Why Did My Dishwasher Suddenly Stop Cleaning Dishes?

I thought I was going crazy. It seemed like overnight the dishwasher stopped getting things clean and shiny. Then it would start working again, then it stopped again.

 

I tried changing brands of detergent. I tried increasing the temperature of the hot water. Nothing seemed to make a difference. It was to the point where you practically had to wash the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. We were about to bite the bullet and spend hundreds of dollars on a new dishwasher when I ran across the following article: NPR on Dirty Dishes.

 

Seems they took a very important ingredient out of dishwasher detergent: phosphates. They help strip the grunge from your dishes AND keep it from reattaching to them further on in the cycle. I'm familiar with phosphates. I use TSP (trisodium phosphate) when I'm prepping walls for fresh paint or doing a deep clean on floors, cabinets, pretty much anything that can be cleaned with a strong detergent. Now that I knew what to search for, I found plenty of blog posts about America's new dirty little secret: Dirty Dishes.

 

So I hobbled down to my local A*C*E Hardware and bought a small tub of TSP to "test" the theory posed in the NPR article. I rinsed my dishes the "old way" (as opposed to my "new way" of practically washing them BEFORE I put them in the dish washer, then running the Rinse/hold Cycle, THEN running the Pots and pans Cycle with two overfilled detergent cups). I added 1/2 tablespoon of TSP to each detergent cup, then the "old normal" amount of dish washing detergent (Finish Advanced Gel) and ran it on the Normal Cycle.

 

When the washer was done and I opened the door, I could not believe my eyes. The silverware was so clean and sparkling I had to put on sunglasses. There was not a speck of food or film on any plate, bowl, or glass. I literally did a happy dance. I did not experience the white powdery residue that Jill complained of in her blog post.

 

There are still a couple of brands of dishwasher detergent that contain phosphates. Our government, in their infinite wisdom, recognized that it was really important for restaurants and hotels to have clean eating utensils so COMMERCIAL products still contain phosphates. I found several sites on the Internet that sell Cascade Professional Line detergent (there are other brands, but I'm familiar with Cascade). It's sold in cases only (6 boxes to a case). The boxes are 85 oz. each so they last a long time making them quite worth their average cost of $10.00 per box.

 

I was fortunate to have a commercial cleaning supply company in my town that ordered me a case and once the word got out amongst my friends, I had no trouble selling boxes to them.

 

I have noticed as time goes by, that the filmy crap that had built up on my glasses and plates is being washed away by the Cascade Pro detergent so I fully expect them all to look like new by the end of the year. So nice not to have to buy new glasses because the old ones got cloudy AND not to have spent $800.00 on a new dishwasher when all I needed was the right detergent.

 

Now, about your laundry. Do you have multiple stain removing products in your laundry room? Think hard; did your mother have all that crap to do laundry when you were a kid? Do your clothes never seem as clean as your mom's laundry? It's not your imagination. They took the phosphates out of laundry soap in 1996. I've yet to find a commercial laundry detergent that I'm willing to try but I can still get that old-fashioned clean that mom got. I add 2 - 3 tablespoons of TSP to each load of laundry. I'm using less laundry soap and fabric softener since I started doing this. My whites are whiter, my colors are brighter, and I rarely have to pre-treat stains anymore. Bonus: my washer tub had a scum line of soap buildup towards the top of the tub---it's gone. The tub is shiny, squeaky clean, and no longer smells like mold or mildew (just like the tub on my dishwasher).

 

If you choose to do your own TSP test, be aware that there is something out there called a TSP substitute. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS TSP and contains no phosphates. Do not waste your money on it.

 

Do not bitch at me about polluting the environment.

1. The reason for removing the phosphates was disproved after the fact.
2. More phosphates enter the environment from agriculture than any other source.
3. I am not connected to a public sewer system. My phosphates stay on my land.

 

Now go forth and enjoy that magic that is clean dishes and clothes.

Qwitcher Bitchin'

Words without action are pointless.

Occupy Wall Street? How about Unoccupy Wall Street. You want to take money out of politics? Take your money out of the banks, out of the stock market. Remove it entirely from the entities that speculate with your funds. Some guy with a sign in a park has no effect; removing your money from the market sends a clear message to the very entities you protest against. Even if you only do it for a week, it will have an effect.

Want to stop new oil wells from being drilled? Buy an electric car, ride a bike, take the bus, join a car pool. But don't spend your time whining to me about saving the polar bear habitat if you aren't doing anything on a personal level to save the polar bear habitat.

Want the politicians to sit up and take notice of your desires? Get up and run for office yourself. No, you won't be able to run for president in 2016 but you can certainly start by filing your candidacy in a local office in your town. That way you can learn for yourself how it works and work your way up, just like hiring on at a company and working your way up the career ladder.

Too many people speak too many words and take no action. Until you shut up and step up, nothing's going to change.

When Did I Become a Conservative Again?

I try to book some home PC time every weekend because clicking links on tweets on the BB does not always render a page that's mobile device friendly. This weekend I'm catching up on links from Rachel Maddow's blog. And once again my fellow liberals just make me cringe almost as much as the right wing does.

TRMS highlights (as wrong) the politician that wants to make it so that the clothing allowance that's given to children on welfare and in foster care can only be spent at thrift stores or the Salvation Army. I disagree with limiting it to those two options but I don't disagree with the idea of requiring a clothing allowance be spent on clothing, especially if there are no current restrictions on how it gets spent. WIC dollars are restricted as to what you can spend them on, shouldn't clothing dollars be the same?

Does this sort of thinking make me a conservative? I liberally support public assistance programs; why can't I also support some sort of checks and balances that assure the money I give from every pay check goes to the actual sort of assistance I am supporting.

Kansas Primary: August 3, 2010

Before we move on to our day-before elections coverage, let me just say that Dad's settling in nicely at what we lovingly refer to as Shady Pines, but what I really came here today for was to get some of this election poison out of my system.

Get out and vote. Don't sit there and tell me your vote doesn't matter, it does. If you want our elected officials to stand up for the principles they espouse, you need to get off your ass and stand up for the principles YOU espouse. You have a better chance of seeing the candidate you want elected than you do of winning the lottery.

I know I knowingly came to a Red State when I moved to Kansas so I am pleasantly surprised by the wealth of candidates the Democrats are fielding for the primary. Unfortunately I think they could have winnowed out some of the less-likely-to-win candidates in favor of a cleaner ballot and spending more on the few to reach more "undecided" ears. Hopefully this oversight will be rectified by the time November rolls around.

I'm not going to leave my party (too much) in my nit-picking other than to say that I was unaware that there was so much voter fraud going on in the state of Kansas that someone felt the need to make it the #1 issue in their campaign and, really, do you want to send someone to Washington who's only campaign promise is that they're going to "stick it" to Obama and Pelosi? That frightens me more than I can say.

Please note that I am only commenting on races in which I am actually able to vote. The rest of you can do your own research 'cause that's part of the voting process.

For US Senator we're fielding:

Robert Conroy, a man who has no idea how he ended up on the voter rolls as a registered Republican. Thanks, I don't need someone that clueless representing my interests.

David Haley, the only one with legislative experience and my common-sense vote but for the fact that he's so soft spoken I don't know if the people in Washington or Kansas can hear him.

Lisa Johnston, whom my gut and my heart tells me will do the best at the job but for the fact that she has no experience swimming with sharks.

Charles Schollenberger, who says many things I agree with but again, no time in the shark tank.

Patrick Wiesner, who has ten things on his to-do list, seven of which I agree with but I vehemently disagree with those other three.

For the US House of Representatives our choices are:

Cheryl Hudspeth, who is far too valuable at the local level to let go to Washington.

Thomas Koch, a man who can kindly be described as an eccentric Kansan.

Sean Tevis...I don't believe I'd ever seen a left-wing nutcase until I took a browse through his website. I believe he must be friends with the KU alumni who is convinced the Russians are controlling the weather and using it as a weapon against the United States.

For Governor/Lt. Governor there is only one choice, Tom Holland and Kelly Kultala and I don't have a car with a big enough bumper for that sticker but I would vote for Satan himself if he was running against Brownback. Oh wait, he is running against Brownback...

For Attorney General and Treasurer we have Steve Six and Dennis McKinney respectively, so unless I'm doing the write-in thing, X marks the spot.

And, finally, we have the battle of the Chris' for Secretary of State. Chris Biggs hasn't put much on the web to defend his current job or give retention reasons but Chris Steineger has a "billion dollar list" on his website detailing things he'd like to try to reduce the deficit. Because the list contains humor, he will get a vote from me.

So there you have it Dems, these are our choices. All three of us need to get out tomorrow and vote!

Hmmm. Who can I tick off this week?

How about my peeps. My gay peeps. I can’t help it. I just have to weigh in on this Miss California-is-a-raging-homophobe thing.

My guilty secret: I happen to agree with her. I know, take away my Rainbow VISA card and surgically remove the part of my brain that knows the secret handshake. While you're in there you might as well remove my gaydar. I've said it before: Why do we want to join a club that doesn't want us as members? Why don't we make our own club? Instead of fighting to join in an existing organization to grant us the rights that are granted to it, we should be fighting to make our own organization that grants us the same privileges. Do you see me trying to force my way into the NAACP? No, I'm not black. There are many organizations in this country that I don't qualify to belong to; marriage is just one of them. I don't attend a church; I have my own form of worship and a non-discriminatory God. Why should I inflict myself on people that have a problem with me?

I made these same statements when Dr. Laura got all her flack for calling gays a biological error. I agreed with her statement (still do). If the purpose of an organism is to procreate, then I am a biological dead end; an anomaly in the great biological scheme of things. It doesn't mean I'm bad, it just means I am different.

It's not going to be easy to get what we need to get some semblance of balance and equality. No fight like this ever will be, but it's worth the effort. Let's just channel the effort in the right direction.

Where have all the protest songs gone?

I was lamenting the lack of protest songs in light of how sucky things are lately. I remember growing up with them all around me in the twilight of the Vietnam era, but never hear any about current events. The music galvanized a generation and I'm sure it could do it again.

Then again, in the personal music player era that may not be possible. We perambulate through our lives to our own personal soundtracks now, no longer reliant upon the radio to tell us what to think, how to feel, basically what to get angry about.

So it was with much joy that I actually heard a protest song on our local college radio, KSDB, The Wildcat 91.9. I knew there was a reason why I liked this radio station so much. In the middle of the heartland they continually surprise me with little nuggets of liberalism. Thank god for college kids.

Of course they rarely tag the songs they play with the artist so I was left wondering who came up with a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool, good old-fashioned protest song. I had a distinctive snippet of lyric that I took the time to google tonight and lo and behold, it's a song by Neil Young. So I give you here, the lyrics to my new anthem:

Let's Impeach the President by Neil Young

Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day'

Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop

Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he's cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There's lots of people looking at big trouble
But of course our president is clean.

Thank God

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I may have to go out and spend some money on a Neil Young cd just to say thank you to him. Scary, huh?

Follow up on: Smokers Unite

It's now been almost two months that I've avoided purchasing cigarettes in the city of Manhattan, Kansas and aside from the fact that the product is inherently dangerous to one's health, it's been relatively harmless to me.

It was just a matter of shopping at the market in Wamego rather than the market in Manhattan. I know I can't prevent the Federal tax that trickles down to MHK, but no more sales tax trickle down. In fact, it's not just cigarettes I buy in Wamego. If I'm going to the store anyway, why not do as much shopping there as I possibly can? So MHK has lost out on a lot more sales tax revenue than just a carton of cigarettes.

Puff away, baby!

Smokers Unite: Hit Manhattan Where It Hurts

I lunched at Bob's today. As I ate I was eavesdropping on the old men at the table next to me. Of course the topic was the impending smoking ban (...vaguely reminiscent of the Third Reich's policies). One of them pointed out the hypocrisy of banning a product, any product, yet permitting the sale of the banned product. Oh yeah, wouldn't want to pass up all that sales tax money.

So here's how smokers can fight back. Don't buy your cigarettes in Manhattan. Slip over the county line and buy them there---and I mean far enough over the county line that you aren't in one of their sneaky little extended tax districts. Don't let your tax dallars go to a municipality that takes your money but forbids use of the product you purchased.

Also, I am now accepting contributions to the Smoker's Defense Fund. I have a really good civil rights attorney and he grows bored waiting for me to get into trouble again. I don't think he'll be waiting long...