People often ask me, “How can I get my dishes to sparkle the way yours do?” It’s a reasonable question. The answer isn’t quite as simple as it might seem, however.
The first thing you need to know is that there are two kinds of no-rinse sprays: liquid and dry. Liquid spray benefits from being easy to use, but it can leave an unpleasant film on your dishes, especially if you don’t rinse thoroughly enough. Dry spray has the opposite problem: it requires a little more work to apply, but the results are usually worth it.
A Brief History of No-Rinse Spray
For centuries, people thought it was impossible to get their dishes sparkling without using soap. But in 1876, a German chemist named Carl Scheele made a surprising discovery: water alone is highly effective at removing food residue from cookware! Soon after this discovery was publicized, cooks around the world began applying water directly to their dishes without using soap at all.
Of course, this technique did have some drawbacks: water can be very messy if not applied properly; it’s also not very effective at removing grease and oil stains.
Every now and then a product comes along that, while simple in design, stands out as meeting a need that has gone unfulfilled. The no-rinse spray is one of those products, and it’s now expanding into the all-natural cleaning market.
Invented by Bill Moeller, president of Graphite Dishwasher Company in Iowa City, Iowa, the no-rinse spray was first introduced in 1991 as an alternative to traditional dishwashers. It uses a special blend of ingredients to provide a “quick clean” for dishes or other surfaces. It leaves behind only a light mineral film that rinses away easily with water. Since its introduction, the product has been widely used by people with physical disabilities or who suffer from chemical sensitivities and cannot tolerate scents or other harsh chemicals.
Despite its success in serving this niche market, Moeller set out to create an environmentally friendly version of the product using all natural ingredients. A few years ago he began working with his son-in-law to find just the right combination of biodegradable surfactants (used to suspend solids so they can be removed) and minerals (which leave behind a thin film that attracts water). After many trials and errors, Moeller finally arrived at
Introducing the no-rinse dishwasher spray…
Splish, splash, splosh! The dishes are clean and you haven’t even had to touch them. The no-rinse dishwasher spray has made cleaning up after dinner a breeze. The history of this remarkable new product begins at least fifty years ago in the ALCOA research labs when a young chemist named Robert Reinecke was experimenting with rubbing alcohol and graphite. One night he accidentally spilled his concoction on the kitchen table. To his amazement, he found that next morning that he could simply wipe it off without rinsing. He wrote up his results and filed it away as just another one of those accidents that happen in every lab every day of the week. Nothing came of his discovery for over twenty years! It was not until 1991 that an entrepreneur named Tim Shear decided to buy the patent from ALCOA. And now, just five short years later, we have this magical cleaning solution in our homes and offices.
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t think twice about the way in which you clean your dishes. You simply grab a sponge or a dishcloth, squirt some soap into the sink and go to work. Many people are unaware that there are other methods for washing dishes and believe that rinsing is an integral part of the process. But did you know that it’s possible to wash your dishes without rinsing them? That’s right – no more tedious splashing through a sink full of soapy water! A quick spray with some super-concentrated dishwashing solution and you’re done!
The idea of washing your dishes without rinsing them may seem a little strange at first, but rinsing is actually not required for effective cleaning. The whole point of washing your dishes is to remove dirt, debris and food particles; what does it matter if there’s still soap on your plates after they’ve been washed?
But how can this be? How can such a seemingly trivial process be achieved without using water? The answer lies in the “physics” behind this revolutionary new technology. Basically, the liquids used in non-rinse detergents are specially formulated to repel water when applied to surfaces. This means that although
There’s nothing like the feeling of clean dishes, but who wants to spend their time scrubbing when there’s a whole world out there to explore?
Graphite is a natural substance that has been used for centuries in everything from pencils to lubricants. The benefits of graphite in the dishwasher extend well beyond its ability to keep dishes looking sparkling; it also stops corrosion and reduces friction in the machine’s internal workings, thus increasing its efficiency.
So get outside and go exploring! Your dishes will be waiting for you when you get back.
When your dishwasher’s done, open the door and let the dishes air-dry. Don’t wipe them with a cloth or towel. You don’t want to re-deposit any of the oils you just removed.
Graphite is a crystalline form of carbon. It is one of the three naturally occurring allotropes, along with diamond and fullerenes.
Graphite occurs in metamorphic rocks as a result of the reduction of sedimentary carbon compounds during metamorphism. It also occurs in igneous rocks and in meteorites. Minerals associated with graphite include quartz, calcite, micas and tourmaline. In meteorites it occurs with troilite and silicate minerals. Small graphitic crystals in meteoritic iron are called cliftonite. Natural graphite is used mostly in what are called refractory applications.
Graphite platelets have unusual physical properties, which lead to many applications such as lubricants, battery components, fuel cell porous electrodes, conductive fillers, etc. Graphite finds use as a non-metallic lubricant and as a moderator in nuclear reactors. It is also used for crucibles, moulds and dry cells.
The next time you see a dishwasher detergent dispenser that holds the dishwasher detergent concentrate until the time it needs to be released into the dishwasher give a thought to how graphite was used to make it happen.