My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt and
Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by having
no salt in the machine?

John wrote:
My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt and
Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by having
no salt in the machine?


Mine doesn't wash properly without salt, i.e. The cups still look dirty
after the wash.

But I have very hard water.

In message , John
writes
My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt and
Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by having
no salt in the machine?

Is your mains water hard or soft? You may not need to use salt but if
you're in a hard water area you risk your machine getting scaled up.

See http://www.dwi.gov.uk/pubs/hardness/index.htm#3.

Rinse Aid is your choice.

--
Si

"John" wrote in message
...
My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt and
Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by having
no salt in the machine?


Put the salt in.. the tablets can not replace the salt whatever they say.
If you don't the water softener will cease to work and it won't clean as
well.

In message , "dennis@home"
writes

"John" wrote in message
...
My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my
Salt and Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be
caused by having no salt in the machine?


Put the salt in.. the tablets can not replace the salt whatever they say.
If you don't the water softener will cease to work and it won't clean
as well.

I think this depends on the water hardness. They obviously don't replace
salt, in that that is used to regenerate the inbuilt water softener in
the dishwasher.

But the chemical put in to 'soften' the water (brain not working I can't
remember what it is - same as Calgon I guess) could well suffice in
areas where it isn't too hard.

We've always lived in hard water areas, so I've always used salt and
usually just standard powder as that seems cheapest
--
Chris French

"chris French" wrote in message
...
In message , "dennis@home"
writes

"John" wrote in message
...
My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt
and Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by
having no salt in the machine?


Put the salt in.. the tablets can not replace the salt whatever they say.
If you don't the water softener will cease to work and it won't clean as
well.

I think this depends on the water hardness. They obviously don't replace
salt, in that that is used to regenerate the inbuilt water softener in the
dishwasher.

But the chemical put in to 'soften' the water (brain not working I can't
remember what it is - same as Calgon I guess) could well suffice in areas
where it isn't too hard.

Do you really believe that?
Look at it logically..
you put the tablet in and it washes..
then it rinses..
then it rinses..
then it rinses..
then it rinses again.
Just what do you think they put in the tablet that survives to the last
rinse?
If it does survive say six rinses, how much is left on the dishes of one
that only does four rinses?
No it's bull, at best it softens the water for the wash and not the rinses
and you need soft water for the final rinse.


We've always lived in hard water areas, so I've always used salt and
usually just standard powder as that seems cheapest
--
Chris French

In message , "dennis@home"
writes

"chris French" wrote in message
k...
But the chemical put in to 'soften' the water (brain not working I
can't remember what it is - same as Calgon I guess) could well
suffice in areas where it isn't too hard.

Do you really believe that?

shrug

Not bothered about it TBH :-)

We live in a hard water area and I use salt.

--
Chris French

In article ,
"dennis@home" writes:
"chris French" wrote in message
...
I think this depends on the water hardness. They obviously don't replace
salt, in that that is used to regenerate the inbuilt water softener in the
dishwasher.

But the chemical put in to 'soften' the water (brain not working I can't
remember what it is - same as Calgon I guess) could well suffice in areas
where it isn't too hard.

Do you really believe that?
Look at it logically..
you put the tablet in and it washes..
then it rinses..
then it rinses..
then it rinses..
then it rinses again.
Just what do you think they put in the tablet that survives to the last
rinse?

There is certainly a technique to retain a checmical and
release it in a second hot cycle (final rinse). I've no
idea if the tablets do that though -- I don't use them.

If it does survive say six rinses, how much is left on the dishes of one
that only does four rinses?
No it's bull, at best it softens the water for the wash and not the rinses
and you need soft water for the final rinse.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Oct 26, 6:56 pm, "John" wrote:
My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt and
Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by having
no salt in the machine?

If the dishes are coming out clean, and there's no scaling inside the
dishwasher then it'll be fine.

We're in a medium-hard area and find the tablets fine (extremely good
actually, and less than 10p/tablet from Lidl)

Mathew

John wrote:

My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt and
Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by having
no salt in the machine?

Salt is needed for consistently good results, running without can in
some cases cause much bigger problems, so put salt in. Its not
worth trying to save £1 and ending up with trouble.


NT

On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:06:17 -0700, wrote:

John wrote:

My dishwasher is currently using three in one tablets and both my Salt and
Rinse Aid Empty indicator lights are on. Will any harm be caused by having
no salt in the machine?

Salt is needed for consistently good results, running without can in
some cases cause much bigger problems, so put salt in. Its not
worth trying to save £1 and ending up with trouble.


We're in a hard water area here, and I never use salt in the
dishwasher ( just the 3-in-1 tablets ) - and my glasses come out just
fine.

Mind you, every six months or so I give the machine a good old clean
out by placing two cups of vinegar in the machine and setting it on a
full cycle. If you have any dirty glassware around at that time it can
go in with the vinegar.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk