Kool-Aid or TANG Powdered Drink Mix and Your Dishwasher…

You’ve seen what the water does to your kitchen sink, your bath tub or toilet. Rust stains, or those reddish stains that look like rust but are actually manganese build-up. Short of using muriatic acid to clean this (and I most certain do not advocate that, drain cleaner is for clogs not general ‘cleaning’.)

You get the idea. Your dishwasher can become a cauldron of rust stains and lime build-up. The very fact that a dish washer accepts dirty dishes (with food particles and other detritus) makes the matter more poignant. A clean dishwasher lasts long, uses less energy in that you don’t have to run a load multiple times and most importantly, gets your dishes cleaner.

First step, remove the roll-out racks. These will lift out. These can be cleaned manually in a bath tub with vinegar, allowed to soak in a vinegar solution if necessary. If the silverware tray also lifts out, remove that too and hand-clean in solution of vingear and water.

Inspect the spray arms. Often, lime or scale build-up forms around the little sprayer holes and restricts or redirects the water flow. These holes are designed to be of a certain water-flow capacity for effectively cleaning your dishes under normal loads. Anything that rescricts that hole interferes with this volume and flow ratio.

Also inspect the drain; make sure it is clear of any large particulates. A kidney bean, chunk of fatty meat or tougher cellulose substances like corn or tomato skins might be interfering with how the water is drained.

Upon performing all of this, it is now time to clean the inside of the dishwasher. For that, a half cup of powdered TANG orange breakfast drink will get the job done! Just add the powdered drink mix in the usual fashion (in the same way you would use your favorite dry powdered dish soap) and run the full wash cycle as normal. The TANG product will dissolve the rust and lime scale safely and efficiently.

Allegedly (according to urban legend) what makes TANG Powdered Instant Breakfast Drink work so well is that is contains citric acid. TANG, made by KRAFT Foods on their web says the following in regards to using their product this way:

"We have heard that some consumers have used TANG Drink Mix to clean their dishwashers. TANG does contain citric acid which can act as cleaning agent. TANG Drink mix is intended to be a food product and Kraft Foods does not advocate its use for any other purpose"

A packet of Kool-Aid Sweetened Drink Mix (or again, a half-cup of product in the bulk form) works equally well. For some reason, the flavor orange seems to work best.

As for TANG containing citric acid and its apparent cleaning effect, this may be true. People whom have used this to clean their dishwasher swear by it as being effective. If citric acid is in fact the reason for its ability to remove the lime and rust deposits away, then a bottle of Coca-Cola would also work wonders. If you ever wanted to perform an experiment, drop a rusty nail into a glass of Coca-Cola and let it sit overnight. You’ll make a rather startling discovery. it too cleans and dissolves away rust!

We used to use Coke back on the farm to ‘boil-out’ rusty gas tanks and milk cans that have sat empty for a long time. Dump in a couple of liters of the quintessential cola product and let it boil-out the rust. It really does work.