Homemade Dishwasher Rinse Aid—3 Recipes
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Dishwasher rinse aids work great, but they're pricey and loaded with chemicals you just might not want in your home. Why not make your own homemade dishwasher rinse aid instead? Your dishes, your wallet, and the environment will thank you!
I've got three totally natural recipes for you to try, plus I also share what you want to avoid. Not all recipes for DIY rinse aids are safe!
In an effort to reduce the toxins in our home and environment, I've been making homemade cleaning products for some time.
Some I've made because I just wanted to, but some I've made out of sheer necessity. This time it was a case of the latter.
Dirty Dishes in New Dishwasher
When we had to get a new dishwasher, I chose a really good model (on sale of course) and thought we'd have fabulously clean dishes as a result. Instead, I found myself having to clean at least 1/4 of the top rack every single load. Ugh.
Washing dishes by hand after they've gone through the dishwasher cycle is for sure not efficient and not what this already-too-busy-mom needs at the end of the day. Something had to change.
I called the dishwasher manufacturer and they sent me a few samples of dishwasher rinse aid saying that that would help, plus they recommended a specific and very expensive type of detergent.
Well, the detergent I was open to trying, but this frugal-minded mom was determined not to spend even more money and put even more toxic chemicals into our home and the environment.
So off to figure out how to make an all-natural homemade dishwasher rinse aid, I went.
I read somewhere that putting straight vinegar in the rinse aid compartment was a quick and easy DIY Jet Dry alternative.
So I tried it and it worked.
However, soon after making this “genius” discovery, a dishwasher repairman warned me that the acid could possibly eat away at the seals of the compartment. Yikes!
Instead, he recommended the first super simple homemade dishwasher rinse aid that I am sharing with you here.
WARNINGS ABOUT DIY RINSE AIDS
Before we get to the recipes, however, there are some important things you should know about other homemade rinse aids on the internet. Some are quite dangerous.
Don't Mix Acids with Peroxide
There are some recipes online for DIY Rinse Aid made by combining citric acid with peroxide. This is NOT a good idea.
Also, don't mix peroxide with vinegar. Or with any acid. Mixing peroxide with acid makes a super strong oxidizer that can etch metal.
Be Careful with Essential Oils
Essential oils don't mix with water. So if you put essential oils in with peroxide or with water and citric acid, the oils will sit on top and likely will end up creating gummy residue in your machine that might cause a problem.
Don't Use Rubbing Alcohol
There are also some DIY Rinse Aids that recommend using rubbing alcohol as an ingredient. This might ruin your dishwasher that I know of, but it's pretty noxious and rubbing alcohol's fumes are flammable and should be kept from any heat source.
I don't think that the dishwasher's heat source would necessarily be a problem, but better to be safe than sorry and I think the fumes would get pretty intense. Since rubbing alcohol's fumes aren't considered the best to be exposed to, let's just not do this.
3 DIY DISHWASHER RINSE AIDS
Now here are the 3 Easiest Rinse Aids you can make. So easy, you'll never go back to buying it again!
Vinegar Dishwasher Rinse Agent
- Place a small cup in your dishwasher's top rack.
- Fill said cup with a 1/4 – 1/2 cup of white vinegar.
- Run dishwasher as usual.
I mean, who can beat saving tons of money, doing it naturally, and not mucking up the environment with all of those chemicals and extra packaging?
Here's a photo of our dishwasher. The vinegar is in the little plastic container on the lower left. Side note: this is why we have rubber bands on our glasses.
Now, I know it seems crazy, but this really does work. You'd think that the action of the dishwasher would cause all of the vinegar to be diluted greatly before it could help, but it didn't.
I'm sure the effectiveness of this method will depend on the position of the dishwasher arms in your dishwasher.
If this doesn't work for you, another option is to pour a 1/4 – 1/2 cup of vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher when the rinse cycle starts. Of course, you have to keep an eye on the dishwasher while it's running to do that.
So here is that Super Easy Rinse Aid plus two other options that are basically just as simple!
Peroxide Dishwasher Rinsing Agent
- Hydrogen Peroxide
Instructions
Pour some peroxide into your dishwasher's rinse aid dispenser and run the dishwasher as usual.
Genius Tip: Add a few drops of food coloring (natural food coloring is preferred) so you can see how much is left if you have a compartment that holds a lot of rinse aid.
Pitfalls of this method
Peroxide can bleach cloth, so take care to not get it on your clothes or kitchen linens.
Citric Acid Dishwasher Rinse Agent
- 2 Cups Citric Acid
- 5-10 Drops Essential Oils
Instructions
Mix ingredients and store in a jar.
Place one tablespoon of mixture in the rinse aid compartment prior to each load of dishes.
Pitfalls of this method
Citric Acid can get clumpy if you live in a humid environment. If this happens, you can place a tablespoon or so of bentonite clay in a baby sock or small cloth/rag, seal it with a rubber band, and keep it in the jar with your citric acid blend to absorb moisture.
Other Homemade Healthier Home Products
Looking for more ways to save money and detoxify your life? Here are some other DIY green cleaning formulas to try.
- Easy Homemade Non-Toxic Laundry Detergent
- Homemade Soft Scrub
- Homemade Moisturizing Foaming Soap
- No-Streak Window Cleaner
DIY Dishwasher Rinse Aid
Ingredients
Vinegar Dishwasher Rinse Agent
- 1/4-1/2 cup White Vinegar
Peroxide Dishwasher Rinse Aid
- Hydrogen Peroxide
- Food Coloring (natural preferred)
Citric Acid Dishwasher Rinse Aid
- 2 cups citric acid
- 5-10 drops essential oils (optional)
Instructions
Vinegar Dishwasher Rinse Agent
- Place a small cup in your dishwasher's top rack.
- Pour vinegar into the cup.
- Run dishwasher as usual.
Peroxide Dishwasher Rinse Aid
- Fill your rinse aid compartment with peroxide.
Citric Acid Dishwasher Rinse Aid
- Combine the citric acid and essential oils (if using) and store in a jar. Place one tablespoon in your rinse aid compartment before running a load of dishes in the dishwasher.
- You can also blend the citric acid with water and then add that to the rinse aid compartment, if you like, but it's really an extra unnecessary step.
Notes
Problems With the Peroxide Dishwasher Rinse Aid Method.
Peroxide can bleach clothing so take care to not get this on your clothing. NOTE: Some recipes online recommend mixing peroxide with citric acid. Do NOT do that. Also, don't mix peroxide with vinegar. Or with any acid. Mixing peroxide with acid makes a super strong oxidizer that can etch metal.Problems With Citric Acid Dishwasher Rinse Aid Method.
Citric Acid can get clumpy if you live in a humid environment. If this happens, you can place bentonite clay in a baby sock or small cloth, seal it with a rubber band, and keep it in the jar with your citric acid blend to absorb moisture.How to Clean Your Dishwasher
To help your dishwasher rinse aid work even better, try these tips.
If you have particularly hard water, try running your dishwasher with vinegar or citric acid every so often or even once weekly to clean it. Simply put 1 cup of vinegar or 1/4 to 1/2 cup of citric acid, or 1 cup of lemon juice either in the bottom of the dishwasher or in a container of the center rack before running it.
With these tips and recipes, you'll have your dishwasher running great, spotless glasses and silverware, without breaking the bank or spending a ton of time!
Has anyone of you tried soap nuts in the dish washer? You can use them in your laundry and boil them into a liquid and use that as a general purpose cleaner or dish washing liquid plus many more. Thought they might be an alternative to the usual dish washer powder. 🙂
If you want to email me offline I can send you a sample…happy to do so. 🙂 lisal at artofliving dot org. 🙂
Well…hold on…I might become a rep! My husband just said yesterday we should sign up! ha ha! His friend would be so happy if we did. If you give me a day or two I might be able to hook you up.. 🙂
Hi, Adrienne!
Thanks for you reply! I don’t know how much the Amway is per load. I’ve heard 21cents but CR said it was 60cents but the Amway folks dispute that. I think you could get away with less possibly. I just bought a box of DW soap and Laundry soap (I think it’s the same stuff, different smell) and together they cost $31 including shipping. It *is* concentrated so you don’t need to use very much. It (my DW anyway) requires rinse aid to work and my rinse aid of choice is Somat, which is supposed to be more natural. They work great together. I buy that on Amazon. When we moved to a rural area I just went on Amway.com and found a rep. We don’t sell it. I tried the laundry soap several years ago when my husband’s friend was into the business and wanted us to try it of course. So I said “he he yeah, right, sure I’ll try it!” so I piled up my son’s poopy organic cotton diapers with no pre-rinse for four days, then put the little tiny amount of soap in an overstuffed load on the short cycle, in cold water, out to prove that it would NOT work. Boy was I suprised when it cleaned alllll the poop off and left no residue on anything. 🙂 I could be a commercial for Amway as it turns out! lol. In any case I was sold and decided to try the DW soap and it made a huge difference. The other DW soap choice was something from the organic store which didn’t work very well. Their hand dish soap works well too–similar to Palmolive but a bit more natural, gets grease off and doesn’t dry your hands. I would not touch LOC with a 10 foot pole however! 😉 (that’s the original amway product.)
If you could make a good natural detergent that works, you could keep the recipe proprietary and sell it! 🙂 I would certainly buy it from you!
BTW the Somat rinse aid I ordered a few days ago has yet to come in the mail and I washed a load last night with the Amway soap. Our incoming water is about 140 (very hot!) and I noticed that it left a teeny bit of residue on my scorched hot chocolate pan which it usually never does. It could be the lack of rinse aid or maybe we need cold water incoming into the DW because the hot is sooooo hot… 🙂
I look forward to hearing how your experiments go! You could probably get someone to give you a sample of Amyway without having to buy it. 🙂
Good luck!
PS I haven’t tried Biokleen but I’ve heard good things about it. May try that next…if no glycol esters!
Thanks! Well, I wish you were a rep – I’d buy from you.
I live in Amway country so this is really funny. I don’t care for the company image, but they sure have done a lot to help our city.
I have tried Biokleen. Not worth it in my opinion. I am trying icky chemical kind, Tropical Traditions and Trader Joe’s. The DIY I tried was awful. I am really swamped w/ other experiments, but who knows….maybe I’ll try again :-).
Thanks!!
For a great DW ‘detergent’ I just put about a TBSP of washing soda on the door at the bottom, add a bit of homemade (or bought) liquid soap, 4 squirts, and SOMETIMES, if things are really dirty, I’ll add a bit to the closed cup, about a tsp (no soap, as it will clump the washing soda.) use the light wash and presto, things are clean with no residue.
I should say, my DW is a small one as that was what was there before (house built in 1945, and no DW in original), so you may have to use a BIT more in a regular DW, but be careful: I have hard water and no issues with film but when I DO it is because of TOO MUCH “DETERGENT”, nothing else. I use no rinse aid, normally.
Thanks! What are you adding to the closed cup – a teaspoon of what, exactly? I have been trying out a DIY option actually. 🙂
Sometimes when my dishes are really dirty (not usually as I rinse mine in the sink before), I will add, in ADDITION to the 1Tbsp washing soda and liquid soap I add to the bottom of the door, 1tsp or so of washing soda to the closed cup. I have added the liquid soap here too, but quite often it makes the washing soda clump inside and not wash out…
So you have an open cup and a closed one? Sorry I’m not following you. Thanks!
Adrienne: yes, my smaller dishwasher has a closed cup and a tiny open one: I assume it is for the extras wash cycle, which I never use…I only put DW detergent/soap in the closed one, if at all. I prefer to use less soap/detergent, and get another rinse cycle to make sure the detergent/soap is all rinsed off…
And since I pre-rinse my dishes, I feel it isn’t necessary to do two washes. In fact, often I will use the quick rinse, and then a light wash. Otherwise I just do the light wash. But again, my setup is vastly different from most others, as I do not have a full size dishwasher, but rather a small version as I didn’t have room for a full size one.
L. O. C. is AWESOME! I don’t understand why you wouldn’t use it! Amway products are amazing. Been using them for years and years.
Hi, Adrienne!
Can you share the dishwasher detergent recipe that worked for you? For the last several years I have had Bosch dishwashers (LOVE them) and have used Amway soap with Somat Rinse aid (might be made by Miele) but I just learned that the Amway DW soap has glycol esters in it (not good!) although it is devoid of most of the other bad things so more natural than most. It works beeeeeaaaautifully even when I put in caked on food. Somat rinse aid is supposed to be more natural than other stuff but I would prefer vinegar. I’ll try it and report back. 🙂
That being said I would reaaaalllly love to find a homemade dishwasher soap that works. Can you please share your recipe? I didn’t see it above! Or did I just miss it?
What a wonderful post!
Thanks!
Hi Lisa.
I wasn’t able to get one to work well. I think I mentioned that in the post – that I was working on it but not sure yet. What a bummer. I am even having a hard time w/ my purchased powder. Makes me temped to try the Amway. I have never used their products. How much does it cost per load?
Thanks much – look forward to hearing from you!
Lisa: Read my comment above, but I will say IF I use a store bought DW soap, I will use either Better Life Naturally crumb crushing dishwasher Gel (buy on amazon) , or I have read the ingredients on Molly’s suds Dishwasher Detergent Pods and they seem to work well…but I don’t use those often. I have good success with both of these. But usually, I just use Washing soda and liquid soap
Any film and it is because of too much DW sopap
I use vinegar to rinse my dishes in the dishwasher also. I live rual and ran out of soap – ended up using maybe 2 drops of dish soap and filled the cups with vinegar just to run it with something (I have 4 boys and our dishwasher really gets ran 3 times a day FULL LOADS) I have to say it worked better than i thought it would and have been using it as a rinse agent since then -with dw detergent. And my kids help load so at times theres little to no rinsing before running them through.
I have one with bad bad eczema and I fill my washing machine cup with vinegar instead of softner. it works great. and no there is no smell of vinegar after wash and if I over use, it disapates in the dryer. same as my carpet cleaner i will shampoo my carpet then give it a vinegar rinse. makes your carpet fluffy as it gets the shampoo build up off or something, idk but it works. Your site here is awe-some!! Thank you for all the super ideas
Hi Stephanie! Thanks for being so kind w/ your compliments. I too have used vinegar in my rinse cycle for clothes, mainly to get out the musty smell. Haven’t shampooed any of our rugs yet, but I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks!
I’ve been hesitant to use white vinegar in the dishwasher, mainly because it’s my aunt. She’s not convinced that the vinegar won’t somehow leave a residue on the heating coils. What has been your experience with that? I do like this si mple idea and for sure, because it’s CHEAP. Have a great weekend. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 🙂 🙂 🙂
Heather – I haven’t seen anything wrong with it. We had a GE repairman by today and I told him I had this in my rinse aid compartment and he didn’t bat an eye. Said it was a great idea. 🙂
We use vinegar as well. I never thought to add food coloring though. Great post!
Thanks, Heather!
Hey Adrienne,
I love this idea. I don’t like the smell of vinegar though. Does it make your dishes smell like vinegar?
Thanks,
Amy
Amy,
There is so little of the vinegar that comes out that it doesn’t smell at all. Hope it works for you!
No, not at all. The rinse water takes it away. The vinegar also dissipates the soap better. I have a spray bottle by my sink, so when I wash a pot by hand, and it’s all soapy I spray some vinegar in it and the soap rinses out and off of the pan much faster, using less water.
Thank you so much for this information. I want to try it however I hate the smell of vinegar. I know the benefits of vinegar and I so want to try it for several things. I guess the question I have is: can you smell vinegar on dishes afterwards, during the process does the smell of vinegar fill the kitchen?
Also for the other uses of vinegar, does the smell of vinegar linger?
Thanks so much
I personally don’t smell it. Which other uses are you thinking about? You could also try lemon juice in the rinse aid compartment. I’ve recently learned that works as well. Just is more expensive.
I just know you can use vinegar to clean a lot of items, I have also heard of putting in your windshield thing to clean car’s windshield. If it doesn’t smell or produce the smell when it is cleaning I am then all for it. A lady uses it to clean at work and it makes me sick each time she does it. I know a great cleaner and safe for children/pets/eco so I should really try to use it. Thanks for all your help in this.
Hi Cynthia. I don’t mind the vinegar smell, but I really do mind the chemical smells. That being said, you can try lemon juice in your rinse aid compartment if you’d prefer :-).