Dishwasher - can I run it without salt?

[ElephantandGrasshopper]

Brand new dishwasher arrived today, yay!

Except my Morrisons order just arrived and they didn't have the salt in stock so I don't have any.

Is it OK to run it for the first time without salt, or do I need to wait until I can get hold of some? I have left all of the washing up all day so really don't want to have to do it now

Ps Morrisons also substituted my veggie sausages for meat ones so they are not in my good books today.

I often do, sometimes with tablets that say they include salt, sometimes not. It all seems to be good.

Once will be fine, but you will soon notice you need to put salt in.

I’ve a dishwasher that is now 20 years old, stopped putting salt in after two years, honestly never noticed the difference.

Fine if you have nice soft water.

I’m in a very hard water area and if I’ve run out of salt I wouldn’t worry about it for a few days.

Dp is opposed to running it without salt, I've told him he has to go and buy some otherwise I'm going to do it anyway

Never use salt….v soft water…

I can tell when the rinse aid or salt is running low, even even using the 5-1 tablets - the stuff just doesn't clean (rinse aid) or is streaky (salt)

So, personally id get the salt.
Others say they cant tell. So maybe if you have soft water you'll be OK.

I cant get salt for love nor money currently. I resorted to buying from Amazon.

I've never used any sort of salt, I had no idea it was a thing until 60 seconds ago..

@Fuuuuuckit

I've never used any sort of salt, I had no idea it was a thing until 60 seconds ago..

Same here. Fortunately the dishwasher still seems to be in one piece, though... every day a school day and all that.

Update : dp has gone to the supermarket.

They didn't have any! We'll have to risk it

Put some water in the salt compartment before running it. I use salt and rinse aid even when using all in one tablets. I think it gives a better wash.

How hard is your water? When we lived in a soft water area, never needed salt or rinse aid. Now, in a hard water area, need salt in dishwasher and soda crystals in washing machine. Not going to hurt for a while - the limescale builds up gradually.

The water here is medium apparently

Salt?!
I just use the dishwasher tablet (from Smol) and ignore the salt light.

If you have all in one tablets it’ll be fine unless in a very hard water area.

I don't use it. Had my dishwasher ten years and it's still working fine.

20 year old perfectly working Ariston d/w here. Never used salt ever.

They don't make 'em like they used to anymore!

Update : we couldn't get salt so ran it with a 3 in 1 dishwasher tablet. It worked perfectly! I have ordered some salt from amazon for future use though.

Thanks everyone.

I buy own make cheap dishwasher salt and rinse aid.

I cant get salt for love nor money currently. I resorted to buying from Amazon.

Nor me! I wonder why.

Congratulations on your new dishwasher, ElephantandGrasshopper. The all in one tablets are supposed to replace the need for salt and rinse aid. However, I live in a very hard water area and use both.

I noticed that in Tesco a couple of weeks ago. I was just after sea salt for dining and cooking. None to be had.
Strange.
Is it a salt mining issue I wonder.

I use Finish Quantum, which have salt in them.