If you are wondering about how to use liquid detergent in dishwasher, you need to have a clear idea of what liquid detergent is supposed to do. The term is imprecise. As a result, different people use liquid detergent to refer to different things. However, if you are talking about liquid detergent in the context of dishwashers, chances are good that you are talking about the liquid detergent used for hand-washing dishes and other kinds of kitchenware.
Detergents are made using multiple ingredients. Generally speaking, those ingredients are mixed before the resulting mixes are converted into either a powder or a liquid. Both powder detergents and liquid detergents are meant to make unwanted substances more water-soluble, thus making it that much easier to scrub them off of surfaces. The problem is that different detergents are meant to work under different circumstances. As such, substituting liquid detergent for dishwasher detergent isn’t a good idea.
Should You Use Liquid Detergent in Your Dishwasher?
As mentioned earlier, liquid detergent is meant for hand-washing kitchenware. Thanks to that, it is sudsier than a lot of its counterparts. That isn’t an issue if you are hand-washing because you can always see whether the suds are getting out of hand or not, thus enabling you to make changes as needed. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said if you try to use liquid detergent in a dishwasher, which is an enclosed space with much higher friction cleaning. It is very common to hear stories about people whose kitchens were flooded with sudsy water because they used liquid detergent where they weren’t supposed to.
Similarly, the reverse scenario can cause issues as well. Dishwasher detergent is meant for an enclosed space with high friction cleaning. If you use it for hand-washing your kitchenware, you can expect to have a harder time getting it off of surfaces. That means using more water, which in turn, means a bigger water bill at the end of the month. Even worse, if you aren’t careful, you could wind up with chemical residue on your kitchenware. Something that will affect the foods and beverages that come into contact with it for the worse. For that matter, people aren’t exactly supposed to swallow liquid detergent. At best, you can expect gastrointestinal distress from doing so. However, it is very much possible for people to suffer worse symptoms if they swallow liquid detergent.
What Will Happen If You Use Liquid Detergent in Your Dishwasher?
In any case, if you have tried to use liquid detergent in your dishwasher, chances are good that you are going to have to do some clean-up. Under ideal circumstances, you will be able to stop your dishwasher before the suds start coming out. If that is the case, the recommended course of action is to wait for the suds to settle down before putting the dishwasher on rinse to get rid of the suds as soon as possible. Be warned that this can cause suds to start coming out as well. Should that happen, you might need to stop your dishwasher again, wait for the suds to settle, and then start your dishwasher again until the situation has been resolved.
Unfortunately, if you weren’t able to stop your dishwasher in time, you are going to need to do some clean-up. As a first step, you are supposed to use either a bucket or some other container to get rid of as much of the suds as possible. After which, you are going to need to wash out the interior of your dishwasher, which includes the soap dispenser. Once you have washed everything, you can then either let your dishwasher dry on its own or use a towel to dry your dishwasher, though the latter will be much faster than the former. The final step would be adding a half cup of white vinegar plus a generous amount of salt to the bottom of your dishwasher before running your dishwasher until the suds are completely gone.
How Do You Add Detergent to Your Dishwasher Under Normal Circumstances?
If you are using something suitable for dishwasher use, you can just follow the normal routine for your dishwasher. That tends to mean measuring out an appropriate amount of dishwasher detergent. If your dishwasher detergent comes in individual packets, that makes this process much easier. Otherwise, you should follow the instructions printed on the packaging. Moving on, you are supposed to put the dishwasher detergent in the soap dispenser, which should be located on the inside of your dishwasher’s door. Then, you should load your dishwasher while making sure that the soap dispenser won’t be blocked by any of the loaded items. Finally, you can choose the cycle that you want before waiting for it to complete.
Further Considerations
Summed up, there isn’t a single answer to the question of how to use liquid detergent in dishwasher. If you are thinking about using liquid detergent meant for dishwashers, you should follow the instructions that should be printed on the packaging. Meanwhile, if you are thinking about liquid detergent meant for hand-washing, you should give up on that thought. That is guaranteed to produce a huge mess in your home. As a result, you are going to have to do a lot of clean-up. Furthermore, there is a chance of damage to the rest of your home if the water manages to soak into everything. If you just have liquid detergent for hand-washing, you should just hand-wash your kitchenware. Yes, that will require both time and effort. Still, that will be better than cleaning up a flood of sudsy water pouring out of your dishwasher.