Dishwasher salt

BrookieD

Guys
I am a complete idiot at DIY etc and need some advice.
I have a dishwasher that all of a sudden is clouding all glasses etc... I think the reason is lack of salt.

thing is i just need to confirm where it goes. I know there is a reservoir at the bottom of the unit which is full of water. To get to this there is a threaded screw top with Salt(word) all over it. Do i just remove this and dump a bag full of salt into this water and screw back on?

Any help would be great.

thanks
D:rolleyes:

10-10-20

Nope. Salt is for hard water areas. You need to fill the rinse-aid resevior with Sun or the likes.

BrookieD

I am in ashbourne which seems to be very bad for limescale, hence hard water and the salt?
also which is the rinse-aid resevior? sorry for the stupid questions but the manual is well lost?

beaushalloe

yup you'd think the word salt might be a give way!!, that is where it goes and fyi 10-10-20, there is also a seperate area for your rinse aid, however those in the know i.e. the mammy says that if you use an all in one or 5 in 1 product there is no need for either.

bored and tired

if you are in hard water area, than add as much salt as water resevoir can hold try doing it on the first of the month so you always do it. rinse aid helps to keep the glasses sparkly, Rinse aid usually goes in a little hole beside the powder on the inside of the door. But your problem is much worse than you realise. the salt is for hard water areas, so if your kettle is all scaly and white on the inside. imagine what your dishwasher is like on the inside. the salt stops the limescale sticking to the element, makes the machine last longer, and reduces your electricity bill. buy a limescale descaler and run the dishwasher with nothing in it, as per instructions, 5in1s are good, but if your water is bad like my parents, then its alot cheeper to put a 2euro bag of salt in once a month than to replace the damn thing after 2 years.:mad:

byte

Indeed, if you read the boxes of the 5 in 1 products, they usually mention that seperate salt will need to be added in hardwater areas.

Rinse aid usually goes in under a flap beside the tablet flap. Usually has a small dial too where you can adjust how much rinse aid is used per wash.

Builderwoman!

Most dishwasher manufactuers seem to prefer that you do not use tablets in dishwasher but use rinse aid liquid, dishwasher salt and dishwasher powder...it does give better results. You can buy dishwasher salt in your local Lidl and it's fine.

Alun

Just to add that, on my machine at least, there's a salt dosage control which you have to set. You're supposed to ask your local water supplier what the hardness of the water is and set the dial accordingly .. the harder the water the higher the dosage of salt. There's apparently an internationally agreed scale for this, and each water supplier is supposed to know what that is for any given area. Needless to say Bray UDC didn't actually have a clue, but got someone from the water treatment plant to ring me back and he didn't know either, but acording to him it was "pretty soft" I gave up at that point, but set teh dial to the lowest setting as there's no sign of any furring in my kettle that I can see.

I once asked a dishwasher repairman what he thought of these 3-in-1 tablets and he said something like "There's 3 words to describe those 3-in-1 tablets and they're all shoite!"

antoinolachtnai

the issue with the 3-in-1 tablets is that they assume that the wash cycle follows a particular pattern. If the stages don't happen in the order the table manufacturer expects, everything turns into a mess. There is an account of a meeting between tablet manufacturers and dishwasher designers on the whitegoods website somewhere. The men from some of the dishwasher companies were very angry!

The salt does not in and of itself soften the water. It replenishes the resin in the water softener that is built into the dishwasher.

Alun

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

The salt does not in and of itself soften the water. It replenishes the resin in the water softener that is built into the dishwasher.

Exactly! That's what's so stupid about their claim that there's salt in the 3-in-1 tablets. There may well be, but won't do any good at all to soften the water.

There is an account of a meeting between tablet manufacturers and dishwasher designers on the whitegoods website somewhere. The men from some of the dishwasher companies were very angry!

I'd be interested in reading that .. got any links?

antoinolachtnai

OK, this is the link.

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=116

It doesn't quite say what I said it says in terms of people getting angry. But reading between the lines, that was the impression I got.

Alun

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

OK, this is the link.

http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=116

It doesn't quite say what I said it says in terms of people getting angry. But reading between the lines, that was the impression I got.

An interesting read, thanks!

There also seems to be a suggestion on there that any tablet is going to perform worse than 'old-fashioned' powder, especially on low-temperature or Eco cycles. I've certainly noticed this on our machine on the Eco cycle with lots of tablet residue, which has caused mine to stop using it. Maybe I should try the same thing with powder and see how it goes?

hiscan

what is the problem when the water wont go out of the dishwasher and keeps tripping the fuse everytime you turn it on?

stapeler

hiscan, probably a failed heating element causing a short (usually due to limescale)

Reguarding dishwater salt, I have a water softener on my supply which I top up monthly with rock salt, while I'm at it I take a few handfolls and top up the dishwasher too.

hiscan

i also have one of those systems stapeler back to my dishwasher is it fcuked do you think?

stapeler

You could unplug the dishwasher, remove the cover and have a look in. If you're fimiliar with electrics you could meter out the heating element terminals to derermine it it's shorted.
How old is the dishwasher?
I've seen appliances trip in the past and on a couple of occasions it was a hungry mouse chewing though a wire....Needles to say the mouse didn't make it....

hiscan

3 yrs old and its built in to the units i'll have to look ito it

GreeBo

stapeler wrote: »

Reguarding dishwater salt, I have a water softener on my supply which I top up monthly with rock salt, while I'm at it I take a few handfolls and top up the dishwasher too.

uh oh:eek:

Yorky

I was under the impression that dishwasher salt was used only to prevent hard water damage to the machine. I read recently that it should always be used to protect the machine - I've got a water softener and have not been using salt since it was installed (two years ago). Should I be using salt?

antoinolachtnai

I don't know, i guess it's ok, because the softener won't exhaust very quickly if you have a softener. But I would throw some salt into it now and again if i were you. Also, are you absolutely certain the water for the washer is coming from the softener, not direct from the cold pipe coming into the premises.