7 Things You Shouldn’t Clean With Dish Soap

You wash dishes with dish soap, so it’s fine to put it in the dishwasher, right? Alas, no. Dishwasher detergent works differently than dish soap, relying largely on enzymes to get dishes clean, according to Maytag, and isn’t especially sudsy.

A couple of years ago, there was a CleanTok (or TikTok’s cleaning community, if you’re not chronically online) trend in which people extolled the benefits of putting dish soap in your washing machine, which supposedly makes your laundry brighter. Please do not do this. Washing machines aren’t designed for high-suds soaps like dish soap. Dish soap can cause buildup in your machine or might not rinse out of your laundry entirely, leaving it feeling soapy. 

For years I’ve been washing my delicate clothing items, like wool sweaters or silk dresses, with dish soap. Oops! Though thankfully I haven’t completely ruined anything, I may have been making the job harder on myself. “You can use a couple of drops of dish soap to spot-clean stains,” says Rich Handel, senior test project leader at Consumer Reports and our resident laundry expert. “I don’t recommend it for handwashing, as it may be hard to rinse out. Dish soaps are designed for non-porous hard surfaces, not textiles.” Your best bet, according to Rich, are laundry detergents specifically designed for hand-washing. 

Some countertop materials can be finicky and sensitive, and cleaning them with dish soap isn’t recommended if you want to keep them looking their best. “Household surfaces made with materials like marble, quartz, quartzite, or soapstone are more susceptible to damage from harsh chemicals—like the ones found in everyday cleaning products—or acids like vinegar or lemon,” says Gary McCoy, a store manager at Lowe’s. For granite, quartz, quartzite, and soapstone countertops, you can use a diluted dish soap solution, preferably following with a granite polish and protectant, says McCoy. “Dish soap should be avoided altogether for marble countertops, and professional cleaners like Granite Gold Daily Cleaner should be used.”

Even the sweatiest, oiliest skin doesn’t need the rigorous stripping you’ll find in standard dish soap. “Dish soap and skin cleansers are based on the same ingredients—surfactants—but dish soap is usually formulated to be more cleansing, which might end up stripping skin a bit more,” says Michelle Wong, PhD, a cosmetic chemist in Sydney, Australia. Although they’re formulated to be gentle on your hands, “there’s only so much a cleanser can mitigate against prolonged exposure, so wearing gloves while washing dishes is always a good idea.

Body skin is usually more resilient than face skin, so dish soap might be better tolerated there, whereas it might be too harsh for people’s faces if used repeatedly.” That particularly applies to people with eczema, according to Jennifer Stein, MD, PhD, a dermatologist at NYU Langone. To avoid irritating the skin, the American Academy of Dermatology advises using a gentle cleanser without alcohol and avoiding scrubbing.

The same goes for your hair, according to Wong. “Modern shampoos usually contain conditioning ingredients that keep hair from tangling and snagging during washing, but these might not be present in dish soap, so you may end up damaging your hair,” she says. 

Dish soap is not the answer to getting Spot and Fluffy clean and fresh. “Avoid dish soap for washing pets, since it strips the coat of their natural oils,” says Kristi Flynn, DVM, an associate professor of primary care at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota. You can make the rare exception, she says, if they’re having a reaction to a topical medication or they get something oily on their fur. “My dog once was under the picnic table and a side of melted butter spilled and ended up all over her head,” she says. “You could use [dish soap] initially on the affected area, then rinse well and follow up with a high-quality pet shampoo.”

Your vehicle may be marketed as tough enough to handle anything the road throws at it, but you still want to give your rough-and-tumble car or truck a gentle bath.

“The use of a product like Dawn will not immediately or directly cause any harm to the car—I have done it—but the Dawn will strip off any wax or other coatings that the car might intentionally have on its surface,” says Michael Crossen, a lead automotive technician at CR. “So if you did use Dawn, you would want to consider waxing the car after washing it. Automotive car wash soaps loosen and lift the dirt but leave the wax behind, which is usually ideal.”