Dishwasher Tablets or Powder/rinsing aid/salt?

[MeghanMc]

Just bought a new dishwasher (my ever first dishwasher, finally!!! ), Bosch Exxcel and was reading the manual. My dishwasher can take powder detergent, rinsing aid and salt, and if tablet is used, it will automatically select the amount of rinsing aid and salt if required.

I live in Scotland, thus soft water. I have a few questions:

1. Does using powder/rinsing aid/salt works out cheaper than tablets? Or tablets just make life much 'simpler'? All recommendations are welcomed to save money

1. Do I need salt in the dishwasher even if I live in a soft water area?

Thanks

I am in Scotland too and use branded tablets when they are on offer (bought a pack of 51 Fairy tablets today for about £6 in Tesco) and also use salt and rise aid as they seem to give a better result. I have a Bosch logixx and you can adjust the water softening system according to the hardness of the water (there are many levels of water hardness not just hard or soft). I haver mine set to the first setting out of 7 settings. I use own brand salt and rinse aid.

Thank you for the feedback Seona1973. I ll definitely stock up on those Fairy tablets. I did read on some forum that the salt is required for mixing with the water for certain cycle, I ll have to set my dishwasher to the 'softest' water setting.

Any recommendation for salt and rinse aid? Tesco/Asda/Morrison/Lidl/Aldi/Sainsbury?

whatever's cheapest really! I bought own brand rinse aid in tesco today and had stocked up on salt at the end of last year when tesco were selling bags of Finish salt for about 50p!

Indaba climbs on to her hobby horse and looks down on all who reads this.......

have had three washing machine blokeys over the years from Bosch/Smeg/Indesit etc and they all say the same......use dishwasher salt and rinse aid no matter what the magic cubes say

here endeth the lesson

I use dishwasher liquid detergent with salt and rinse aid.

Semms to work out much cheaper than tablets.

Finish Powder plus own brand rinse aid and salt, loads cheaper than tablets.

IME if you use the 3 in 1 tablets you still need rinse aid and salt to keep the pipes clear.

I use tesco basic tablets and rinse aid and salt. dishes come out clean

Thank you for all the advise. Now just need to teach show DH how to fill the powder/gel, rinse aid and salt :) Every penny counts

Tesco daisy powder, very good in my dw.

After seeing Tesco cheapest of the cheap tablets recommended in Which, I started buying those. I had been using Fairy before and can see absolutely no difference. I also use rinse aid and salt, again just the supermarket own brands.

I don't think rinse aid is essential, I think it only prevents spots on glass which don't bother me anyway, I think 3-in-1 tablets without salt may be fine if you have very soft water. Salt on its own is essential in hard water areas.

Do look up the hard water level in your area to get setting right, you can get rust spots from too much salt & excess is a waste of money, so no point in overdoing it.

I have Lidl tablets & Sainsbury powder at the moment.

When we got our Bosch the manual kept going on about "solo" detergants, rinse aid and salt. Took me ages to realise solo wasn't a brand!

Thank you for all the advice. Just had the dishwasher installed yesterday and had my first run last night, brilliant, how could I live without a dishwasher before! It's sad that I am this excited with my dishwasher

I will get some Tesco cheap tablets and also powder just for comparison.

Need some advice on quick wash, since it's quick wash, should I be using powder instead of tablet?

I was once warned about supermarket powders. They can eat the glaze off your pots...

I've never had a problem with Finish (we get the cheaper refill powder packs) and own-brand salt/rinse aid.

And the salt comes in handy outside when it's icy

If you use the rapid wash it uses more water and electric so I always use the Eco cycle. It takes nearly 3 hours but costs me 8p in electric and 2p in tesco daisy powder.

I was bought up in a house with a dishwasher and I've never seen glazes damaged by a dishwasher. If it can't take water at 50c and detergant it probably shouldn't be in there in the first place.

A lot of us on here use cheap tablets or powder. I've no complaints with mine.

Do you still need rinse aid and salt with the 5 in 1 powders? We live in a hard water area and i've only ever used just the powders.

Cairnterrier - your dishwasher should have a dial (somewhere inside?) which you should set based on the hardness of the water in your area. If then the lights come on for rinse aid/salt (as they do on my dishwasher despite using 3 in 1 or 5 in 1 tablets) you should add more rinse aid/salt.

I use rinse aid, salt and tablets, I can definately tell the difference when we have run out of the salt or rinse aid.
I seem to remember having to adjust the settings to low, when I set the machine up, not much gets used, I replenish once every couple of months maybe.

What exactly does the salt do? My salt light has been on for a while now..just haven't got roung to topping it up. Also when I can be bothered to put salt in it seems to take loads.

the salt softens the water and makes it better at cleaning the dishes.

www.dishwasher-care.org.uk/best.html

"when I can be bothered to put salt in it seems to take loads."

That's because the salt container is made as big as will fit, so you don't have to fill it very often.