The best and most inexpensive solution is to simply add phosphates to your dishwasher. A half-teaspoon of TSP added to your dishwasher, along with your regular dishwasher liquid, will get the job done for pennies per load. Laundry Too! The same story applies to your laundry as to your dishwasher. For front-loading washers, add one tablespoon TSP along with your normal laundry soap.
TSP is perfectly safe for all colors and whites, and can be safely mixed with bleach if needed. Now your dishes and clothes will be clean again. Gidget Fraser Gidget is a full-time wife and mommy, part-time blogger.
Share on Facebook Share. Share on Twitter Tweet. Share on Pinterest Share. Send email Mail. Which is better for the environment? Washing your dishes four times, or just once, while putting some phosphorus in the water? The latest science is that the type of phosphates in TSP, and which were formerly in dishwashing and laundry detergents, have no affect on algae blooms.
Not to mention modern sewage systems are very effective at removing all phosphates from the system. Just another case of the greens fixing something that is not a problem. Algae blooms come from agriculture not households. Just like the idiotic low flow toilets. I don't know how much research supports TSP being a non-issue even if it were to build up, but I can understand minimizing phosphate usage where it's not key to product performance.
In laundry detergent it may not be as important, but in dishwasher detergent it seems to be. And dishwashers tend to use less water and actual detergent than many clothes washers anyway.
BTW, anon is only correct about CO2 removal if that algae happens to sink into the cold depths upon death. Otherwise it cycles back to the atmosphere pretty quickly via the food chain and decomp.
The major contributor of phosphate in the environment is the runoff from cow populated pasture land. The untreated manure contaminated water is high in phosphates AND E. Be cautious with your glassware, the high alkalinity pH of TSP can contribute to glass fogging, but it is less of an issue with hard water. Industry used STPP sodium tripoly phosphate for laundry and dish consumer formulations. I use this stuff from time to time. Cascade Platinum packets have worked well but now after being down to one job, TSP is back with cheaper detergents and works well.
After losing one of my jobs, its back to TSP and a cheaper detergent. It's tempting to rationalize when we want to save some aggravation. I would be lying to say I haven't done the same at times. But the problem with phosphates is a serious one and really should have been addressed long ago. If your water is that hard, try using a real rinse aid instead of vinegar.
Dishwashers are designed with the assumption that these will be used and part of their purpose is to prevent the hard water buildup you are using the TSP to eliminate. A store brand works fine and is quite cheap. David, the assertion the the type of phosphates used in dishwasher detergent was a problem for the environment turned out to be junk science. Like so much environmental "science," going back to Rachel Carson.
Just wondered if you'd gone back to the homemade recipe with added TSP. If so, has it worked well? If you do a search online for Spokane regional wastewater phosphorus bio-availability study,and it's author, MIchael Brett, you'll find real science.
The suggestion is that simple phosphorus compounds are assumable by simple plant forms such as algae. Complex molecular compounds are not. Guess in which category sodium tripolyphosphate lives? Sodium triphosphate by another name. Guess what's in detergent. Guess which is in commercial fertilizers? TSP isn't the boogyman, and it's not unnatural. It's simply a chemical. Overuse of anything often causes issues, of course.
Oh - some of the hard water spots might be leftover from the TSP. Our politicians and the 'Greens' are generally pretty simple-minded people. They see or hear of -one- cause of a problem, automatically assume that anything related to that is part of the problem, and try to ban it all. Facts and science don't enter into it - heard anything about the 'hole in the ozone layer' lately? How about 'Global Warming'. Wait, that's now 'Climate Change' after enough people were caught playing with the numbers.
Don't jump to conclusions - and make sure your local politicians aren't allowed to do so either. It was small, and inconclusive. That's why funding for further research was canceled by the state.
If you were to actually research the subject before jumping on the misinformed government bandwagon to 'clean up' the environment you'd find that it's not even TSP that was causing the problems in Washington state, but another phosphate all together! But will the government reverse their opinion and admit they were wrong, hell no! So don't gimme that do goodie good bullshit.
The phosphates which were used in dishwasher detergent and are in TSP are not a problem for the environment. I used TSP in my dishwasher for about a year in the quantities mentioned here and it stained the inside of my dishwasher and also yellowed my silverware. I can polish the yellow off, but it returns even though I quit the TSP ages ago.
Don't try this. In your case you were not using enough. That's not impossible. I had the same experience. I found this recipe for adding TSP to dishwasher detergent and used it just as the article recommends.
Contact options for registered users. Reply to Pete C. Vic Smith Contact options for registered users. Reply to Vic Smith. Reply to bud Tom Mills Contact options for registered users. Where do you find the true TSP? I looked at my local building products store and they have TSP but it list on the package Phosphate free. Reply to Tom Mills. HeyBub Contact options for registered users.
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