How Lynn Refills a Dawn Powerwash Bottle for About Fifty Cents

3 min read · from the video “Homemade Dawn Powerwash For About Fifty Cents A Bottle” (9:16)

Instead of buying Dawn Powerwash, Lynn refills the bottle with a cup of water, four tablespoons of Dawn and two tablespoons of alcohol. The alcohol is not optional in her recipe, because without it she says the little sprayer will get stopped up. She puts her cost at about 50 cents a bottle and uses it on dishes, countertops, stoves and the inside of the oven door.

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What goes in the bottle

Lynn lists it out before she starts: a cup of water, four tablespoons of Dawn and two tablespoons of alcohol, plus a spray bottle that has the air pump built into it. She says if you have the old Powerwash bottle you can save it, recycle it and refill it, and she is reusing a pump bottle she already owns rather than buying another.

She says up front what she uses it on: countertops, stoves and dishes, and the vent hood over the stove that gets all that greasy film on it, which she says this homemade spray will make come straight off. She also says there are a lot of homemade Powerwash recipes going around now, and this is the one she found that is working great for her in a kitchen where she does a lot of cooking and messes up a lot of dishes.

How Lynn mixes it

She starts with one cup of water, then measures four tablespoons of Dawn, which she points out is a quarter cup. Using the same cup she fills it to half of that, which gives her the two tablespoons of alcohol.

The alcohol is the part she will not skip. She says you have to use it, because if you do not, your little sprayer will get stopped up with the Dawn. Looking at the cup she also points out the alcohol separating and sitting on top of the Dawn before she stirs the two together.

Everything after that is about not making bubbles. She stirs the Dawn and alcohol together slow so she does not bubble the Dawn up, since a bottle full of suds is hard to fill, then adds that mixture to the water real slow and gives it a light mix. She uses a funnel and pours slowly into the bottle, then puts the sprayer back in, tightens it and gives it a little shake.

How she uses it

She goes down her list on camera. It makes a great eyeglass cleaner, and on dishes with grease or anything stuck on she sprays it good and lets it soak around 5 minutes before washing.

On the kitchen surfaces she sprays the top of her glass stove, where it works up bubbles, and says it works good on countertops too. For the inside of her oven door she lets it soak around 10 minutes before wiping, and her takeaway there is that the longer you let it soak, the cleaner it will come.

What it costs

The savings are the whole point for her. She says the store version runs about $7 a bottle, and doing it this way puts about 50 cents in your bottle, and repeats at the end that it is around 50 cents compared to almost $6 to $7 a bottle at the store.

Once it is mixed and in the bottle, she holds it up and says what is in the bottom of it looks just like the blue Powerwash, and she sprays it so you can see how it comes out before you mix your own. She signs off saying spring is just around the corner and they will be needing Powerwash spray for a lot of spring cleaning.

Follow the labels on every product you mix, and test any cleaner on a small hidden spot first.

Lynn’s tips

Questions people ask

What is the homemade Dawn Powerwash recipe?

A cup of water, four tablespoons of Dawn and two tablespoons of alcohol, mixed slowly and poured into a pump spray bottle.

Why do you need alcohol in homemade Powerwash?

Lynn says you have to use it because otherwise the little sprayer will get stopped up with the Dawn.

How much does it cost to make?

She puts it at about 50 cents a bottle against almost $6 to $7 at the store.

These notes are written from what Lynn says and shows in the video — watch it for the full method.

Where this comes from

  1. 0:03 countertops, stoves and dishes
  2. 0:40 the three ingredients
  3. 1:15 water and four tablespoons Dawn
  4. 1:52 two tablespoons alcohol, why
  5. 2:28 alcohol sits on the Dawn
  6. 3:03 mixing slow, no bubbles
  7. 3:45 adding to water, 50 cents
  8. 4:28 funneling it into the bottle
  9. 5:14 sprayer back in, the spray
  10. 5:49 works as eyeglass cleaner
  11. 6:26 5 minute dish soak, stove
  12. 7:43 countertops and oven door
  13. 8:24 store price comparison
  14. 9:01 saving it for spring cleaning

Each link opens the video at the moment Lynn covers it.

Video page: Homemade Dawn Powerwash For About Fifty Cents A Bottle

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