DIYbanter - View Single Post - Cloudy glasses from dish washer even when salt full

wrote:
Hi,

I've recently changed from using cold hard water in my dish washer to
hot hard water from the combi boiler, and everything was fine for the
first month.

Now I'm getting extreemly cloudy glasses and even the plates feel
rough. I've topped up the salt and rinse-aid but its not had any
effect. What does work is adding lemon juice before doing an extra
final rinse( which proves its hardness, but 10ml isn't completely
effective and its a pain having to do so. Surely, the dish washer salt
should be removing the hardness.

Is the problem that I'm heating the water before softening it? am I
using the wrong type of salt? or is there something else wrong with the
dish washer?

Ken.

Ken-

Based on my experience with hard water & dishwashers......... in SoCal

I think you're getting a buildup of hard water deposits that sre just
being disolved & re-deposited on your glasses & dishes.

In one home I did not have a water softener (very hard water) & every
few months I would run a calcium / de-lime agent in the diswasher to
get rid of chunks of calcium in the dishwasher.

In the other home I had a water softener that feed the water heater so
dishwasher was fed hot soft water..........never had a clouding
problem.

I would suggest re-routing the water so the water is softened before
being heated.

One further note........very soft water & excessive dishwasher
detergent can set up conditions to etch glass.

Can you remove the cloudiness on the glasses with a de-lime agent or is
it permanent? If permanent it might be etched rather than hard water
deposits.

cheers
Bob

btw what does the salt do?