I wouldn’t use rinse aid. It’s not good for you - damages your gut and may contain dioxane byproducts. I also would avoid detergents with ethoxylated alcohols (AEs).
What to look for is any powder or powder-filled pod with a) no AEs and b) does contain amylase and protease , two food-eating enzymes that are often omitted for who knows why.
We absolutely need rinse aid here, even with a water softener. But we make our own with ethanol and citric acid. For us works just as well as the pricey stuff and costs us…. A large bottom shelf bottle of vodka (sorry, don’t drink and don’t buy this enough to remember) and about $0.50 in citric acid will last me 6 months.
Yeah, I have very soft water. I tried using a liquid rinse aid when I switched from a name brand pod with a rinse aid to the cheap Kirkland pods. The rinse aid made things worse and I did end up with a residue on my glassware.
It’s cheap enough to try it and see if it helps but don’t feel obligated to use it if it doesn’t.
I ordered citric acid off of Amazon (it’s great at getting out hard water stains in bathrooms and toilets and helps keep my water softener going well (I add some to the salt tank), also can add some good kick to lemonade)
For every cup of vodka (40 or 60% can’t remember, but prolly 40. Though scientifically 60% would be better) I add 1 to 2 tsp of powdered citric acid. Takes a surprisingly long time to dissolve so you’ll get a quick workout shaking it. I’ve added blue food coloring before to make it more visible in the dispenser to see the level but it’s not necessary at all so I usually skip it.
I make it in a 1 liter bottle which will last a couple months. We have a Bosch dishwasher, refill it… every couple of weeks maybe? I’m not the only one filling it. We do 1-2 loads of dishes a day (4 kids who can’t ever seem to find the cup they JUST used. Probably a parenting problem)
I have no idea if that’s helpful. But I did just lookup a cost by fluid volume- I live in a state with high alcohol tax rates and my cost per fluid oz of my DIY rinse aid is around $0.19 (mostly from alcohol, per fluid oz of citric acid is less than one cent. ) for reference, the small bottle of Jet-dry is $0.58/flOz.
Household usage levels are probably fine [1]. That being said, we don't use rinse aid and I don't see any issues with glasses. I can see how it could be a problem in areas with harder water.
Why would you assume I am a chemist, an investor, and a pro-additive experiments? (I'm 2/3, but which 2!?)
I'm an educated citizen who likes to have some evidence-based sources to learn about surprising claims people make. Especially when their claims read like pseudoscientific babble that has little or no basis in reality.
Not only is there an extremely small amount of rinse aid that is dispensed in the final rinse, but even less of it would be present once the dishes are dry. The paranoia over it theoretically affecting your gut lining in the amounts used as directed is hogwash.
Without rinse aid your dishes will never be even remotely dry unless you manually wipe them dry yourself.
There are rinse aid brands which undergo independent tests to ensure they don't contain problematic things but you can also pretty successfuly make your own with a combination of some food grade acid, alcohol and water.
The guy in the video disagrees with you. From his other video, 23 mins in,
> next, rinse aids. use them. this isn't a scam.
I'll trust the dishwasher expert until there's some proper citations.
You have to realize that every time you sip a glass or eat off a surface that's provided by a commercial entity, you're getting items that have come in contact with industrial appliances that dispense rinse aid.
I have a difficult time believing that something so ubiquitous is as harmful as you claim, but I'm open to being convinced.
I don't understand where you are getting "cause gut issues" from. Hopefully not some random person on the Internet spewing nonsense without any sources.
Edit: i see the linked pubmed in a child comment now. But it seems to be not in humans, so saying it "damages your gut" is not an appropriate conclusion.
You should read more than the article's title. Like how they were testing against "liquid-liquid interface cultures, organoids, and gut-on-a-chip" and not humans.
Reading the Conclusion is also helpful. Says nothing about damaging your gut.
What to look for is any powder or powder-filled pod with a) no AEs and b) does contain amylase and protease , two food-eating enzymes that are often omitted for who knows why.
365 Whole Foods brand pods are my go-to