Posted on 02/13/2011 1:14:16 PM PST by dickmc
Pittsburgh isn’t even in the Chesapeake watershed. However, like everywhere else apparently phosphates have disappeared from dishwasher detergents. The result is dishes that aren’t particularly clean and feel ‘slimy’.
After some checking, I found that the disappeared phosphate content in dishwasher detergent was around six percent. On a recent visit to the plumbing supply store to get some parts, I found that they still had one pound boxes of the real TSP (trisodium phosphate Na3PO4); not the fake ersatz 'TSP' stuff that Home Depot is only selling. In fact, the real TSP is still available all over the net.
Not being able to find any phosphate containing dishwasher detergent at any grocery store, I decided to make my own. Here’s how:
1. Buy a large 7.5 pound bottle of gel type dishwasher detergent.
2. Dump in a bucket and add one-half of a one pound box of TSP. This will make a 6.25% mix of TSP in the detergent. (Actually the weight percent of Phosphate in TSP (Na3PO4) is 58% making the Phosphate in the mix 6.25 x 0.58 or 3.6% …but… that’s good enough for government work!)
3. Stir with a paint stick. If you want, add a half-cup of water to somewhat reduce the gel viscosity.
4. After about one minute of stirring, the TSP particles will be thoroughly distributed in the gel. (They don’t dissolve but that’s OK as long as they are evenly mixed.)
5. Put back in the bottle ...with the leftover in the empty bottle. (A funnel helps which I had from garage stuff.)
Tried it out yesterday.
.
VIOLA! The dishes are now 'squeaky' clean with no slime film. Also, the dishwasher insides now look clean again.
Enjoy the info.
What department in a hardware store would have this stuff?
Thanks for that info,kaylar.
I will have to do a little more research,I guess.
Very informative post.
Wierd, I just bought a 4.5 lb box from that auction site this morning. I hope it’s the real stuff. Same brand. Interesting how the net has sped things up so dramatically! We’re all criminals now!!
I found this at my local kroger store and it really made a huge difference in my dishes...mr conservativehusker wanted a new washer but this made her happy
Isn’t the viola a cousin to the cello?
The primary difference between the viola and the cello is that the cello burns longer.
You should be able to find it in the paint department. That’s where I have purchased it in the past.
Normally in the Paint Department.
If the store does not carry paint, look in the cleaning supplies area.
Almost all stores that carry paint, carry TSP.
The regulatory nazi’s and the greenie idiots are destroying the nation and attempting to make us all slaves.
WAR.....
Thanks for trying - when I click on your link I get this:
Document Not Found
Sorry, the requested document does not exist on this server.
They will never get rid of Pill. They are trying to kill us off with obamacare as it is. Margaret Sager would be proud of this administration.
***Actually, they’re not as clean as what a dishwasher would achieve. Sponges or dishrags carry lots of bacteria.***
You can sterilize the dishcloth by putting it in the microwaver at high for two minutes.
I don’t know about sponges.
Oh, and you can much more easily clean the microwaver by combining one-half cup of water and one-half cup of vinegar in micro-wave safe dish; set microwaver at high until it steams the window. It loosens up the dirt and makes it so much easier to clean.
will it explode?
I like 20 Mule Team Borax. So clean smelling. We’re on a well and get deposits on everything, dishes included. I’ve learned to not be finicky, but would like not to have the film on stuff.
I live on a well too but it’s really clean stuff. Very little iron. The 20 MTB added to wash and dishes really makes for squeaky clean stuff.
I don’t own a microwave.
Paint department. It's used to wash a surface before painting.
Got a large box of original TSP at Lowe's about three weeks ago....that should be nearly a lifetime supply.
I’d like to note that I just did considerable research on this topic, and several who seemed to know what they were talking about posted in various discussion forums that tri-sodium phosphate was way too caustic and would wreck the seals and aluminum parts of your dishwasher and washing machine, and that a better chemical, one of the ones that had been used in household cleaners before it was removed, was sodium tripoly phosphate (STPP).
What you want to use here is technical-grade, low-density STPP. There’s a guy on ebay selling it and I bought some. I’m too lazy to premix it with my regular cleaners, so I just pour about 3 tablespoons in the soap dispenser of my washing machine when I pour in the regular soap. With the dishwasher, I just dump about a tablespoon onto the door before I close the door.
The difference in clothes is truly remarkable. They start to look as bright as new, and lose that progressive dinginess that they accumulate otherwise with the crappola neo-Marxist, Greenie fake soaps that are now the only ones sold in the stores. My dishes get clean now too.
I then located a cleaner manufacturing company in Denver, and drove there and they sold me a 50 pound bag of STPP far cheaper than online. This company makes a very large variety of cleaners, and I tried to convince the owner he should also sell just plain STPP, and label it something like “Hard Water Dishwasher and Washing Machine Booster”. I think word would spread virally and that he’d have an instant hit on his hands.
Phosphates are banned in only a hand full of states, but the big manufactures are too lazy to make two different products, so they invariably make their products to match the lowest common denominator, which is usually California.
BTW, though not illegal in Colorado, when I first went looking for TSP (before I realized STPP was the way to go), all I found was fake stuff that was named “TSP”, but which did not actually contain any tri-sodium phosphate. Couldn’t even buy it online from the chain stores, even though they sold the real thing online in other states. An Ace Hardware store clerk told me why. Real TSP is a key ingredient in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, so all retail business in Colorado “voluntarily” refuse to sell it, even though it is not illegal. They even go so far as to filter availability via zip code online. Essentially this is fascism at work.
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