Patent ID: 8758520

Claim:
A method of cleaning articles in an institutional or a consumer dishmachine comprising: providing a concentrated acidic composition, wherein the concentrated acidic composition comprises at least one acid selected from the group consisting of urea sulfate, urea hydrochloride, sulfamic acid, sulfuric acid, methylsulfamic acid, methanesulfonic acid, citric acid, gluconic acid and mixtures thereof; and a surfactant selected from the group consisting of an EO/PO block copolymer, a PO/EO reverse block copolymer, a linear alcohol ethoxylate, an alkoxylated alcohol, a fatty alcohol ethoxylate, a dimethicone surfactant, and mixtures thereof; diluting the concentrated acidic composition to form a first acidic use solution having a first concentration of said acid and said surfactant; applying the first acidic use solution to articles in need of cleaning as a detergent; diluting the concentrated acidic composition to form a second acidic use solution having a second concentration of said acid and surfactant; and applying the second acidic use solution to the articles to be cleaned as a rinse aid in combination with a rinse aid composition having a pH, wherein the second acidic use solution lowers the pH of the rinse aid composition for a period of time by at least 1 pH unit compared to the rinse aid composition alone, wherein the method does not employ any phosphorus or phosphorus-containing compounds.