Help, dishwasher problem.

[SluttyButty]

We live in a hard water area, always used the three in one tablets and ignore the salt/rinse aid lights. I was reading recently that in a hard water area you should also add salt. So I buy it and now everything is covered in a fine white powdery stuff that’s ruined all plastics and is making the rack wheels clog up.
Obviously I’m just going to have to wait for it to all run out (and never buy it again). But how can I salvage all the plastic stuff that won’t rinse off? And will dishwasher cleaner get rid of all the residue left inside the machine?
I hope this makes sense.

Did you use dishwasher salt? Have you cleaned out your filters and spray arms? Is the lid to the salt compartment screwed on properly?

Yes I wondered if it was table salt too.

The salt is for cleaning the water softener, it shouldn’t be in the water.

I had this and switched to fairy tabs and rinse aid and it works great now

That doesn't sound right. Perhaps your dishwasher is dispensing too much salt. If you have the instruction manual, it should tell you how to adjust the amount of salt to suit the hardness of the water in your area (you can find out exactly how hard your water is by visiting the website of your water supplier - they usually have a section which tells you how many degrees of hardness are present in your postcode). You also need rinse aid to reduce white streaks on your crockery.

Yes it was dishwasher salt, lid definitely screwed on properly.
It’s definitely a hard water area according The the water website.
Thanks I’ll have a look at the arms.