Can dish tabs solve cleaning nightmare?

You’ve all seen the video of the woman who scoured her mucky glass oven door with a dishwasher tablet.

Well, it got me thinking about the frankly grotty soap scum and water marks on my glass shower walls.

Cleaning them is a job I often avoid because shower sprays are so full of synthetic chemicals and goodness only knows what, and when you spray them they get up your nose and go everywhere.

I’ve used vinegar and lemon before – a homemade concoction that’s a great replacement for almost all store-bought cleaners – but it doesn’t really cut through the soap scum.

Then the story about using a dishwasher tablet to clean the oven broke, and it seemed like I might have an answer.

So, I tried it out.

Method

I used a Finish Power Ball tab, mostly because it’s the same as the one that Amy Lyall used to clean her oven, but also because they promise lemony freshness, and my shower could certainly use a bit of that.

I put on gloves, because the tabs are super abrasive, and set to work.

I didn’t wet the walls beforehand, just dipped the tab in a bowl of cold water. Cold, because I didn’t want the tab to dissolve too quickly, or fall apart.

Before cleaning, the glass was almost opaque with soap – gross.

Using circular movements, I scrubbed away the soap and water stains. I could feel them lifting as the tab passed over them. I didn’t need to scrub hard at all.

After each section, I splashed cold water on the glass and it was crystal clear.

Result

A resounding success. I would certainly use them again. No residue on my skin or in the air from a spray was a huge bonus.

In terms of waste, there is a little unnecessary packaging with the tablets as each one is individually wrapped, but since you wouldn’t use one very often that’s not too bad.

The box of 27 standard tablets cost me $12.99 from New World, so about 48c a tablet.

I used one to clean the whole shower, which has two glass panels.

That means, if you squeegee after each shower in between times, you might only use a few tabs a year. Bargain.

PHOTOS: KYLIE KLEIN-NIXON/STUFF Kylie Klein-Nixon tried cleaning her shower with a dishwasher tablet.

Klein-Nixon rubbed the tab in a circular motion on the glass and could feel the grime coming up.

Could a Finish Powerball Tab be the answer to soap scum?

Before: The glass is almost opaque with soap scum. Yikes.

It didn’t take long to clean most of the glass.

After: Crystal clear glass without a smear of soap scum in sight.

One tab in a little cold water cleaned three largish panes of the shower with dishwasher tab to spare.