Help! New dishwasher and can't buy dishwasher salt for love nor money...

[gaelicsheep]

... because people have been out sprinkling it on the 6 inch deep ice on their driveways . All salt of any description sold out in the whole of the town, apparently. So my question is, how much does this matter? We have a private water supply so can't find out about water hardness, but the water seems pretty soft to me. Will I kill the dishwasher if I use it without until all the ice in town has thawed? (Please don't say yes!)

get some of the 3-1 dishwasher tabs, they have salt and rinsenaid in I think.

We tried Fairy ones and they didn't seem very good. Tesco Value tablets came out best on the Which report so just got some of those, but they're just powder. Should I perservere with the 3 in 1s then until the ice thaws (people are so weird)? Is there a knack to this dishwasher malarky? How much damage can it do if you don't use salt, given that our water is definitely not hard.

Anyone? I'm a dishwasher virgin in need!

I don't think you'll knack your machine, I think the value ones are shite tbh, tesco 5-1 are good.

Are the combi ones as expensive as they seem? Or do you end up spending as much on the powder plus rinse aid? It's so complicated!

And one more question (sorry if this is boring and ten years out of date for most of you!). A friend said they generally need to add rinse aid even if they're using a combi tablet. Would that be true? The Fairy 3 in 1 tablet we used last night (only used it once so far!) left some of the dishes still dirty and they weren't all dry. I understand a drying problem can be down to lack of rinse aid?

I'm not a fan of the tesco value ones either. I sometimes buy the Lidl ones, but usually just stock up on the Finish ones when they are on offer.

Oh well, maybe that's £1 something down the drain then. We'll see. We didn't really factor in the cost of the powder etc. tbh. We mostly got the dishwasher so we don't keep using up all our hot water on washing dishes - plus life's too short.

I use the lidl ones-the ones that are £1.70ish a box and their own rinse aid-comes in a big blue bottle. Have not had any problems with them or the dishwasher from using them and would definately NOT go back to using finish(which is what i bought when i first bought it 2yrs ago)

So do you use salt?!

nope

Thanks! Well my dad swears by Which reports so perhaps I'll charge the £1 something back to him if the tablets are crap!

My local Lidl had loads of dishwasher salt yesterday. I also use their d/w tablets. I normally buy the £3something ones but opted for the £1.70ish ones yesterday - will let you know how I get on with them!!

Well ladies, an update. Used the Tesco Value tablet plus Tesco rinse aid last night and the results were terribl...

y good. Excellent in fact. Much better than the expensive combi Fairy tablets.

Thanks for the Lidl tip for salt mogs0. I'll give it a try when I'm next up that end of town. There is no sign of limescale marks on anything though so I'm pretty satisfied now that we have soft enough water.

still think the value ones are shite

Go on then, why? I have to admit that I do rinse off the dishes a bit before loading. Partly because of the fear of cleaning the filters and partly because I don't trust the machine to do as good a job as me.

You should only scrape them not rinse 'em; that kind of defeats the object

I do hope you are using your Eco programme

I've spent too long on this dishwasher thread

PS. It is not unusual to have to put things through the dishwasher more than once when we use the Tesco value tablets.

No we're not using the Eco programme because it's not hot enough. We're on a private water supply that comes from a loch and have been advised we need a UV filter to avoid the risk of bacterial contamination. Not got it plumbed in yet so the dishes need a hot wash. The Eco programme does use marginally less water, which would be good as our water supply frequently seizes up, but not enough to risk E Coli!

But what happens if you leave the unrinsed dishes in the dishwasher all day? Doesn't it all dry on terribly? And aren't the filters really really disgusting when you clean them out?

This is really interesting for me (saddo!). Do you think people were like this when they first got washing machines?

"Before loading the racks, remove all food residues from the crockery..." Does that just mean scrape in the bin then? Does anyone actually need telling that?!

We do rinse in cold not hot water btw - we have limited supplies of hot water as it is.

Scrape into bin, no need to rinse

If leaving stuff in dishwasher without turning on for a long while then do a rinse cycle...simples innit.

Not sure I'd risk E-coli either....

I don't currently have a washing machine (or microwave) and have recently had to replace our central heating boiler and dishwasher. We are having appliance disasters weekly here. My new dishwasher is nowhere as fabbo as our old one

I saw the Which? report too. I'm sure the Tesco Value ones only came out best if you were using a separate salt and rinse aid too...

The other ones that topped the poll were Finish Max in 1 which has everything included.

salt just makes the water softer so cleans better you dishwasher will not suffer. The items may not be as clean as if you had used salt but you won't kill it IYSWIM

Yes that's right, but it still works out tons cheaper. As I said earlier I'm resigned to not using salt, if I need it, until all the blardy ice thaws (barring Lidl of couse, but not holding my breath).

Ah but Washersaurus, I bet doing a rinse cycle uses more water than a quick cold rinse in the washing up bowl of the dirtier dishes...

OK, being in north of Scotland - like me! - any ideas where I might find any?!

Yes, rinse cycle probably does use more water. I have never had to because our dishwasher is almost permanently full - 'tis like having an extra cupboard