Life Hack: Can a dishwasher tablet really make your washing machine sparkle?
Could a dishwasher tablet be the key to a really clean washing machine?
It’s becoming obvious that any time I see a simple trick being praised online, I have to try it. The most recent example is one that has been doing the rounds for quite a while now.
This one came to light late last year when an Australian mum shared a tip in a Facebook group about how she cleans her washing machine.
Honestly, you can't beat Facebook groups full of mammas sharing helpful tips. I'm in quite a few — despite having no children — and I've learned so much from them.
This latest simple trick pulls all the dirty water from your washing machine, and those praising the hack online say it leads to even cleaner clothes in the following washes, and all you need is one small thing that’s probably in your kitchen already — a dishwasher tablet.
Before you panic, this isn’t like that oven-cleaning tip that involved dampening a dishwasher tablet and using it to scrub the inside of your cooker. In fact, there’s no scrubbing involved at all.
Just place a dishwasher tablet into the drum of your washing machine, turn it on to its hottest wash, and wait for the cycle to end.
Videos on social media show murky water in machines as they spin, pulling out all the grime within before cutting to the end result — a sparkling drum. I obviously had to try it.
I didn’t go out and buy any fancier brand of dishwasher tablet, I used the Aldi-brand one that’s been cleaning my crockery for longer than I can remember. I placed the tablet into the drum, selected the wash with the hottest temperature, and went about my business while the machine got to work.
I peered in through the window of the drum a few times to follow its progress, both for the writing of this article and for my own morbid curiosity. Despite the machine being only two or three years old — and, to my eye, very clean inside — I was amazed by how brown the water became throughout the cycle.
Of course, you might be worried that putting a dishwasher tablet into your machine could damage the drum while it’s flying around like a loose cannon. I checked this first before I attempted it and confirmed it wouldn’t cause any serious damage, though the experts are divided on whether it offers the best clean.
It’s definitely worth giving it a spin to see if it works for your machine, but in the long term, consult your machine's specifications to see what they recommend for a satisfying deep clean.
