To think there must be a solution to my dishwasher issue? Chalky white residue

[FairTurtle]

I have a Beko dishwasher, bought just under a year ago. No real issues until now.

Over the past week, it keeps leaving dishes - mostly plates and pans with this chalky, white residue. I've read this can be due to hard water, etc. I haven't changed any of the tablets I use or anything! Here's everything I've tried to fix it:

• I've topped up the salt with about 1.5kg of salt.
• I've topped up the rinse aid to the top
• Thoroughly cleaned the filter.
• Checked the holes in the arms aren't clogged etc
• Run a hot cycle a few times with white vinegar in a bowl

Still no difference! It's still leaving that chalky residue. Any ideas? :(

Have you checked it's set to the right hard water setting? Check the instructions as how to do that.

Does the chalky stuff just wipe off with your finger? Could be too much salt rather than not enough

@xILikeJamx Not with finger, but with water it comes off easily. Definitely not too much salt, as I only topped it up for the first time after ages last week!

@Ocean59 Oh, no, I've not done this. I will look into this. No idea how you change the setting for hard water!

Ok I’ve Googled and got this off the AEG website:

“The cause of this problem could be limescale or salt residues.

If the residue can easily be wiped off with a finger, it is likely too much salt. If the residue is difficult to remove and comes off with vinegar, it is likely limescale (hard water build-up).”

As with the PP, I’d check the salt / hardwater setting, but I’ve no idea why it suddenly become a problem now.

Just to add, that as it’s either salt or limescale I’d taste a bit but I’m also 100% sure that MNHQ would not endorse this.

I had a similar problem with my beko dishwasher it would leave a residue on everything, glasses looked frosted. I think there was a problem with the salt , unfortunately I never got to the bottom of it and got rid and brought a Bosch one, I didn't have the beko one very long 2 years!

We're in north of Scotland and our (8 year old) dishwasher wasn't working well. I saw salt in the supermarket and didn't know what it was really for. Bought it and everything started coming out chalky - turns out it's not needed here and just made things worse!

Your situation would suggest limescale but I'm no expert

are you in a hard water area, or using a water softener?

@Dbank I have no idea how hard the water is here! I'm in North London? Not using a water softener

I have relatives in a part of Wales that has very soft water. Their dishwasher still works best if you put salt in, even if you use a combined tablet. You can get the salt light to turn off so it’s not annoying but tbh I prefer to put salt in and make sure that the dishwasher is set to the correct water hardness level.

It’s likely really hard but you can find out online exactly

Just call your water company to find out the value and then set the dishwasher to that. It's in the manual.

Make sure you have tightened the salt container cover fully.
Had this with my dishwasher & could not work out why! Opened & re-closed cover & it stopped!
Friend had same issue so suggested this & it worked for her too!

@pengymum Thanks! It is definitely on tightly, as it kind of locks into place

Google hard water level and your postcode and you can search that way. How you set it depends on your machine but it should be in the instruction manual.

I get this in a hard water area. I just chuck in some citric acid granules on a warm cycle every couple of weeks and it keeps the scale down.

Just checked my area - the water is indeed hard. I've now adjusted the water hardness setting on the dishwasher accordingly (I think! It's quite finicky) and run a cycle. Hopefully that'll be it. Just so strange that this started out of the blue?!

@bigboots4 This is useful, thanks! Where do you get citric acid granules from?

Sounds like you may have fixed it, but yes you're in very hard water area, so will need to use salt in your dishwasher, (or a water softener)

If you want to know exactly how hard, you can get Hardness Water Test Strips
which will enable you to set the dishwasher up correctly for salt and rinse aid.

@FairTurtle Amazon, food grade kilo bag around £6ish I think.