I had a good look around the web and all the tablets seem to have the same recipe so this is what I used:
- 1 Cup of Borax
- 1 Cup of Washing Soda
- 1/2 Cup Epsom salt (I didn't have any of this so have just used normal cooking salt - I think they are slightly different compounds so I'll have to do some experimenting and see if it makes a difference on subsequent loads)
- 3/4 Cup of lemon juice (the cheap stuff in the bottle is fine )
- Mix all the dry ingredients together
- Carefully mix in the lemon juice (it fizzes a bit )
- Give it all a good stir but try to work quickly as they dry out pretty quick
- Next step is to make your tablets - you need to make sure that they fit in your dishwasher, I kind of measured my tablespoon measure and I think that size will fit so I started off making them in semi-ball shapes like this:
I then decided that I want pretty tablets so I grabed my nearest ice-cube tray and did this:
I was expecting around 22 tablets from what I'd read when doing my research but those little balls just kept coming:
I then went really wild and added a bit more juice to the last bit which was getting a bit dry and made some little rectangular ones ending up with a total of 36 tablets! I'm hoping they are big enough - I read that they need to be a tablespoon minimum and that is what these are (although the icecube ones may be a little more) so I'm looking forward to seeing how they go and making them a bit bigger if I need to next time. - They are currently drying in the sun by the window but are already pretty hard, I'll leave them out about 24 hours then pop them in a big jar
So I'm impressed - cheaper and better for our health and the environment (bit like cloth nappies really ) my results with the powder we made last week have been good so far so I have high hopes! I'll update once I've had a wash and also if I end up trying new recipes.
I'll work out the costs and update as well.
Let me know if you decide to give them a go and take a pic for me
ETA here they are in a big coffee jar: