Dishwasher: stains from using white vinegar instead of jet-dry?

[gk90]

After seeing a couple of threads here about using white vinegar instead of jet-dry in the dishwasher I thought I'd try it--but now I see stains, like light brown streaks, coming from the dispenser area? Has anyone else seen anything like this?

 

[eduk8r26]

Don't know about that, but I never had any luck with Jet-dry. I discovered something called Lemmi-shine that works great. I put some in the closed section of the dishwasher and detergent in the open one and it does a great job.

 

[CajunDixie]

Do you have hard/rusty water? Possibly it's cleaning the layered on rust inside your machine?

 

[luvwishes]

How much vinegar do you use in your dishwasher? I would love to try this!!

 

[dbelmo]

that too happened to me when I converted to white vinegar (now I use it for everything--my two boys have not had any allergy or asthma incidents since the switch in Feb.)

Well anyway in that little container wher the "jetdry" goes--it builds up with gunk-- food, paper, etc from your dishes now that gunk gets gross and starts to mold because jetdry is an agent that shines the dishes not something that kills the germs like vinegar. So now that you use vinegar you will see some of the gunk getting released and being destroyed


Try washing and empty dishwasher with just vinegar this helped me.

dbelmo

 

[Shmily1]

If your dishwasher doesn't have a spot for Jet Dry can you still use the vinegar somewhere? I would like to do this but don't know where to put it.

 

[tiggger1]

I use apple cider vinegar..I just pour in into the jetdry reserve until the level says full

 

[D&D's Mom]

I tried the vinegar, but even when using the heated drying cycle for the dishwasher, the dishes were always wet and spotty. I went back to Jet Dry & all is good now. Anyone have ideas about why it didn't work for me?

 

[Princess Erin]

I use the white vinegar (1 cup or so) and my dishes are beautiful, with no spots or debris left on them.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I use the white vinegar (1 cup or so) and my dishes are beautiful, with no spots or debris left on them.

Do you just dump it in somewhere to use 1 cup?

 

[Princess Erin]

I just dump it in the front...just when it is about the rinse, it is worth a try.

 

[rdevine10]

Im not sure about your stains, but using the drink mix Tang and running the dishwasher when its empty will remove most stains from a dishwasher. (Kind of scary it works so well, and some people drink it!!!!(

 

[becca-becca]

I have never used Jet-Dri. What is its exact purpose? You use it in addition to dishwasher soap, right? Can someone elaborate?

And, to the pp who said it cut down on allergy/asthma, is that just from the dishes being cleaner or are you using vinegar to clean elsewhere?

 

[amsyw]

Don't know about that, but I never had any luck with Jet-dry. I discovered something called Lemmi-shine that works great. I put some in the closed section of the dishwasher and detergent in the open one and it does a great job.

Im not sure about your stains, but using the drink mix Tang and running the dishwasher when its empty will remove most stains from a dishwasher. (Kind of scary it works so well, and some people drink it!!!!(

There isn't anything scary in Tang. What makes the stains go away is the Citric acid that is in the tang. It is from citris items (ie oranges, lemmons etc.) It is the same thing that is in Lemmi-shine (see above) OR you can just go buy Citric Acid. It is sold at most health food stores. Much cheager than either the Tang or Lemmi shine. However I do buy Lemmi Shine when I'm out of Citric Acid and am not going to be near a health food store for a while.

We have very hard water from our well and the citric acid is the ONLY thing that will keep our dishes from turning white!

hth!

 

[Waiting]

Jet Dry lowers the surface tension of the rinse water in your dishwasher allowing the water to sheet off the dishes a little quicker.

To the OP the brown stains you are seeing a most likely iron or copper reacting to the vinegar. The acid in the vinegar is good at removing hard water stains however once the stains are gone I would suggest going back to Jet Dry or a reasonable facsimily to ensure your dishes sheet and dry properly.

 

[Kycha]

Im not sure about your stains, but using the drink mix Tang and running the dishwasher when its empty will remove most stains from a dishwasher. (Kind of scary it works so well, and some people drink it!!!!(

I heard Koolaid brand Lemonade does the same thing.

There isn't anything scary in Tang. What makes the stains go away is the Citric acid that is in the tang. It is from citris items (ie oranges, lemmons etc.) It is the same thing that is in Lemmi-shine (see above) OR you can just go buy Citric Acid. It is sold at most health food stores. Much cheager than either the Tang or Lemmi shine. However I do buy Lemmi Shine when I'm out of Citric Acid and am not going to be near a health food store for a while.

We have very hard water from our well and the citric acid is the ONLY thing that will keep our dishes from turning white!

hth!

Thanks...that explains why. And thanks for all the info. I have very hard water. When I tried the homemade dishwasher detergent I made it left all the glassware cloudy. Now I know why. I am going to try the Lemmi Shine/Citric acid now.

 

[sameyeyam]

I was using vinegar in my rinse aid dispenser, but my dishes were horrible looking. I thought it was the vinegar doing something funny. But couldn't figure out why vinegar would work for a while and then quit working. Then it dawned on me....I had switched detergents! I was using Sunlight with Oxy Action. Apparently the Oxy-Clean stuff in the detergent didn't mix real well with the vinegar and was making a horrible white film on everything.

Once I switched to another detergent I could then use the vinegar again. So this might explain why some people have problems with the vinegar.

 

[Kycha]

There isn't anything scary in Tang. What makes the stains go away is the Citric acid that is in the tang. It is from citris items (ie oranges, lemmons etc.) It is the same thing that is in Lemmi-shine (see above) OR you can just go buy Citric Acid. It is sold at most health food stores. Much cheager than either the Tang or Lemmi shine. However I do buy Lemmi Shine when I'm out of Citric Acid and am not going to be near a health food store for a while.

We have very hard water from our well and the citric acid is the ONLY thing that will keep our dishes from turning white!

hth!

Thank you, thank you thank you! Your tip to use citric acid in the dishwasher worked great. A couple months ago I made my own dishwasher detergent but was extremely disappointed with the results. While the dishes were clean, all the glassware was cloudy white. Come to find out, this is caused by our hard water. So, I gave up the idea of homemade detergent as a lost cause.

Today, I ran a load of dishes. I used my homemade detergent and put 2 envelopes of unsweetened Lemonade Kool-Aid in the detergent cup. All but one item came out sparkling clean(one glass came out cloudy , I don't know why). Anyway, I am sooooo happy with the results.

Thanks again for the great tip! It is going to save me a ton of money!