists. Should not be expensive, I'm guessing, but under US$50.

I think its calcium...... = hard water.

You can then find out just how hard your water is.....

This also sounds like your dishwasher water softener is defective......as all the dishwashers I have ever had, had their own built in....maybe where you are is different? Did you forget the salt maybe?

There are other possible "salts" etc., that may b dissolved in your water, you should get an independent water analysis......if its not just hardness.....

Try submerging the white crusted item in distilled white vinegar for 10-15 minutes and then rub with a plastic scouring pad. I just tried it on a glass that has an indented bottom where the white crude collects. Cleaned the bottom beautifully. Now the rest of the glass looks dirty. Sigh

A tip I got off Paul Prudhomme: He was extolling the virtues of cast iron skillets and I asked him how he cleans 'em. Just turn them upside down on a gas flame. Works great.

I have a tip that cuts my dusting in half! When I come into the house, I take off my glasses and the dust just magically disappears! I make my guests check their glasses at the door. I also find that biodiesel with a little non-ionic soap makes a great cleaner/degreaser that gets oil stains off concrete and easily cleans up with water afterwards.

LOL!

In a stainless steel pot that got burnt, I poured Jeyes fluid [Containing carbolic acid],

Left it overnight and it desolved all the carbon. Kept the old Jeyes fluid to add to water to spray plants to keep buggs away.

If you can get a bag of sodium percarbonate (the granular peroxide used to manufacture some toothpastes) you can use it with your dishwasher soap to enhance removal of food products including cooked eggs or rice. Generally I mix it 50/50 with something like Cascade. No effort required and it cleans great. You can also use it to clean those coffee travel mugs with the brown stains that don't seem to want to remove easily. Just put a teaspoon of sodium percarbonate into the mug and fill with hot water. Let it stand for 20 minutes or so and then rinse. Voila! a clean mug.

Sodium percarbonate is available for many uses and many recipes can be found on a Google search. Here is one site picked at random. It is available also as an ingredient many commercial products but sold in less concentration than the industrial base. Solvay Interox from Houston manufacture it. It is great stuff and I do keep a small container under the kitchen sink for just such messy cleanups mentioned in the thread.

Lye

Lye in water will remove the burnedest-on stuff on any stainless steel pan.

Don't use hot water!

Don't get it on your hands!

If you're scared of the stuff use Easy-Off spray. Which is spray lye.

You can use laundry bleach, too. Same rules. Let the solution soak in the pan and presto-changeo, the crud rinses off.

Here is the last method, the Caron Hofer method. I will quote her:

"It's easy to keep your stainless steel pans looking like new! Every time you use them, before you put them away, just spend 5 minutes on each one scrubbing it with a Brillo pad. They will always look like new!"

Easy

Careful with that bleach Eugene!

My wife destroyed a stainless steel pot using bleach. Ate a pinhole through it. Couldn't even see through the hole, it zig-zagged through the metal, but the pot wouldn't hold water!

If you use plasic mugs for tea and coffee, you know how stained they get.

Just fill then 100% full with water and throw one of Grandma's false teeth cleaning tablets in each one. (or one of your own )

A few hours later, they are all perfectly clean....

Step one, throw away your 'coated' non-stick pans... They are slowly poisoning you.

I like cast iron, well seasoned it is a superior non-stick material (I like forged better, but good luck finding a forged pan these days).

Take your caked on baked on nasty pan and put it, dry, back on the stove. Heat it up until the stuck on stuff starts to smoke a little and then pour in cold water, If the pan is hot enough the water should immediately boil creating a massive steam cloud and removing most of the crud from your pan (too hot and you may explosively crack your pan if it is cast), use your spatula or fork to knock the stubborn bits loose, rinse and voila, clean pan and you didn't even need soap (which will strip the 'seasoning' off your cast iron). You may need to repeat this process a few times for a severely funked up pan, but I assure you the cleaning power of boiling water will conquer your filthy pan. This process is called de-glazing in the culinary world and should be done as the final step before you shut down your stove after cooking to make clean up a breeze, also, if you didn't burn it to death before de-glazing, sauces and gravies made from the fond (burnt on crap on the bottom of the pan) are highly flavorful and, not surprisingly, complimentary to the food you cooked in the pan. Simply de-glaze (don't rinse), add sifted flour to the watery muck in the pan and stir with a fork over medium-low heat to make a basic but flavorful gravy.

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Dawn Direct Foam is the best de-greaser I know, and it makes a nice job of the dishes too. Pump some onto a scrubber and the suds just keep going. Been working on the beater? a little pump in the palm work it in, add a tiny little bit of water, work it in, and rinse... works as well as Gojo and rinses better.

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If all else fails, put a couch on top of that stain on the carpet...

This is probably old hat to most of you, when you fall asleep and the glass of beer falls from your hand onto the new carpet, use profuse amounts of paper towels, place them over the spill and step on the towels. The liquid will be absorbed quickly. the more applications the better the results.

Some times you can even clean it up well enough that the war department will not notice.

That's a great tip, though I'd recommend something more robust than paper. With head back, and a decent squeeze, one can repeat this process all night long.

In the US, we have a brew known as "Fat Tire Ale". Pour this into a glass and leave it out on the counter overnight. In the morning you will find that you have a glass of "Flat Tire Ale".

Bill