General Question

nina's avatar

Are rinse aides for the dishwasher safe for our health?

Asked by nina (895points) February 20th, 2011

We just bought a stainless steel-tub dishwasher and the dishes do not dry. The instructions say it needs a ‘dry aid’ but I am loth to put more chemicals into the machine – your thoughts?

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8 Answers

Fyrius's avatar

If they’re made for cleaning dishwashers…

summeroses's avatar

Personally, I would not bother with adding even more chemicals to our environment so I don’t buy that stuff.
What works for me is giving each rolling bin a few back N forth “shakes” and just allowing it to air dry by leaving the dishwasher door open. Hope this helps you.

thorninmud's avatar

They’re really just detergent-like substances (“surfactants”) that lower the surface tension of water to keep the water from collecting into droplets on the surface of the dishes. Because the water remains spread out as a film on the surface, it dries faster than if it were gathered into droplets. The most commonly used surfactants are ethers of fatty alcohols, which are vry innocuous substances.

Lightlyseared's avatar

Well air drying will use less energy and is better for the enviroment.

gailcalled's avatar

Plus, air drying returns some much-needed moisture to the air at this time of year, if you live somewhere and have to heat your house.

(loath?)

sarahjane90's avatar

I would not worry about using it, if that is what the directions call for.

thorninmud's avatar

Heres a safety evaluation of the surfactant in most drying aids.

AskZilla's avatar

They’re detergent like substances with non-environmentally friendly ingredients. And they are highly unneccesary. They’re also expensive .

Just put vinegar in the dispenser instead or a bit of citric acid and lemon juice

Have you ever tried to research online and find out what is in rinse-aid (Jet Dry)? Good Luck with that. They don’t want you to know.

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