Thursday, September 18, 2008

Review: Dr. Bronner Eco-Friendly Sal Suds in the Dishwasher


I picked up Dr. Bronner Sal Suds at a local health food store primarily to use on the floors, in the kitchen, and as an eco-friendly replacement for dishwasher and laundry detergent. So far I'm loving it as a laundry detergent, and tonight I tried it in the dishwasher. I had been mulling over the idea of using Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap in the dishwasher until I discovered his Sal Suds which is a better grease cutter, more effective on greasy dishes. From the bottle:

Description:
Super-concentrated organic cleaner. 100% biodegradable. It is equally effective in hard or soft water and will rinse freely, hot or cold. Excellent for hard water shampoo, dishes, laundry, floors, rugs, cars, boats: All household uses!

Sal Suds is a balanced formulation of naturally derived surfactants with pure fir and spruce essential oils: it cleans and rinses with exceptional power, yet is mild and gentle on the skin. Sal Suds is not soap-based and is formulated especially for all-purpose hard-surface cleaning.

--Perfect for general household cleaning: dishes, floors, laundry, etc.

--Equally effective in hard or soft water, rinsing freely, hot or cold.

--Concentrated and self-preserving: no hidden preservatives or ingredients.

--No synthetic dyes or fragrances: all ingredients fully disclosed and described.

--Biodegrades rapidly after doing its job. Pure high-quality fir and spruce essential oils: no cheap harsh pine stump oil.

--No animal testing: Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics certified


Ingredients: Water, sodium lauryl sulfate, coco-betaine, lauryl glucoside, fir needle oil, spruce oil.

Free Of Harsh Chemicals, Phosphates, Silicates, Sequestering Agents or Other Strong Alkalies.

Directions

1. A few drops in a gallon of water removes all sprays from fruits and vegetables.

2. 1/4 oz. does a sink full of dishes.

3. 1/4 oz. in a basin of warm water cleans all your undies.

4. 1 oz. in a pail of water will clean your house and car from top to bottom.

5. For extra heavy jobs, cut it in half or use it straight.

6. Pour some on a fabric stain and watch it disappear.

7. Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds will also disappear-naturally-after it has done its job, without affecting nature's balance.

Warnings

Don't drink!. Keep out of eyes!. Sal Suds is an all-purpose cleaner, and is not intended for everyday body-washing use.


Results: Excellent! I winged it on the amount to add, and squirted about a teaspoon and a half into the detergent dispenser, then I filled the rinse dispenser with vinegar. The dishes are as clean as if I had used Cascade. There was no film on the dishes or glasses. I'm not even sure they needed the vinegar rinse, but it can't hurt. I'll try it without next time to see if there is a difference.

An excellent place to buy Dr. Bronner's online is Vitacost. Their shipping is a flat fee of $4.99 within the Continental U.S. only, excluding Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. I noticed that they ship Internationally as well.

Here is the link for finding Dr. Bronner's products outside of the U.S. It is sold by distributors in the U.K., Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Norway.

9 comments:

Therese said...

One of my daughters fell on our dishwasher door a while ago and Steve still hasn't had the time to repair it. I have noticed though that washing by hand is much much cheaper than using the dishwasher powder. I wonder if getting this shipped out here would be cheaper when the dishwasher is fixed.

Alexandra said...

Therese, if you can get a hold of castile soap you can try this as well. I've got the recipe on my post about Bronner's, last week I think. It was my last Works-for-me Wednesday posts. Liquid castile soap is available at most health food stores. I haven't tried this yet, but I will tonight, and let you know if it works as well as Sal Suds.

Alexandra said...

Therese, I found the international links for Dr. Bronner's. They sell it in Australia.

Therese said...

Thanks Alexandria. I will have to look into it. Only a week till we have school holidays so I will get Steve to fix the door during the holidays.

Therese said...

I found it here. here is the link for any other Aussie's that visit your blog. I am buying some next week. Thanks Alexandria. Looks like something I will be able to use a lot.

Boondock Ma (Kim's Mom) said...

I make my own laundry detrgent that I'm happy with, and do my dishes by hand. Looks like this would work well for hand washing dishes, as well as general cleaning purposes. Thanks for the review!

Anonymous said...

When you used it in the dishwasher (either the Sal Suds or the regular castile soap), didn't you get the whole overflowing-suds thing?

I've been hesitant to try it in the dishwasher for that reason -- although I guess the worst that happens is I end up mopping the floor.

Alexandra said...

Good question - No, because there is no foaming agent in the soap or detergent.

Check here: http://www.drbronner.com/faqs_main.html

and

here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/199214/dr_bronners_magic_soaps.html

I wouldn't try too much soap because with enough it will lather, but not foam up like regular soap. And the Sal Suds is only a detergent and not a soap, so no bubbles at all.

Jen Flick said...

Just wanna say thank you for this post!! It came first in google. My husband just fixed our dishwasher tonight after several months broken with 4 little ones age 4 and under thats a big deal!!! I just packed all the dishes and realized I was out of tablets! I do have Sal Suds though! I feel confident to try that now. Thanks again! LIFE SAVER. lol.