It is a good thing I am of calm disposition. See, yesterday, I filled up the dishwasher, put the fancy new biodegradable soap in it, turned it on, and went to lie on my bed and read my book take a nap. About an hour later, I wandered into the kitchen to find a giant puddle of suds on the floor.
I cleaned the floor, scooped the suds out of the tub, and pulled out the manual. I didn’t think I’d ever need to look at the instructions, but hey, I’m glad I kept them. Naturally, I suspected the worst, but the troubleshooting chart immediately assuaged my fears.
You know what? It actually does matter what kind of soap you put in your dishwasher. It took a long time for the suds to go down, but they did, eventually, and then, I ran the whole thing through another rinse cycle. All done.
Note to self and other well meaning types: You really do need to use the soap recommended in the manual.
The kitchen floor is nice and clean now. Also, as a person who writes documentation for a living, I’m always happy when it’s useful.
[tags]dishwasher, documentation, soap suds[/tags]
There was a Brady Bunch episode about this.
As a latch-key kid growing up, I was never much help to my Mom in the housekeeping department. I recall an afternoon when Mom called me and specifically asked me to run the dishwasher. It was probably the last time. How was I supposed to know you don’t use Palmolive dish soap? I mean, it says DISH soap right on the bottle. Well, apparently a half cup of Palmolive goes a long way. A very long way. All the way out of the kitchen and into the dining room. And those suds like to soak through any rugs that lie on the carpet.
I’m glad to read this happens to so many folks. Though I never went the route of Jason’s Palmolive soap routine, I have used the incorrect dishwasher detergent and spent a good amoutn of time sopping up the mess. We, unfortunately, live in an old house we’ve been refurbing. Unfortunately, we haven;t refurbed the kitchen floor, so those old well-worn and spaced floor boards in the kitchen…yeah the suds leaked through to the basement while also sneaking under the underlayment of the kitchen floor and warping the wood. It was a very expensive dishwashing experience.
On another note (of caution), you probably know how great the new front-loading clothes washing machines are. Did you know if you used regular detergent with them, you’ll have a sudsy floor in addition to seriously damaging your new washing machine added on to the fact that your clothes will still be soapy, even after 3 rinse cycles? Yep. I think I’ll just be dragging the laundry down to the river and doing the slap-on-rock method of cleaning. Lot less manuals to be read.