love this power wash dish soap for people who don’t like dawn
Do you want the convenience of Dawn Power Wash Dish Soap but with a lower price tag, natural ingredients, a scent you prefer, or with what you have on hand?
Look no further! There is a way!
first step: power wash dish soap foam
First step, putting diluted dish soap in a foamer bottle works wonders. It lasts so much longer and does the cleaning job just as good, PLUS doesn’t take much to rinse it off the dishes. Genius!
You can also keep all your hand soap in foamer bottles too! Prolongs the product, easier for kids as well and no gooey soap residue everywhere.
In the DIY Dawn Power Wash Dish Soap the common ingredient to add is isopropyl rubbing alcohol to the Dawn and water, then refill the Dawn Power Wash Dish Soap spray bottle container. Alternatively, any foamer bottle would work as well. This causes the Dawn to come out even foamier than just the Dawn in the soap foamer and adds some extra cleaning and shining power.
Does it work just as well with more natural dish soap, Sals Suds? Or any dish soap of my preference?
It absolutely does 🙂

Power Wash Dish Soap
You will be so impressed to have the power of Power Wash Dish soap but completely customizable to your own dish soap preferences!
Ingredients
- Foamer Bottle
- Your Preferred Dish Soap
- Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol
- Water
Instructions
- Fill a Foamer Bottle 1/5 of the way with your favorite dish soap (Mine is Sals Suds)
- Add 2 T of isopropyl isopropyl rubbing alcohol
- Fill the rest of the container with distilled water, leaving room at the top for the foaming mechanism that is on the top of the dip tube
- Screw on the top
- Invert gently to mix the solution
- Do some test pumps and ENJOY!
Notes
Feel free to substitute your favorite dish soap in place of the Sal's Suds.
Another favorite of mine is Palmolive Ultra Pure + Clear Unscented.
Why does the isopropyl rubbing alcohol make a difference in my homemade power wash dish soap?
Isopropyl rubbing alcohol is a great rinsing and drying agent which can eliminate any water spots by speeding up drying time. Isopropyl rubbing alcohol is also a solvent which can be used to dissolve various substances including oils and resins. This helps boost the cleaning power of your dish soap and will result in cleaner dishes, faster!
Why use homemade power wash dish soap?
Dawn may have some ingredients you don’t feel comfortable with
The FIRST ingredient in the Free and Clear Unscented Dawn Powerwash is Denatured Alcohol. Denatured Alcohol is used a strong solvent that is used as fuel for alcohol burners and camping stoves.
The other ingredients are as listed: Alcohol Denatured, C10-16 Alkyldimethylamine Oxide, Dipropylene Glycol Butyl Ether, Ethanolamine, Fragrance, Hexyl Ethoxylate, Lauryl Glucoside, Phenoxyethanol, PPG-26, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Water.
No matter how powerful Dawn Power wash is, the harshness and toxicity of these ingredients are something you should consider when this is something you use around children, potentially on you bare hands, and on the dishes you eat and drink from.
My favorite, Sal’s Suds has the following ingredients:
Water, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Coco-Betaine, Decyl Glucoside, Abies Siberica (Siberian Fir) Needle Oil, Picea Glauca (Spruce) Leaf Oil, Citric Acid, Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Potassium Hydroxide.
What a difference! I believe there is a time and place for chemicals but if the job can be done without harsh ones, it should be considered.
Dawn may have a scent you don’t prefer or you are avoiding fragrances
As you can see above, even the Free and Clear Unscented Dawn Powerwash contains fragrance.
The scent of Dawn has always been distinct, but recently they upgraded the scent and it is even stronger. I had to give a bottle of it away to a friend because the scent was unbearable even for outdoor cleaning.
Having the ability to DIY your power wash dish soap gives you unlimited flexibility to boost the power of any of your favorite dish soaps.
You would like to save money
Dawn is the name brand cream of the crop “elite” dish soap. Certainly there are other alternatives that are cheaper. This article totes AJAX as being the best value.
AJAX’s ingredients are: Water/Eau, Sodium Laureth Sulfate or Sodium C12-15 Alketh Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Lauramidopropylamine Oxide, Fragrance/Parfum, Poloxamer 124, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Methylisothiazolinone, Benzisothiazolinone, Yellow 5, Red 40.
Remember when pricing out products you want to look at the price per ounce or the unit price to compare apples to apples. It may be tempting to buy the $1 version at Dollar Tree, but unless that’s all you can afford at that moment, getting a larger bulk bottle is a better value, because it is cheaper per ounce.
Walmart’s Great Value Dish Soap also has rave reviews and seems affordable.

alternatives
I also like Palmolive Ultra Pure + Clear Unscented. The ingredients are: Water/Eau, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauramidopropyl Betaine, Lactic Acid, Poloxamer 124.
People also RAVE about the scent, natural ingredients, concentration, and cleaning power of ECOS Grapefruit Dish Soap.
ECOS Grapefruit Dish Soap ingredients are: Water, Sodium Coco-Sulfate (plant-derived surfactant), Cocamidopropylamine Oxide (plant-derived surfactant), Lauramine Oxide (plant-derived surfactant), Phenoxyethanol (preservative), Coco-Betaine (plant-derived surfactant), Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate (plant-derived water softener), Natural Fragrance, Ethylhexylglycerin (preservative), Sorbitan Oleate Decylglucoside Crosspolymer (natural-fragrance solvent), Triethyl Citrate (natural-fragrance solvent), Citric Acid (plant-derived pH adjuster).
You could also test out using a solid bar dish soap and scrub brush. Not a power wash, but certainly a long lasting and zero waste alternative.
an all around value power wash dish soap
No matter which way you look at it, using foaming dish soap is a great and economical option for your everyday task of washing dishes. Adding in some isopropyl rubbing alcohol to boost it into a power wash dish soap is an easy thing you can do. What a simple way to boost your dish soaps’ degreasing power and shine!
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