The dishwasher leaves white marks on glasses and cutlery
Do you find ugly white marks on your glasses painful? And that's not all! Your cutlery also has these whitish marks ... What to do? Begin with a few checks, starting with the basics such as adjusting the hardness of the water. Once this cause has been ruled out, continue your investigations by following the advice of this blog.
THE POTENTIAL CAUSES FOR THIS FAILURE:
WARNING
Before you do anything to your appliance, make sure you disconnect it from the power supply.
There is a risk of electric shock.
Incorrect adjustment of water hardness
White marks on your glasses or cutlery washed in the dishwasher may be due to limescale deposits left by hard water. The softness of the water is important to the quality of the washing of your device. That's why your dishwasher is equipped with a softener to reduce any limescale naturally present in the water. It is then necessary to check if the setting of the dishwasher is adapted to the hardness of the water. For this, it is essential to know the hardness of the water in your area. You can obtain this information from the water company. You can also use a TH test kit that comes in the form of test strips. Once this information is known, refer to the dishwasher instructions to make the correct adjustment.
To save kitchen glasses dotted with white marks, soak them for 30 minutes in a bowl filled with white vinegar. Make sure that the stained parts are in contact with the vinegar. After this soaking, finish by rubbing the glasses with a sponge sprinkled with baking soda.
Incorrect dosage of a detergent
Once you are sure that the hardness setting of your machine is correct, take stock of your habits with dishwasher special detergents. In particular, avoid using 3-in-1 tablets. If you really want to, consider adding regenerating salt if your water is calcareous. We recommend the use of separate products: liquid detergent or conventional tablets, rinse liquid, and regenerating salt to ensure a good-quality washing performance. And this, while respecting the dosages indicated on the packaging.
Water is considered hard when its hydrotimetric title (TH, or French degrees, °f), an index measuring the calcium and magnesium present in the water, is greater than 15 TH. :
- Water hardness is between 8 and 15 °f for soft water,
- between 15 and 30 °f for moderately hard water,
- above 30 °f is very hard water.
The salt compartment is no longer waterproof
Here is the next item to inspect: the salt compartment often called salt pot. It hosts the regenerating salt essential for the proper functioning of the dishwasher. The salt works closely with the softener to provide the device with sufficiently soft water. Since regenerating salt is very corrosive, it can, over time, deteriorate this component and it may crack and lead to a leak. Similarly, the salt compartment is hermetically closed by a screwed cap whose tightness is guaranteed by a gasket. If this seal is eaten away by salt, it will no longer be waterproof and will cause a salt leak that will settle on the dishes giving it a salty taste and leaving white traces.
It is important to fix this problem quickly because pieces of salt can quickly attack the metal tank and pierce it! The regenerating salt compartment is located inside the dishwasher, below the bottom basket, on the left side. Simply unscrew the cap and inspect the seal. If the latter is defective, its replacement should be sufficient to eliminate the leak. Sometimes the regenerating salt box can crack and leak. Then the whole salt pot that will have to be changed.
Here is way to validate if the pot is defective:
- Unscrew the cap of the salt compartment,
- If the pot is tightly sealed, a small amount of pressurized water will be drained out of the pot,
- Conversely, the absence of a water release will indicate an absence of pressure due to the lack of tightness of the salt pot.
To prevent any overflow of regenerating salt into the dishwasher bowl, it is important to use the funnel provided with the dishwasher. If, despite everything, a few grains of salt escape, pick them up and rinse the bottom of the tank with a bottle of water. This will prevent corrosion. It is also recommended to top up just before turning on the dishwasher as this allows immediate rinsing of the device.
Buy a dishwasher salt tray cap
Regeneration valve malfunction
With each wash, the regeneration valve opens and allows water to pass through the salt compartment before reaching the softener. If the salt level never drops or, on the contrary, your device requires salt every 2 washes, this indicates a probable failure of the solenoid valve. This valve is located at the level of the softener, at the bottom of the dishwasher, behind the baseboard at the back of the machine. You can test it by unplugging its connector and then measuring the value of its coil using a multimeter. You should find a value between 2 and 5 kOhms. If the tester displays a value of 1 Ohm or OL (Overlimit) it means that the valve must be replaced.