Dishwasher Filters

[gravityrules]

Same with DH. He coughs at times but not like I do. FWIW...I have not noticed any worsening of our dish cleaning or glasses shining since eliminating the rinse aid. So at worst we are saving some $$ by not buying it. We have a Bosche DW so it cleans very well.

My next target to get rid of after we run out is the plastic pods. That plastic melts in the DW. Where does it go? Will go back to old fashioned powder soap if I can find a safe and fragrance free version.

I've had those same thoughts about the plastic DW pods (assuming that film is a plastic).

On the topic of appliances with filters, my front loading washing machine has a filter/trap that requires periodic cleaning.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

next target to get rid of after we run out is the plastic pods. That plastic melts in the DW. Where does it go?

It may dissolve, rather than "melt", but I'll let the Wicked Witch of the West decide. I will tell you one place they go. The surface of almost everything.

My wife buys those from costco on her solo trips. I return them on my solo trip or when she isn't looking and buy the liquid. Oops. But I don't go out of my way to go to costco just to return, so once in a while she opens a pkg of them and there we are, using them. One place they go is if you put a single cup coffee-filter (fine mesh screen) into the washer when you use a pod, the coffee-filter will then pass water VERY slowly. All the surfaces of the mesh must be covered with the "plastic", so the holes are smaller. ANd then, maybe you pour almost-boiling water into it over & over. Well, fool me once. First time I noticed it, I scrubbed the mesh with an old, stiff toothbrush til it ran water normally.
Then I described the situation, but nothing stops her from buying pods. Some people have the "oh, marketing says this is more convenient" gene.

Pods for clothes washer? Same thing, except no coffee. She buys em. I return em.
And don't ge tme started on the "smells fresh" powder to pour into the clothes wash, which is nothing but perfume that outgasses like crazy. She bought it and used it before I noticed. I went running and my running shirt was making me gag it was outgassing so badly. Since then if she bought those, I hid them and returned them. No way I want that cheap-bleep perfume on my clothes.

Oh so convenient, and makes you gag (or get stomach cancer). Such wondrous new products.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

tend to try and compare to driving and if the risk is below driving (which this almost certainly is by a LOT) I accept it

Rational? Setting a "tolerable" limit for health risk without considering REWARD. It is Risk/Reward. Driving provides greater reward in mobility than the reward of basically all of the things you compare to driving.
Maybe they should start taking away the rinse-aid for those convicted of drunken driving. That'll get them thinking.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

on dishwasher filter, & the "instructions". It all depends on YOU, not the instructions. I look at ours every 3 YEARS, at best. In 10 years, it has never collected anything more than a few things that look like "threads". I think that is prob just dust that gets in there when we leave the door open, which I do often. Why so little in the filter? Nobody in our house puts anything in there with solid matter above a certain size. In fact, my wife practically washes stuff before she puts it in there.

It is a simple, not fine, mechanical filter. Not HEPA. Not a chemical catalyst. If the stuff you put in there has no "large" solid particles, the instructions about the filter don't even apply to you really. It is like how it says "Do Not Eat Without Cooking" on frozen pizza (and other things). WHo would do that? I guess somebody, so that is in the "instructions". But if you cannot imagine eating an uncooked pizza, unless one washed up on the deserted isle where you were stranded and starving, then it doesn't apply to you.

 

[jp10558]

Rational? Setting a "tolerable" limit for health risk without considering REWARD. It is Risk/Reward.

You're right about that - I didn't really consider the reward.

Driving provides greater reward in mobility than the reward of basically all of the things you compare to driving.

Technically I think the per XX number of miles risk, because driving 1 mile I still don't worry about the risk, but the reward is a lot lower than driving 5+ miles IMHO anyway. But the reward of the rinse aid is I save 30 minutes per dishwasher load, and given I often end up doing 2 or up to 4 per day - it's less practical if it takes an hour per load. I'd say that's a lot of reward, but may be specific to your dishwasher. My point is - the risk that study implies (at least to me) is so tiny that saving 1-2 hours a day in time vastly overpowers it in reward. My priors is that the active ingredient loading at around 1:80,000 or 1:280,000ish is extremely close to homeopathy concentrations and those do nothing - the dose is just so tiny.

Heck, from reading that study, what everyone worried about this should do is stop eating out because it's the professional / commercial dishwashers that give an active dose - if you even consider that does a real effect with one study that's not even in animals.

I guess I just don't take one small group of people claiming something as enough to need to change anything or take it seriously without much better evidence for it.