Regular readers will remember we called for help on testing Dr Beckmann's washing machine cleaner, and the enthusiastic super-cleaner Judi won. Her review is below, and we'd like to just say we think she's missed her calling (her day job is in the fashion industry), spectacular devotion to duty Judi, and marvelous review.
Dr Beckmann's Service-It
Here are the ‘before’ photos. I’m not proud of them, but in the name of science and all that.
The instructions looked straightforward enough – wipe down the rubber seal, soak the dispenser tray in diluted solution, run the rest of the solution on a 60 degree wash.
Wiping down the rubber seal? Easy-peasy. Covering the dispenser tray in 50ml of solution diluted in 4.5 litres of water? It sounds straightforward. But, Dr Beckmans, have your D&D team actually checked how much water is required to cover a dispenser tray in an average-sized kitchen sink? Your 4.5 litres hardly laps the sides, let alone covers it. I had every vase, saucepan and salad bowl out, trying to find something better to fit it into.
So, the dilemma – do I stand there for ½ an hour basting the dispenser in the sink with the correct amount of diluted solution? Or do I risk diluting the solution with too much water (8.5 litres, for the record) and it not having any affect? Or do I top up with solution to get the correct ratio to the 8.5 litres and then risk not having enough to run through the 60 degree wash? (At this stage I was wishing I was trialling the OPI nail treatment.)
Suddenly I had a John McClane moment of clarity. (In one of the Die Hard’s where Bruce Willis has to accurately measure out 4 gallons of water using a 3-gallon drum and a 5-gallon drum – or something along those lines – or the bad guy detonates the bomb.) Instead of diluting the solution even further, I would raise the level of water. Genius! That led to this scene (above) which looked promising until the glasses started floating, keeled over and took in water. The water level was almost there though.
So I tackled it from a different angle and came up with a plastic bag only slightly larger than the dispenser which could be supported when full of 4.5 litres! Rock and roll….
So, I left it for the required 30 minutes and came back to find the sludge disappointingly still attached to the dispenser. The instructions say to rinse off any residue but my trusty toothbrush actually got it to this stage. It was very easy to remove, but I still couldn’t get into the hard-to-reach corners.
My verdict? It was all too much of a palaver really, even though next time I would short-cut straight to the plastic bag (I’ve kept it just in case) I was disappointed the sludge didn’t just fall away in the soak. And as I can’t see what has happened inside the pipes it’s all a bit inconclusive. Nice smell though.
I do have a question for Dr Beckmann’s though – ever thought of providing a dispenser-shaped zip-lock bag ?
Dr Beckmann's Service it
