When we first arrived at our new house I was a little wary about using the new appliances because I wasn't sure exactly how they worked and I didn't want to hurt them. However, after a few days I finally decided that it really was time for me to try out the dishwasher. I looked under the kitchen sink (next to the dishwasher) and located two packages of soap tablets. I wasn't sure which one to use so I waited another day before I finally got up the courage to try one. I looked at both of the packages but couldn't decide which was best. One had a picture of a shiny glass but I thought that it looked more like a rinsing agent (our dishwasher has two little compartments for soap) so I figured that that one probably wasn't necessary.
The other package (OMO) had packets containing two soap tablets each, one of which was opened and partially used. I figured that was probably the best type one to try. I pulled out the other tablet and tried to stick it into the soap compartment in our dishwasher. It didn't quite fit so I crumbled it up a bit and managed to close the little door over it. I closed up the dishwasher and started it running.
But then I looked back at the box of soap and it hit me... Maybe that wasn't actually dishwashing detergent? Why didn't the soap tablet fit into the compartment? Why does it say "color" on the front of the box? After thinking about it a bit, I took the box over to Woodley and had him translate the Norwegian using Google Translate (I didn't quite have the heart to do it myself). All too soon it became clear that I was washing our dishes with laundry detergent! Oh no!!
Woodley then spent the next half hour looking up all of the horrible things that can happen if you use laundry detergent in your dishwasher - it can void your dishwasher's warranty, you can end up with soap suds all over the house, it can break the seals on the dishwasher, it can release volatile chemicals into the air... Since the dishwasher still had over an hour to go we sat around tensly and watched for signs of bubbles.
Thankfuly, none appeared and the worst thing that seemed to happen was that it seemed strange to smell something like laundry detergent coming out of the dishwasher. The dishes appeared clean but I washed them again using a tablet from the other box that Woodley determined was in fact dishwashing detergent.
It has been a couple of weeks now and the dishwasher is still going strong. (Yay!) The smell has now disappeared as well. I still wonder how I could have been so silly as to not realize that the OMO box was laundry detergent. I guess I'll just have to blame the jetlag, general lack of sleep, and the fact that I had never seen laundry detergent in tablet form. Oh yes, and the fact that the box was found under the kitchen sink instead of downstairs in the laundry room! I mean, really, who stores laundry detergent in the kitchen and not the laundry room? I returned the box to the laundry room but I can't bring myself to use it. The smell of OMO makes me feel a little sick now.
I'm just so glad that the dishwasher is ok!
~ElizabethRose~
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