Aluminum Foil in the Dishwasher: What Happend When We Tried It

By Barbara Bellesi Zito

Published on Oct. 28, 2024

Will putting aluminum foil in your dishwasher make your silverware sparkle? We tested the TikTok trick, and here's what we learned.

Perhaps you’ve seen a video on #CleanTok about putting aluminum foil in the dishwasher to get shiny silverware. It’s an appealing hack. If you’ve ever polished silver by hand, you’ll know that it can be a time-consuming task.

I’m always up for learning how to clean quickly, and if a new use for aluminum foil could make my life easier, I was ready. So the next time my dishwasher was full, I decided to test the aluminum foil hack.

I won’t lie—I was a bit nervous about putting something in my dishwasher that didn’t really belong there. (After all, you’re not supposed to put aluminum pots or pans in the dishwasher.) But I was assured by Rochelle Wilkinson, owner of Dirt Detective Cleaning, that my appliance wouldn’t break. Even better? Wilkinson agreed to try this new aluminum foil trick out in her own home.

Ready to see how we both fared? Here’s what you need to know about putting aluminum foil in the dishwasher.

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You’re probably wondering what an aluminum foil ball has to do with clean silverware. That’s exactly what I asked Lee Gilbert, founder of Ransom Spares, an online store for spare appliance parts. Calling on his 25 years of experience as a field engineer and consultant for dishwasher maintenance and repair, he filled me in on the science behind the TikTok tip.

“The idea behind this hack is that a chemical reaction known as ion exchange occurs when the warm water, detergent and the cutlery in the dishwasher come into contact with each other,” he says. “This reportedly helps remove watermarks and tarnish, leaving cutlery sparklingly clean.”

One caveat: The reaction occurs with silver cutlery. If your flatware is made of stainless steel or some other metal, the chemical reaction won’t take place.

Also, notice that Gilbert said, “come into contact with each other.” That’s key. So how could a ball of foil that stayed tucked in the corner of the cutlery holder do any good? I was about to find out.

The hack is simple: After you finish loading the dishwasher, ball up some aluminum foil and put it in the cutlery compartment. In my machine, there’s a section for larger utensils, so I popped mine in there quite easily.

I did wonder if the ball would somehow become dislodged during the wash cycle and ping-pong around the dishwasher. I wasn’t eager to break a major household appliance for the sake of journalism, so I wedged a utensil in the compartment to keep the ball put.

I ran a wash cycle and waited for the magic to happen.

Oh, if only it were that easy. But alas, putting aluminum foil in the dishwasher didn’t work.

Logan Taylor, president of Seattle-based Dazzle Cleaning Company, has seen this hack make the rounds on TikTok. “It’s funny because you’ll find a bunch of videos where people say, ‘It doesn’t work,’ then a bunch of videos where you have people saying, ‘It does work.'”

Was it the camera angle that gave the sense of newly sparkling silverware? Perhaps. “I tried it, and there is absolutely no difference in the dishes and cutlery,” Taylor says. Wilkinson also says the tip was a dud.

I did some internet sleuthing and found that the aluminum-foil-in-the-dishwasher hack is onto something. Aluminum foil can remove tarnish from silver, but there’s a bit more to the process than simply tossing a ball into your dishwasher. And there’s also a missing ingredient: baking soda.

Wilkinson points out that many dishwasher detergent pods have baking soda in them. But that alone won’t do the trick. Contact between the foil, baking soda and silverware needs to happen.

Turns out that although the foil ball in the cutlery compartment is meant to be a shortcut, it’s too much of a shortcut. Instead of saving you time, it’s wasting your aluminum foil.

Keep reading to find out how to actually use aluminum foil to clean silver, according to the good folks at Arm and Hammer.

Now, you might be thinking, Come on. Why wouldn’t a baking soda company like Arm and Hammer say that baking soda is useful? I sure did!

But Wilkinson confirmed that baking soda is the key ingredient that causes the reaction between the silver and the foil. Still, the silver must touch the foil, and the items must be submerged, neither of which happens with baking soda-based detergent and a ball of aluminum foil in the dishwasher. “The splashing of water does nothing,” says Wilkinson.

Well, since aluminum foil doesn’t work on its own in the dishwasher, my pro cleaner friends and I won’t be doing it again anytime soon. But as for cleaning silver submerged in a bath of baking soda and foil, it’s safe to do any time it gets really tarnished.

Now that we’re clear that a ball of aluminum foil in the dishwasher does nothing for your silverware, here’s some more bad news: It doesn’t do much for anything else on your dishwasher rack either, even though some people have said it helps clear up cloudy glasses.

Instead of balling up aluminum foil for that problem, some say that adding vinegar to the dishwasher might help clear up cloudy glasses. But Wilkinson says the better way of clearing the clouds is to clean the dishwasher filter. Not all dishwashers have filters, but if yours does, cleaning it may take care of cloudy glassware.

So there you have it: Putting aluminum foil in the dishwasher doesn’t work. I’m always looking for the silver lining (ha!) when cleaning hacks don’t go according to plan, and I’ve found one. I now have a super-easy way to clean silverware and silver jewelry.

At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. For this piece on putting aluminum foil in your dishwasher, Barbara Bellesi Zito tapped her longtime experience as a journalist who covers home topics including cleaning. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.

Sources:

Surprising Things to Put in a Dishwasher

Adding Aluminum Foil to Your Dryer

Cleaning Tips from the Pros