We’re wrapping up the “Does It Work?” Challenge with a suburban legend. For years I’ve heard that you can use powdered lemonade mix to clean the rust stains out of your dishwasher. So, in honor of cleaning and organization month, we’re putting the powder to the test to answer the burning question, does it work?
This dishwasher came with the house. And so did the rust stains. To be honest, they didn’t really bother me all that much. I mean, who’s checking out the inside of your dishwasher? But if all it takes is a 20 cent packet of Kool-Aid, then what do I have to lose? Stains, I hope.
So, I ran the empty dishwasher with a packet of Lemonade Kool-Aid. It’s the only flavor that you can use, because it’s the citric acid that allegedly cleans the stains. Well, guess what?
I’d show an after picture, but it looked exactly like the before.
Now I was determined to get rid of the stains that hadn’t troubled me one bit until I started this process. I turned to my secret weapon.
No lie, it came right off. You can see my sudsy residue on the edge because I was moving lightning fast. If you’re looking for a better way to clean your dishwasher, Bar Keeper’s Friend is definitely the way to go.
So, I was kind of bummed that the much-hyped lemonade mix trick didn’t work for me, but maybe my stains were too set in. Have you had luck with it?
If you missed any other parts of the “Does It Work?” Challenge, you can see them all here:
- Cleaning glass with newspaper and coffee filters
- Polishing silver with baking soda
- Cleaning floors with wax paper
- Greasing votive candleholders with cooking spray
And if you have any ideas for future editions of the Challenge, I’d love to hear ’em in the comments.
Bar Keepers Friend is awesome! I never even thought to use it on the dishwasher stains!
I fill the soap cups of my dishwasher with Tang once a month and let it run empty for a full cycle ( minus drying). That keeps it clean and freshens it. We are only two in my family and I don’t do partial loads, so the machine can get rather dirty and smelly between cleanings.
YES! It did work! We have iron and manganese in our well water and it stained my new dishwasher pretty quickly. One packet, one wash and it was totally back to new looking! I am going to do a before and after picture next time!
Lemon kool-aide or Crystal Light does a great job of cleaning my dishwasher. I don’t know about rust stains. It cleans the weird gunk that shows up after a while.
It is the oxailic acid in Tang that will remove the rust stains. Just fill soap dispensers with the powder and run as normal.