Dishwashers

[nancybotwinbloom]

I'm getting a dishwasher in a week or so with our new kitchen.

I've never had one before.

What do I need to know?

Does it need a maintenance wash before I use it?

Does it need regular maintenance washes? If so how often?

Any recommendations on dish washer tablets?

Should I only use it once it's full?

I know this is probably the most boring thread ever created but I'm all ears.

Tia

Where does the salt even go? I've found somewhere that rinse aid goes but not salt, I'm going to treat my old dishwasher to a clean and add salt and rinse aid and hopefully might get a few more years out of it!

When we got an induction hob, we got these pans from Ikea.

The Scoville range from Asda or Argos are good and often on a deal so very cheap.

Main saucepans are some old tefal ones, many of your existing pans may work, we only had to replace the frying pans and the espresso maker for the induction hob.

I always use the top wash on the dishwasher, quicker ones don't seem as reliable. I also think this is better at keeping the dishwasher clean and working well. Use all in one and dishwasher cleaning stuff from Aldi or Lidl, costs a fraction of the main brands and works well.

I'm completely lazy about rinsing the filters etc, maybe a couple of times a year if that. Probably use the dishwasher cleaner thing every couple of months or so.

@EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide

Where does the salt even go? I've found somewhere that rinse aid goes but not salt, I'm going to treat my old dishwasher to a clean and add salt and rinse aid and hopefully might get a few more years out of it!

There should be a compartment on the floor of the machine. You unscrew the lid and pour loads of salt in until its full. Water will come out as you pour the salt in but that's ok

You must use salt designed for dishwashers btw - not ordinary table salt.

Yeah its got to be dishwasher salt - found near dishwasher tablets and rinse aid. I use own brand salt and rinse aid

@GreenPlum and @dementedpixie thank you so much! I bought a dishwasher cleaner, and some salt and rinse aid, and cleaned the filters, and my trusty old dishwasher is like new now! It smells amazing and things seem dry at the end of the cycle, before they weren't! I'm really impressed! How often do I need to fill up the salt thing? It took absolutely loads, the rinse aid bit only took a little bit though.

My machine tells me when to refill. Lasts a couple of months I think - i have my dishwasher set for a soft water area

Which dishwasher are you buying OP? Interested because i am about to replace mine.

Is the dishwasher repair man consensus on what setting to use then? Not the eco-and not the quickest but just a medium? I've been using eco-, I guess the manufacturer likes it because you buy more dishwashers?

Back again - apologies - Lidl and Aldi dishwasher salt i Very much cheaper that anyone else. I use fresh lemons quite a bit and put the used lemon halves in the cutlery tray for one wash and get the fresh scent in the dw.

My dishwasher repairer disagrees - he said to use the eco setting by default because it tends to be lower temperature, whereas the higher temps on other settings will cause the heating element to crap out sooner... and it's usually the heating element that breaks in dishwashers rather than the mechanical washing parts.

I think I'll stick to the eco setting - it uses far less water and energy, cleans v well, and my last dishwasher lasted 9 years of eco settings before the heating element gave out (and wasn't replaceable ).

My man says the eco setting is the one to use. My current machine is around 5 years old and 99% of time I use the eco setting. I’ve never had to have this machine looked at since I got it.

[quote EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide]**@GreenPlum* and @dementedpixie* thank you so much! I bought a dishwasher cleaner, and some salt and rinse aid, and cleaned the filters, and my trusty old dishwasher is like new now! It smells amazing and things seem dry at the end of the cycle, before they weren't! I'm really impressed! How often do I need to fill up the salt thing? It took absolutely loads, the rinse aid bit only took a little bit though. [/quote]

Great!

Ring your water company and get the water hardness reading for your area. It will be quoted in either German degrees, French degrees, English degrees, Clarke degrees or parts per million. ( It won't necessarily follow that a German dishwasher will be quoted in german degrees as its just a unit of measurement rather like saying centigrade or Fahrenheit for temperature).
That reading will correlate to a setting for your dishwasher, as per the instruction manual.

The rules of the dishwasher.

1. If you have children they will argue about whose turn it is to load/unload it.
2. Your DP will always load it WRONG.
3. If DP attempts to clean motorcycle/car parts in it this is grounds for divorce.
4. You will never have enough forks.

You could probably get the water hardness online. I've never called the water company for mine

I've heard that some engineers say machines don't do well if not used regularly...
On the other hand, I finally took out and junked the built in one in my kitchen, and tried the old one I brought here six years ago, and it worked fine!
Use own brand stuff if there's nothing else with a better price - it works just the same.
Make sure you use a cleaner every now and then (usually it tells you to use the hottest wash), and scrape plates before putting in, otherwise you'll spend your life cleaning the filters out - but you do need to give them a scrub occasionally too.

My engineer said I should use the regular long wash. Funny how they're all different. I've had it for 8 years and it's on once sometimes twice a day. No probs so far but you know what's gonna happen tomorrow, don't you?!

DS12 is in charge of emptying it in return for pocket money. That and the bins.

The manual for my new dishwasher said to put salt in the salt reservoir. Never heard of that, previous dishwashers never instructed to do that. Anyway, the instructions were not clear in the manual so I filled the reservoir with cooking sea salt. I then found when I read further, it said never to use anything other than special salt for dishwashers. Will the cooking sea salt harm my dishwasher. How do I get it out so I can fill it with the correct salt. Has this happened to anyone else?