Lemishine

**Nishu** · 06-30-2011, 06:25 PM

I'm pretty sure it's just citric acid and some fragrance. The ingredients are "real fruit acids, natural citrus oils, fragrance." Obviously the fragrance isn't that important, but how important can the oils be? Citric acid would disolve scale off of your appliances the same way vinegar does, but I bet it's stronger.

So you can get citric acid in health food stores, on amazon in bulk, and at some grocery stores in bulk. Who's going to try it first? I'll try to find it in bulk around here but the price they're asking for the ones on amazon ($36 for ten pounds) is still slightly more expensive than the lemishine canister that I got at the commissary for 3.19.

My dishwasher here is cruddy so I'm running it empty with this stuff in it. If the citric acid works well, I might have to add it to the dish detergent recipe that I'm going to use when my clearance priced electrosal tabs are used up.

Anyone else want to try it first?

**l8eebugg** · 06-30-2011, 06:42 PM

I always hand washed sides and insides of door with vinegar.

**Mom2-3** · 06-30-2011, 07:40 PM

I just picked up the bottle of lemishine. It was $4.00 with tax! I'm not convinced it worked. I don't think the inside of my dishwasher looks any cleaner. Hopefully it did some deep cleaning I can't see. lol I'm not so sure about running it while the dishes are in there. That could get really expensive.

**TigerGirl1226** · 06-30-2011, 07:44 PM

The Electrosol dishwasher cleaner stuff runs about $2.89 here. That's what I've been using about once a month and it works pretty well.

I've also found that using "Disposer Care" in the garbage disposer helps too. Our DW is set up where it is routed though the garbage disposer (which I think is fairly common). It is $4 for a 3 pack and had a coupon in the package.

**AmyBoz** · 06-30-2011, 08:29 PM

Lemishine worked miracles for me!!!

**Contrary Housewife** · 06-30-2011, 08:48 PM

I tried it a few months ago. We had to run it 3 times before it stopped dislodging scale. We have really hard water here.

I do remember that we had to do it backwards from what the instructions said. Put it in the rinse cup instead of the wash cup, or vice versa.

It's not something we use regularly. One can has several applications in it.

**Nishu** · 06-30-2011, 09:39 PM

I'm actually not asking about lemishine, guys. I'm asking about substituting the lemishine for bulk citric acid.

**Telephus44** · 06-30-2011, 10:26 PM

I'll try and look up bulk citric acid. Thinking about it, do you remember the old advice in the 90's about cleaning your dishwasher with Tang? It was probably the same stuff.

I tried the Lemishine and it does work wonders for us. I can always tells who ran the dishwasher, me or DH, because he doesn't put any in. I would cry if they ever stopped making it.

But I'll try and see what I can find for bulk citric acid. If I can find it cheap enough, I'll let you know.

**Nishu** · 06-30-2011, 10:39 PM

They have it at amazon, 10lb $36 dollars and free shipping. I'm not sure what a standard price for lemishine is in the civilian world so I was wondering if that was even a good deal. I know I've seen it in the bulk section of some place or another but since I had no idea what I was looking at I didn't even glance at the price. If lemishine is just dressed up citric acid then that might be a better alternative.

So I'm going to start looking for it when I'm out so I can try it out. I can't wait to compare it.

**Telephus44** · 06-30-2011, 10:46 PM

At Target, it's 3.69 for 12 oz - so 10lbs would be $49.20. So it's 27% cheaper to buy bulk from Amazon (assuming it works the same).

**wjcalderon** · 07-01-2011, 08:15 AM

I found this recipe for homemade dishwasher detergent that uses regular unsweetened lemon Kool-Aid. Check the label - it's citric acid!

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not the same as baking soda)
1 cup Borax
1/2 cup Kosher or coarse salt
4 pkgs. Unsweetened lemonade flavored Kool-Aid drink mix (DO NOT use any other flavor)

Mix It Up:
Pour all ingredients together in a jar or plastic container with a lid. Place lid on container and shake several times to mix ingredients thoroughly.

Usage:
Use 1 tablespoon per load. If load is heavily soiled, use 2 tablespoons. Yields up to 40 loads.

I know buying the citric acid in bulk would be more economical, but you might want to try the Kool-Aid before you order.
I haven't tried this recipe, but I did dump a couple of packs of the Kool-Aid in my dishwasher and ran it empty. It really did a good job cleaning the inside.

**monkeywrangler71** · 07-01-2011, 08:31 AM

How much of the lemishine do you put in? They probably sell citric acid at the bulk store, if I knew the amount I could buy enough to try it. My dishwasher needs some serious help.

**Nishu** · 07-01-2011, 09:19 AM

For the initial use to clean out the dishwhasher, it says to fill the detergent cup and the pretreater cup. For every day use you're supposed to fill your detergent cup with the lemishine and put your regular dishwasher detergent in the pretreater cup. That's a lot to use on ever load though so I'm not sure I'm going to use it like that.

Our dishwasher has done a such a terrible job since we moved here that I've only been using it to put my dishes in to dry. I used the lemishine last night and it seems to have worked well but I'm not sure I'd use it if every day because of the cost. I have a bottle of cascade right now but when it runs out I was planning on using a home made mix. If I the citric acid works and if I can get it for cheap, I'm going to add it to my homemade mix to make something like wjcalderon posted.

Does anyone have any idea what the salt is for in that mix?

**Telephus44** · 07-01-2011, 10:00 AM

I've been adding about a tablespoon in with the regular dishwashing detergent. I tried cutting back to a teaspoon, but it didn't work as well. So I figure I'm getting close to 40 loads from one bottle instead of 18 as the label claims.

I think I'm going to try the lemonaid koolaid though, and see how that works.