What's going on with my dishwasher - any ideas?

[sybilfaulty]

Hi there

My dishwasher seems to leave everything coated in a white residue. It's quite new (about 3 months) so should be able to do a proper job. Any ideas what it might need? Salt? Rinse Aid? I use Finish tablets that are supposed to have all these things built in but perhaps not.

Any ideas gratefully received. Many thanks

I use the all-in tablets but still need to add rinse aid and salt to the machine (don't know if that's because i'm in a hard water area).

have you tried cleaning the machine? Either with a Finish or similar bottle of cleaner that you put into the empty machine and run on a hot wash, or a good glug of white vinegar plus a splash of lemon juice in a mug also on a hot wash works very well.

I usesalt and rinse aid as well as the all in one tablets too. Thought it was just me...

If you are in a hard water area, you need rinse aid and salt as well as tablets, even if the light hasn't come on to tell you yet. I top them up once a month or so.

Clean the dishwasher - pull out all the bits in the bottom that catch food and scrub then, then run it on hot and empty with white vinegar or one of those cleaning solutions. And check the rotors with tweezers to ensure no bits of plastic or anything are stuck (this was the cause of ours not washing properly).

Are you filling it appropriately? Check that both the rotors can go round before you set it going, as if they can't, your crud won't be rinsed off properly. Small light things usually need to be on the top rack so they can't slip down below the bottom one and block the rotor arm.

I don't rinse things before putting in the dishwasher, just scrape off the worst of the food, and need to clean the food-catcher bits every 3 months or so.

Hope some of that helps!

Even if your tablets say all in one some companies still advise seperate rinse aid and salt, this is because the dishwasher detergant is very alkaline and responds best to soft water.

Even if you have soft water you have to check how soft, it's not always soft enough for the machine. Your water provider will publish how soft your water is on its website. Plus when I bought mine I read that not using salt can knacker the water softener unit in the dishwasher (knacker being a tech term).

Dishwasher salt is only £2ish. When I first met dh his dishwasher wasnt working due to no salt. I put the salt in and it worked fine.

I dont think the all in one tablets are all their cracked up to be really, my manual says to use solo detergant, rinse aid and salt it took me several hours to realise solo was not a brand .

You still need to add rinse aid and salt even with the 3 in one tablets to keep the pipes clear.

Brill thanks girls. Will buy salt and rinse aid tomorrow, then on Fri once I am off work I will set to clean it out and make sure everything is spick and span.

Thanks again.

fairy platinum seems to clean everything to a sparkle. no residue, and i dont use salt or rinse aid. even the dishwasher is shiny and squeaky clean after a wash.

They are dear so maybe stock up when you see an offer.

I'm in a hard water area, use the all in one tablets and never add salt or rinseaid!

The only time I've had the white residue on dishes is when I've used really cheap tablets. Aldi & Fairy all in ones are the best imo. I've tried Finish but don't think they're as good.

Lidl W5 tablets are as good as Finish. Ones from the pound shop are crap.

IME there's hard water and then there's south London well'ard water that wants to get into a fight if you look at it funny - the latter really needs extra rinse aid and salt!

Ah, notcitrus, I have no experience of the well'ard London water as I'm in the softy midlands

Having had a poke around, I think my tablet holder was not opening properly so the tablet was not fully going into the wash. Some was left which obviously got into the water when it was rinsing. Now I've fixed the drawer and also filled with salt and rinse aid. All bases covered. Hurray.

Thanks for all the advice - I'll be sparkling clean again over Christmas (plus trying out the Lidl dishwasher tabliets when these ones have run out)

thanks again

Salt and rinse aid. Are there any lights showing that these are running low?

I think it can depend on the dishwasher too. We have a cheapy one at work which just doesn't get the dishes (mainly mugs) clean despite using the same tablets I have at home.

The instructions that came with mine told me to ignore 'add salt' light if I use all in one tablets

We have a Bosch and use all-in-tablets. We have to do the salt and rinse aid the moment the lights go on. If we don't, it is very noticeable in the next wash.