by Furnishly | May 20, 2022 | Design Inspiration, Style
For as long as I can remember, my mom has always dropped a crumpled ball of aluminum in the dishwasher. She would place it right next to the utensils, pop in a tablet, and turn on the machine like what she did wasn’t sufficiently mysterious. I always thought it was a way to give old aluminum foil a second life — kind of how we let paper towels dry for a second use or dunk a tea bag into one more cup before tossing it. But then I saw the kitchen staff do the same thing when I was a waiter in college, confirming this was some kind of magic cleaning trick.
According to my mom, who is a professional housekeeper whose tricks of the trade have always served me well, the aluminum foil helps reduce the appearance of water stains and makes the glass sparkle a little more. (This is especially handy if you sometimes get cloudy drinking glasses.) While I never questioned her methodology and continued using aluminum balls when I moved out, I did begin to wonder if this actually works. And if it does, what is the science behind it?
Spoiler alert: As it turns out, it only kind-of-sort-of works, and only for utensils, not glassware. “Aluminum in the dishwasher will make absolutely no difference to ceramic or glass dishes,” said Dr. Kat Day of The Chronicle Flask, who is a science writer with a PhD in chemistry. “There’s no plausible mechanism for this, other than perhaps foil balls bouncing around and mechanically knocking things off the surface of plates or bowls, but that’s not going to be very effective. It’ll probably impede the dishwasher, if anything.”
Sorry, mom. As for the utensils, it might help clean them, but only if the aluminum is very close to them. “I suspect this has come from the idea that you can clean silver (specifically) with aluminum foil and salt solution,” Day shared. “However, to do this, the silver object (cutlery, in this case) needs to be in direct contact with the foil.” It wouldn’t work if the foil was on the other side of the dishwasher or bouncing around the bottom of the appliance.
Placing tarnished silver in direct contact with aluminum, baking soda and hot water is said to help reverse the tarnishing process due to an electrolytic reaction which transfers the oxidized tarnish from the silver to the aluminum foil. That’s because the baking soda pushes electrons to move back and forth between the silver and aluminum. “Since aluminum has a much higher affinity for sulfur atoms than silver, the silver ion is reduced back to silver, and sulfide ions are released,” wrote myth-busting publication Bellatory in an article explaining the science behind cleaning tarnished jewelry. “These bind to aluminum to form aluminum sulfide. The aluminum corrodes, and the silver turns shiny.”
This could happen with your utensils since the detergent pod acts as the salt bath needed in this reaction, and the aluminum foil is in contact with the silverware. However, as Day mentioned, this is only the case if the aluminum firmly stays near the cutlery. But since you’re just recycling gently used aluminum sheets, I still say it’s worth trying!
Marlen Komar
Contributor
Marlen is a writer first, vintage hoarder second, and donut fiend third. If you have a passion for finding the best taco joints in Chicago or want to talk about Doris Day movies, then she thinks an afternoon coffee date is in order.
by Furnishly | Apr 17, 2022 | Design Inspiration, Style
Shifrah Combiths
Contributor
With five children, Shifrah is learning a thing or two about how to keep a fairly organized and pretty clean house with a grateful heart in a way that leaves plenty of time for the people who matter most. Shifrah grew up in San Francisco, but has come to appreciate smaller town life in Tallahassee, Florida, which she now calls home. She’s been writing professionally for twenty years and she loves lifestyle photography, memory keeping, gardening, reading, and going to the beach with her husband and children.
by Furnishly | Nov 25, 2021 | Design Inspiration, Style
Talk to just about anyone who’s been an adult for a few years, and they’ll likely have some opinions on how to do the dishes. There are those who swear by hand-washing, and those who say that method actually uses more water than a dishwasher (this can actually be true, if you’re wondering). There are those who throw pots, pans, cups, and more into the dishwasher at random, figuring they’ll all get clean one way or another. And there are people who have a specific, strategic method for loading the dishwasher. And then, of course, there are the people who use liquid dish detergent versus those who use pods.
If your knowledge of dish washing and appliances is pretty standard, then you probably think that choosing to use a traditional liquid dish detergent or a tablet is simply a matter of personal preference. According to some experts, though, there may actually be a superior option. As another Apartment Therapy article points out, tablets tend to dissolve gradually throughout the rinse cycle of a dishwasher, while liquids and gels get washed away as soon as the appliance fills with water.
According to Reviewed.com, there’s another reason why tablets might be a more efficient way to clean. Though bleach and enzymes are the two main ingredients used in dish detergent, only one of those things can exist in liquid or gel form. So while you might get bleach and enzymes in a tablet, you’ll only get one or the other in gels or liquids. This is because bleach will eradicate enzymes in liquids.
This doesn’t mean that gel packs or liquid aren’t effective, though. In fact, according to an article on MQ Appliance Services, gel can also be more gentle on dishes, so it’s worth considering if you wash a lot of fragile items frequently.
When choosing what type of dish detergent to use in your dishwasher, it’s also worth considering what kind of water you’re dealing with. As the same article by MQ Appliance Services explains, powder detergent is often the best choice when you have hard water — water that causes limescale deposits, streaks, white spots and cloudiness on dishes. Powder detergent is most effective at removing most of these stains.
If you aren’t dealing with hard water, though, and you aren’t trying to pinch pennies (powder is also the most cost-effective dish detergent option), tablets are the most effective option on the market, according to Consumer Reports.
If you’re making the switch to tablets and you’re looking to offset the additional cost, though, there are some easy ways to do that. One idea? Stop pre-rinsing your dishes before you load the dishwasher. You’ll use less water and allow your dishwasher to work as efficiently as possible. If you do pre-rinse your dishes, you run the risk of your appliance’s sensors thinking the dishes are clean. When this happens, the machine will use less water and actually clean less efficiently, causing you to have to wash the dishes again by hand to get off extra bits of food or crumbs — something no one wants to do.
by Furnishly | Jul 21, 2021 | Design Inspiration, Style
When pods for dishwashers and laundry machines first hit the market, you may have breathed a sigh of relief: No more measuring goopy, liquid detergent — what a time to be alive!
…That is, until you found a half-released pod lodged between two spoons in the dishwasher and had to rerun the load. Or maybe you realized that your clothes weren’t coming out quite as fresh-smelling as they used to.
Turns out, there are pitfalls to pod life. The question becomes: Are self-dosing dishwasher and laundry pods actually worth all the hype? If you want to keep using pods for the convenience factor, here’s what experts say about making sure those pods work for you.
Know that all pods aren’t created equal
Are you picking your pods based on the pretty flowers on the front of the container, hoping they’re the best smelling option? Same. But there are better ways.
Lauren Bowen, director of franchise operations at Two Maids & A Mop, recommends laundry pods that say “3 in 1,” which typically mean they get rid of odors, remove stains, and protect color in your laundry machine. For the dishwasher, she suggests checking the reviews on potential pods to find a brand that people love, looking for recommendations for types that “leave dishes sparkling clean, without any leftover residue or water spots.”
Paul Berry, owner of Mr. Appliance of San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas, prefers Finish tablets for dishwashers. “[They] are my absolute favorite brand for dishwashers,” he says. “In my opinion, they do the best job to remove residue from the surface and prevent any type of particles from resettling during the cleaning cycle.” He also likes Cascade. For laundry, he prefers Tide Pods and Persil.
Avoid the quick wash cycle
For both machines, one reason you may find a half-used pod at the end of the cycle is that you chose the quick wash or equivalent cycle. The issue is that this cycle doesn’t allow the water time to get warm enough for the pod to fully dissolve, as pods generally dissolve in 130 degrees Fahrenheit or more. “Thus, clothes or dishes are not entirely clean, and more than likely, you’ll find the clear membrane of the pod partially intact,” Berry explains.
So instead, skip the quick wash cycle. Another way to help prevent this issue in your dishwasher if you do want to use quick wash is to run the sink faucet with hot water for 30 seconds before starting the machine to give the water heating process a head start.
For the same reason, a too-short cycle is also likely the culprit when a laundry pod “melts” on your clothes. Although it looks like a stain, it’s really just concentrated detergent meant to wash your clothes anyway. So don’t worry: Your white T-shirt won’t be blue forever. “All you need to do is rewash the ‘stained’ clothing and it will come out,” Bowen says.
Make sure you insert pods correctly
One laundry pod mistake people commonly make, according to Bowen, is placing the pod on top of a large load. “It may not dissolve properly. This can cause issues like streaks and spotting due to the small deposits of detergent,” she says. Instead, throw that pod in first, and then put the clothes on top.
When in doubt, think about switching methods
If you’re unsuccessfully trying to troubleshoot a potential pod problem, Bowen says you should first rule out other concerns with your appliances, such as maintaining the machine properly and, in the case of a dishwasher, keeping the drain clear of food debris.
If pods still aren’t working out for your laundry routine, though, consider swapping with a powder, as Berry says liquid detergents seem to have the hardest time dissolving during the cleaning cycle. For dishwashers, Bowen says gels from a bottle can be the quicker and easier option.
by Furnishly | Jul 17, 2021 | Design Inspiration, Style
Shifrah Combiths
Contributor
With five children, Shifrah is learning a thing or two about how to keep a fairly organized and pretty clean house with a grateful heart in a way that leaves plenty of time for the people who matter most. Shifrah grew up in San Francisco, but has come to appreciate smaller town life in Tallahassee, Florida, which she now calls home. She’s been writing professionally for twenty years and she loves lifestyle photography, memory keeping, gardening, reading, and going to the beach with her husband and children.
