Many of us are tempted to mix bleach with dish soap. When looking for DIY hacks to remove tough stains, a mixture of bleach and dish soap does sound tempting. Just like all of you, I was also intrigued by this question. Last week I started looking into this topic and I’ll share all the information I found regarding this mixture of dish soap and bleach.

So, can you mix bleach with dish soap?

Read the full article if you are interested in getting a comprehensive answer to this question

What Kind of dish soap can be used for this purpose

Almost all Dish soaps contain ammonia/amines even if this ingredient is not present in the ingredient list. Ammonia and bleach are a deadly combination. When ammonia is mixed with bleach, it becomes toxic.

You can never use this mixture for cleaning dishes because these toxins are extremely harmful to your health.

If you want to use this mixture as a laundry detergent, dilute both the bleach and dish soap with huge quantities of water. After dilution, combine the two mixtures and use them as a laundry detergent.

You may have noticed a “Do not add bleach” warning on the bottle of your dish soap. This warning is present because if you mix concentrated ammonia with bleach, harmful fumes will be released. These fumes can cause some serious damage to your eyes, ears, and lungs. If these fumes are inhaled they can cause death.

These warnings are no exaggeration because a similar chemical formula is used during artificial warfare.

Damage control 

If you end up mixing your dish soap with ammonia, deliberately or accidentally. Toxic fumes will escape and you’ll end up choking and wheezing. You can even start to experience dizziness. The moment you realize your mistake, get as far away from this mixture as possible. Open all the doors and windows of your house. If possible, go outside and take deep breaths in the fresh air. If the dizziness doesn’t subside, call an ambulance.

Is Ammonia present in all dish soaps?

The ingredient list on your dish soap might not contain all the ingredients that are present in it. But almost all the dish soaps come with a “do not add bleach” warning. If this warning is present on your dish soap, it means that ammonia is present in it.

Even if ammonia is not mentioned on the ingredient list of your dish soap. Look out for the warning.

Is it safe to make a DIY laundry detergent by mixing dish soap and ammonia

The answer depends upon the kind of dish soap you are using. It is better if to use safe ingredients for this DIY laundry detergent. But if you are adamant about using dish soap and bleach. Try finding a dish soap that is ammonia-free.

Almost all dish soaps contain ammonia so you’ll have a hard time finding one without this chemical in it. You can look for ammonia-free dish soaps online.

If you are unable to find ammonia-free dish soap, follow the recipe given below to make a safe DIY Laundry detergent.

Making a DIY detergent for laundry

Mix about 2 tablespoons of your dish soap in about four liters of water (almost a gallon).

A washing machine uses roughly 20 gallons of water so this is a modest amount of dish soap for one wash cycle.

You can add a little bit of bleach because this bleach will also get diluted in the water.

Please be careful and don’t add too much bleach.

Diluting both these chemicals and then mixing them is a lot different than mixing them in concentrated form. You can safely make this DIY laundry detergent if you are careful about the quantities of ingredients you are using.

Conclusion

To err on the safe side of things, avoid using chemicals that can be hazardous to your health. Ammonia is present in almost all dish soaps and Ammonia and bleach don’t work well together. A mixture of Ammonia and Bleach is very toxic. A mixture of ammonia and bleach also releases fumes that can cause serious damage to your health if ingested.

If you still want to play around with these two ingredients, make sure that they are diluted to the point where they cannot cause any harm to your health.

Always do complete research before mixing any two products together, your life is very precious and you should avoid practices that can endanger it.

Author: mayank