A few days ago I told Leanne that I just remembered her telling me we were out of dishwasher powder. I said that I was just going to use some standard dish soap. “NO! Don’t do that! There will be suds everywhere if you do that!” Oh, yeah, I didn’t think of that. Boy I’m sure glad I said something to her and she stopped me.

Now, Leanne is in Peru, and I decided not to go to the A’s game. My fingers hurt too much to play Guitar Hero. What to do? Oh, I know! What actually will happen if I put dish soap in the dishwasher?

In my heart of hearts I know that Leanne is right. If I put a bunch of liquid soap in it will just suds up and go everywhere. So let’s just put a little bit in and see how bad it is. I put maybe a tablespoon of liquid detergent into the dishwasher and set it off. Once it filled with water I let it run for 20 seconds. Then I opened it.

Sure enough there were suds everywhere. Just like Leanne promised. Part of me felt like calling a bunch of girls over and having a rave here in my apartment, but I’m sure that I’d get in trouble for that. I guess I’ll just have to clean up the mess.

What is the best method for cleaning up the suds. Gasoline would cut the bubbles and the heating element in the bottom would react with it for a great party. My renters insurance would also get a little exercise out of that one though and I don’t feel like dealing with that. Now I know that the acid in vinegar would reduce the surface tension in the water and possibly break the bubbles down, but I don’t have any vinegar and I’m too lazy to go get some.

The trick at this point is that you won’t actually get rid of all the bubbles. Liquid detergent is designed to bubble up in extraordinary ways (especially the cheep stuff we buy). So what you need to do is to make the bubbles small enough and dense enough that they will act like frothy water. Salt has the ability to help you do this. Also, oil will add additional help in that it will also help reduce the surface tension in the water. I added a healthy quarter cup of pickling salt (smaller granules will dissolve faster) and about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. I turned the dishwasher on for 2 minutes and then cranked the dial over to the drain setting. Opened it up after letting it rinse a couple of times and pow it’s all clean.

So for all you out there looking for something to kill a couple hours I’d recommend this one. Who knows maybe the experience will serve everyone someday.