A side note on dishwasher detergent

My alcoholic brain likes back-ups.  If I REALLY like something I buy two: one for use and one as a back-up for when the first runs out/gets ruined/is in the wash.  I feel safe knowing I have a back-up.  I've examined this vague compulsion over the years.  It definitely comes from my mother who has multiples of anything.  One for every day, one for nice.  What's interesting is the number of back-ups I've purchased that I've never used.  Once I realized that I moved out of the back-up business.  I want them, but I don't buy them.  Unless something is cheap, then I back up to my hearts content.

Or something isn't made anymore.  Where I live the water is hard, and calcium build up happens.  The dishwasher is a bit of a struggle.  It gunks up and doesn't work very well: leaves teeny bits of food on dishes and doesn't rinse clean.  A few years ago I tried to call a repairman to come look at it.  Luckily, I got the lazy repairman who didn't want to come all the way out to my house so he told me the trick: put a half gallon of white vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher, run it, and it will clean all the gunk out of the dishwasher.  Only use powder detergent with phosphate content over 7% (and told me how to check the label).  That worked for a few years.  Then in June it didn't, the dishwasher was 8 years old, I bought  a new one.

From the get-go, the new one wasn't the huge improvement one would expect.  So when the new one was no more effective than the old one, I made a service call appointment for the new one.  The company called me back and told me that the reason it wasn't working was because, as of July, dishwasher detergent with phosphates had been banned in several states and as a result, national detergent manufacturers had stopped making detergent with phosphates.  Quietly. Without warning or fanfare.  I checked my detergent: sure enough, no phosphates.  At this point, I had abandoned the useless thing and was washing all dishes by hand.

I was pissed and went online.   I was not alone.  Phosphate free detergents don't work for CRAP with hard water.  The number of folks with the same complaint who were looking to buy new dishwashers, have a repairman out or generally complaining was staggering.  But I found a helpful tip: try looking at stores that carry close-outs on items, like Big Lots, for the old stuff.  Being a self-reliant girl, I first tried all the national stores hoping for old inventory: Walmart, Target, Sav a Lot.  No luck.  So I made it to Big Lots not feeling hopeful.  And hit the back-up motherlode.

First I hit their off brand: no luck.  But then, at the end of the aisle, on the bottom shelf I found Cascade: boxes and boxes of blessed phosphate Cascade in powder form.  I stood in the aisle and calculated and bought 4 years worth, plus a years worth for my mother.  Then, later that day, I went to another Big Lots location.  I had bought 5 lb boxes for $6 each.  They had a different type of Cascade: 7 lb boxes for $5.  I cleaned them out of the cheaper formulation.  At checkout, the clerks at both stores looked at me like I was, well, crazy.  Preparing for the dishwasher apocalypse.  But when you've paid several hundred dollars for a big machine that is rendered useless, and have a back-up need, finding exactly what you want knowing  you can't get it anymore is intoxicating.

So I have a couple hundred pounds of dishwashing detergent in my car.  I plan to give boxes to my worthy neighbors as Christmas gifts.  After all, we're in this dishwasher debacle together out here in hard water country.  I will not go back and buy more.  I WILL NOT.