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Help with tea stains

16 years ago

I try to use environmentally friendly cleaning products (no phosphates, no bleach, etc.) and they seem to work very well - except in the dishwasher. I have tried several brands (Seventh Generation, Trader Joe's and Biokleen) and none of them get tid of the tea stains on the inside of mugs. We drink a lot of tea and I am tired of handwashing the mugs after they come out of the dishwasher. Does anyone else have this problem? Any ideas to solve my tea stain problems?

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Comments (6)

petra_il
16 years ago
Oooh, I know this one -- use salt! Yep, wet your mugs, rub stains with salt and it will go away. You may need to experiment with how much salt to use but it works like miracle.
auchmedden
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, Petra, for the suggestion. I was really looking for something I could put in the dishwasher to get rid of the stains. I am able to scrub out the stains by hand, but I would like the dishwasher to do it without having to use a detergent with bleach.
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petra_il
16 years ago
oops, I should have read your post more carefully ... I thought you had problems getting the stains out - period! Just a thought - maybe sprinkling salt inside and running it through dishwasher? Hmmm ...
bmorepanic
16 years ago
Hydrogen peroxide? Or oxygen bleach.
yanalg
16 years ago
i always used baking soda to scrub the insides of the mugs out, i wonder if it would work in a DW though?
auchmedden
Original Author
16 years ago
What is oxygen bleach? Is it oxyclean? I have some of that - maybe I will try putting that in with the detergent. I will also try baking soda if the oxyclean doesn't work. The salt is an interesting idea too - doesn't salt act as a water softener? That might help the detergent work more effectively. You all have given me lots of things to try. Thanks everyone!

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