Jet Dry useful for anything other than in dishwasher?

[Ravenant211]

Hello all,

I have a random question about Jet Dry. I'm wondering if it has any other use or potential application than being put in a dishwasher? A year or so ago when we moved into the house we currently live in we bought a large bottle of Jet Dry for the dishwasher in the house. We used it a few times but then decided to try the packets that have the soap and Jet Dry etc all together. They work great with our dishwasher and so we have been using them ever since.

I was doing some cleaning and came across that bottle of Jet Dry again today under the sink. I have this weird thing where I hate to just throw anything out just because I don't want it anymore. I usually try to find uses for cleaners and other consumables like that rather than just toss and waste 'em. I have no idea what I could use Jet Dry for though. A search of the web didn't turn anything up for me so I thought I would ask

Any ideas? I know that it's primary function is to reduce surface tension of the water to avoid streaking or spots... and I'm having a hard time thinking of a way that could be useful for anywhere else around the house/garage/yard. Even something bizarre like adding it to certain compounds when doing repairs around the house (think drywall or epoxy) to get a desired effect, would be worth knowing to me. If no one has any ideas I guess I'll just toss it but thought I would check first. Thanks for the info and time!

[mitch17]

Welcome to the forums.

I would bet a neighbor would be willing to take it off your hands to put in their dishwasher.

The only thing I can think of as a use would maybe be a tiny amount in glass cleaner but I think it's better to just buy good glass cleaner in the first place (I don't buy Windex).

[Gunguy45]

It might...just might, be a good addition (in small quantities) to a home made glass cleaner. I found an ammonia, vinegar, alcohol mix works better than windex or any commercial brand I've ever used. I think I used something like a 3/6/1 mix and it's sooo much better on glass it's amazing. Cheaper too.

Probably would be good if you wash your cars in the driveway also. In the rinse though...not the soap bucket.

[mitch17]

I used to make my own glass cleaner and the recipe was similar to Vic's. However, I think there are good products available which made me not want to make my own anymore.

A teaspoon or so in a quart of cleaner would be about the proportion of Jet Dry I would use.

I can see it maybe making a difference in a car rinse as well but I do that with the hose, so it would not be practical for me.

[Ravenant211]

Thanks for the ideas!

Yeah, I can see where it would need to be kept working with glass, since that is basically what it was designed to do.

I might just try making a batch of home made glass cleaner and see how it does. We have mixed success with Windex. The house we moved into was pretty run down and we're still working on some aspects of it (including some major remodeling projects). Drywall dust and some of the windows we haven't gotten around to cleaning in depth yet, the Windex doesn't seem to be able to handle the heavier cleaning very well. You have to do many spray and wipe down cycles to start seeing the heavier stuff come off.

Maybe a homemade version would be just the ticket. Jet Dry to reduce/prevent the streaking and then we could use the vinegar for the amount of "cutting" power we need, adding more or less once we see how it handles the tough stuff. Rinsing the car sounds good as well, but we tend to use a hose for that also, so it probably wouldn't work too well for us.

Thanks again guys! I'll try it, worse case scenario it doesn't work any better than our current glass cleaner and we can see if a neighbor wants it!

[mitch17]

Please let us know how this works - we're always curious here.

[Ravenant211]

Will do! Might be a little bit before I can report back though, we're still making the big mess right now, it'll be a few before we get to clean it up

[Ravenant211]

Hello again,

I know it's been a long time but I promised I would respond with results and wanted to keep that promise!

It took a while but I finally got around to trying the home made glass cleaner concoction. I would have to say it works OK, maybe even pretty good. It did fine as a glass cleaner I guess, but as some others said I can't say that its any sort of big improvement over what you buy from the store. I'm assuming the JetDry DID help with streaking since it worked fine and I didn't have any streaks or problems like that. I didn't try it without JetDry though so I can't say it was a particularly scientific test.

The homemade solution seemed to clean heavy grime a little better than store bought and may clean water spots slightly better as well, but that's probably the large amount of vinegar at work. I let the solution sit for awhile on some windows and their frames that had bad build up where no one had lived here for a good couple years before we moved in. It seemed to break through some of that grime, definitely better than store bought glass cleaner but not as good as strong cleaners like 409 etc.

All in all I guess you could say it's a success and that the JetDry probably helps. I used a teaspoon of JetDry as recommended into a full standard store bought spray bottle. For the rest I tried the suggested mix, but minus the ammonia. I used water instead as I didn't have ammonia on hand. Worked pretty good and maybe it's more "natural" than store bought stuff, but does NOT smell good so if you're sensitive to strong odors you might want to keep that in mind. Vinegar and rubbing alcohol make a potent odor!

So there are my results, honestly probably not worth the effort in comparison to store bought stuff, despite being successful. Unless you have some JetDry you don't have a use fore anymore AND all the other needed solutions lying around, I would say just buy glass cleaner from the store and save some time.