Homemade Dishwasher Powder

  With 4 kids in the house we use our dishwasher a lot.  Like the washer, it runs at least 2 times a day on average.  We are currently on our 4th one with in 16 years.  One of those dishwashers we replaced because it just didn’t seem to do a good job so after about 2 years we replaced it.  Another dishwasher had to be replaced because the control panel caught on fire,  thank goodness we were home
  With our latest purchase, my husband did a bit of research and found that Bosch is one of the top names in dishwashers.  My mother in law purchased a Bosch when she purchased her last one and loves it.  So guess what we bought?  Yep a Bosch.  We purchased a midgrade model, as kiddos are hard on appliances!
     With a dishwasher you need of course, dishwashing soap.  You can't use Dawn, trust me, I accidently put a bit of Dawn in my dishwasher a long time ago and we didn't like the bubble show that was all over my kitchen.  Fortunately it was a drop and not a full dispenser worth!  So along with a few dishwasher searches we have visited the detergent search a few times as well.  At one point one of our dishwashers couldn't even clean off a bit a ketchup left on the plate!  Yes, I said Ketchup.  Can you guess which one this was?  If you said the one that was only 2 years  old you are right!  Even with coupons the  detergent that we had to use to get clean dishes was the expensive cascade ones in the tub.  You get 20 packets and we would make about a week with the it.
    I started to make my own laundry detergent about 2 years ago and it works as well as Tide if not better.  To find a dishwashing detergent that I liked I had to try several recipes and I think I have found one that will I will stay with.  So this is what I use:

Homemade Dishwasher Soap:

         2 cups of borax

        2 cups of washing soda

      1 cup of citric acid

      1/8 cup of kosher salt

Now, when I made my first batch I thought I could take it and keep it in a mason jar with a cute little tag attached with raffia.  Well that was a failure and resulted in one big hardened clump!  So now I take these ingredients and mix them up.  I spread it out on a large cookie sheet and let it sit for a day or two.  Then I can put it in that mason jar tied with raffia!  I was told at the citric acid makes it harden.  So make sure you let it dry out well first.

Do you have a homemade dishwashing detergent that you use? Feel free to share.  Did you try this one?  I would love to know how it worked for you!