Dishwater tablets damaging my glasses/mugs

[ridinghighinapril]

Some of our glasses (the cheaper everyday ones) have now become cloudy and several of the mugs are starting to have the design or colour eroded away. I am assuming it's the dishwasher tablets, as we've only had a dishwasher for a year - we've been using finish and fairy. Any suggestions for an alternative? TIA

It's dw cancer. The glaze on the glass has come away and the chemicals have etched the glass.

I buy cheap American style soda glasses in Tesco & hand wash the nice glasses.

Doesn't matter what tablets you use.

It happens over time. Replace the glasses

Also don't rinse plates etc before putting them in the dishwasher. Then the tablets attack the grease rather than the glass.

We find the Fairy part liquid are less damaging than the Finish tablet type.

I find the Fairy tabs are more glass friendly than Finish. I also now buy cheapo glasses from Asda (79p each last time) and if I have to replace them every couple of years it doesn't break the bank!

Do you have a water softener? We do, and since it was fitted our crockery has faded. Apparently it's a result of the water being too soft.

We've swapped over to Fairy Ultimate dishwasher tablets as we've found they clean the contents better and the filter doesn't clog up anywhere near as quickly. Things don't seem to have faded or got cloudy since we've started using them (used to use Finish before).

However the downside is that even if you use the plain ones, they have a strong scent and you can really smell it on everything the next time you use it - if you get the lemon ones, they're even worse. It's particularly bad on plastic things - we have some nice plastic plates and bowls from Ikea (well a step up from the basic 99p for 6 picnic plates anyhow!) that I tend to use for breakfast or taking food into the garden or elsewhere, as well as some plastic microwave cooking bowls and they all really hold the smell to the point that the food can be tainted by it. Not nice at all. But with the Finish tablets it wasn't washing things clean so the food ended up tainted a different way. So not nice at all either way.

The only thing I've got that has faded in the dishwasher is a photo mug - and that only started to fade when I inadvertently filled up the rinse aid section with floor cleaner instead of rinse aid in my defense I was very tired and they looked very similar, I'd forgotten we'd got the floor cleaner. Do you know how difficult it is to get rinse aid out of its compartment when it's not supposed to be there and it's a nasty chemical that you don't want to just suction out? Seemed to take forever. Mug started to fade a bit after being rinsed in floor cleaner - and has gone on to fade rapidly ever since

We usually wash glasses the 'better' mugs by hand.

Fairy platinum. When I used to have a DW none of my glasses went cloudy using just fairly platinum and no rinse aid or salt. That was the one thing ex-mil got right. Her glasses never scratched and mine didn't.

Do you live in a soft water area or have a water softener? I do and since I started halving my dishwasher tablets (I use the Lidl "plain" tablets with separate liquid rinse aid), I stopped having the clouding problem.

And I get 80 dishwashes out of a 40 tablet box! Result!

Agree fairy tablets are much better than finish. Also proper rinse aid rather than supermarket stuff. And finally finish do a wee diamond thing that you attach to the bottom rack of your dishwasher which is supposed to help protect glass. It's about a fiver and lasts a few weeks. I think it definitely helps. I've found with this combo the glasses are not getting any worse and the horrible squeaky feeling when taking things out has also disappeared.

If you live in a hard water area, the cloudiness can be limescale stuff rather than etching. Etching can't be fixed, but if it's limescale, it can. With either toothpaste or soaking in vinegar. I live in a hard water area, and now I just hand wash glasses - not that I have many nice ones because I seem to live in the clumsiest household ever, and nice glasses don't last long.

Thanks all for the advice!
We live in a hard water area and don't use a water softener. I'll see if it's limescale and also switch to fairy and report back. I don't think it's just limescale, though, as the paintwork is starting to be scratched off our mugs.
Thanks, again!

Dishwashers have built in water softeners. That's why you add salt.

It cleans the water softener unit.

We use Ecover tablets and we've never had this problem. Stock up when they're on offer! No scent/flavour left behind either.