Dishwasher

[simons123]

Had our Bosch dishwasher for around 7 years....never had any trouble with it but 3 years ago moved to a hard water area and recently it doesn't seem to be cleaning the cups and plates properly. There is still scale on the cups and the forks seems to have a salty, grey colour to it.

I've cleaned the filter, added dishwasher salt, done a deep clean, clean the jet spray things and no good.

Anyone know if best to get an engineer in to have a look or just buy a new one??

[blueg33]

Have you changed the setting for water hardness? You probably need to adjust that. You can find the hardness online from your water company. The DW instructions then tell you how to set it.

[megaphone]

What tablets do you use? I'm in a hard water area, the cheap ones from Aldi/Lidl/Supermarkets are no good.

[Simon_GH]

Is the water heater still functioning? I had a similar issue because it was trying to wash using cold water.

[GuigiaroBertone]

Before binning it, buy a 5L of white vinegar for £5 on Amazon and try running a hot cycle through with an upright glass full of it in the top and bottom drawer.

The vinegar will dissolve the limescale. Maybe do this 2 or 3 times and keep a glass from each cycle to see if it is improving things.

[MattyD803]

Simon_GH said:

Is the water heater still functioning? I had a similar issue because it was trying to wash using cold water.

Yes, worth checking this.....we are 9 years in with an integrated Bosch dishwasher and on our 2nd replacement genuine 'pump/heater' unit due to this type of failure. Otherwise, it performs well.

[.:ian:.]

Check that the softener is actually set, on my Bosch it defaulted to off.

It was fine for years, then suddenly started to scale up the dishes. Enabled the setting then it was working as it should!

https://www.hunker.com/13407778/how-to-adjust-fact...

Not sure why they hide the setting behind such complex incantations

[Wildfire]

I also found that Kilrock descaler does a really good job of sorting the diswasher out.

[biggiles]

As well as checking the salt/softener settings - try different tablets. Try the tablets with and without extra salt (i.e. the n-in-one ones).

If it's real silver, I found the expensive tablets are much better than the cheap ones, which seem to put in far too much salt.

[blueg33]

biggiles said:

As well as checking the salt/softener settings - try different tablets. Try the tablets with and without extra salt (i.e. the n-in-one ones).

If it's real silver, I found the expensive tablets are much better than the cheap ones, which seem to put in far too much salt.

Not sure that real silver is suitable for dishwasher?

[jbuk__]

In addition to the comments already posted about ensuring that the machine is programmed for the correct water hardness, I would highly suggest using powdered dishwasher detergent rather than tablets (available at Sainsburys and Waitrose, and online in bulk -- sadly no longer stocked by Tesco...) and ensure that you are using a separate rinse aid product as well rather than relying on something integrated into a tablet.

Your machine is likely to have a compartment for main wash detergent and also a secondary space for pre-wash detergent. This is sometimes a second compartment under the flap, or sometimes just a divot on the top of the flap on which you pour a small mound and then shut the door. Separate detergent for the pre-wash part of the cycle will vastly improve the cleaning efficacy of the machine.

[blueg33]

jbuk__ said:

In addition to the comments already posted about ensuring that the machine is programmed for the correct water hardness, I would highly suggest using powdered dishwasher detergent rather than tablets (available at Sainsburys and Waitrose, and online in bulk -- sadly no longer stocked by Tesco...) and ensure that you are using a separate rinse aid product as well rather than relying on something integrated into a tablet.

Your machine is likely to have a compartment for main wash detergent and also a secondary space for pre-wash detergent. This is sometimes a second compartment under the flap, or sometimes just a divot on the top of the flap on which you pour a small mound and then shut the door. Separate detergent for the pre-wash part of the cycle will vastly improve the cleaning efficacy of the machine.

Blimey welcome to the 1970’s!

We have 3 DW’s none of them have 2 sections to the detergent compartment or a divot! I have t seen that in years.

3 of our machines are in a very hard water area. We use rinse aid and salt plus any of the pod type tablets. No issues whatsoever.