Baking soda instead of dishwasher salt!

[WindFlower92]

DH accidentally did this earlier - one spoonful and and then realised and put dishwasher salt in and didn't try and get the baking soda out. Will this ruin the machine? I tried to Google this but it's not clear, and I've seen mentions of this being dangerous and leaving a poisonous residue? Is this true? How do we get it out now we've run the machine twice? Aaagh this is why I like to do the kitchen!

Not a problem if it's a tiny amount. How big a spoonfull? How diluted with salt?

(how did he confuse those chemicals)

Probably a large heaped spoonful compared to quite a bit of salt. To be fair, they were both in plastic boxes next to each other and unlabelled - on the to do list!

Sodium Chloride (dishwasher salt) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) do not react together, so there is no possibility of a "poisonous" residue. You get the exact same two chemicals, neither of which are toxic or capable of damaging your machine.

If I google baking soda in dishwasher all I get are tips for using it to clean your dishwasher. We eat baking soda*... surely it can't leave a poisonous residue?

• and we don't eat dishwasher detergent or rinse aid

Thanks both, I felt like I was overreacting but the internet makes me mad sometimes!