How To Remove Hard Water Stains From Dishwasher

The focus of today's post likewise happens to be one of my biggest pet peeves: hard water spots on my clean dishes. The high mineral content of our water here in the mountains of Utah can make information technology nigh impossible for dishes to come out of the dishwasher without those dreaded spots.

Information technology's piece of cake for me to get discouraged and start thinking, "Oh, woe is me—it must be nice to live somewhere without difficult h2o!" Merely while I was doing research for this postal service, I learned that having difficult water is not as uncommon every bit I had assumed—1 site claimed that up to 85% of the U.S. has difficult water! It doesn't necessarily solve my problems, only information technology does make me feel less alone in this particular struggle.

But luckily for all of us who struggle with hard h2o, there'southward a simple fashion to solve the problem of spotty dishes. Today I'll be showing you how it works, how I discovered information technology, and how you can do it at home to get sparkling clean dishes besides. :-)

How To Get Rid Of Hard Water Spots On Your Dishes

Part 1: The Problem

Information technology'due south disheartening to pull your clean dishes out of the dishwasher only to observe that they don't wait very clean at all! Some dishes (especially plastic ones like nutrient storage containers) used to come out of my dishwasher looking so spotty or cloudy that I would exit them in the dishwasher to go through another wash cycle, merely that never actually fabricated it whatever better.

In fact, in some cases information technology made it even worse, considering those mineral deposits would just continue building upwards. Even later on scrubbing them with steel wool, that cloudy movie only would not budge.

Part two: The Solution

This problem continued to drive me crazy upward until a couple of years ago, when I stumbled across a little tip online that ended upwards making all the divergence. I read a comment somewhere that recommended using white vinegar as a rinse-assist in the dishwasher, and I had vinegar on manus, so I figured it was worth a shot!

I loaded my dishwasher like usual, then placed a pocket-sized ramekin in the center of the top rack. I filled the ramekin with plainly white vinegar, so gently shut the dishwasher and turned information technology on to run a wash cycle.

Part iii: The Results

The results of my footling experiment were goose egg curt of miraculous! Once the cycle had finished, I opened my dishwasher to find many of my drinking glasses looked every bit clean and shiny every bit the day I bought them. And on top of that, the dishes affected by that cloudy film of mineral buildup came out perfectly clean too.

All of that came from putting less than a cup of white vinegar into my dishwasher. Ever since that start test, I have added vinegar to the pinnacle rack of nearly every load of dishes I've done, and it continues to work only every bit well today every bit it did the first fourth dimension.

If hard water spots accept been plaguing your dishes, I highly recommend giving this tip a try. Not only is it a brilliantly uncomplicated solution, but it's cost effective as well. Walmart currently sells a 128 ounce container of white vinegar for $2.72. If you add together 6 ounces of vinegar to each load of dishes, that's just $0.13 per load to almost eliminate hard water spots.

Related: fifty Amazing Uses For Vinegar That You'll Want To Know

And if your water isn't terribly difficult, you could opt to put vinegar straight into your rinse-aid dispenser instead. It will dispense a small amount of vinegar into your dishwasher during each load, which is perfect if you just need a little heave of cleanliness instead of a full-fledged hard water intervention.

A Note About Dishwasher Door Seals

I share my "vinegar hack" with people as frequently every bit I perhaps can, and the vast majority of the time, I hear zilch simply skilful things from those who take tried it. Just I did desire to mention that a few readers have told me their plumbers have actually advised them not to utilise vinegar in their dishwashers.

Plain, the acidity of vinegar tin can slowly clothing down the seal effectually your dishwasher door, which could potentially lead to a leak down the line. Out of marvel, I looked up how much it would cost to buy a replacement dishwasher door seal/gasket on Amazon, and most price between $10-20. Personally, I'll gladly consume that cost downwardly the line if it means I tin can continue to enjoy spot-costless dishes.

I realize not anybody may concord with that approach, but that'southward alright! This is a decision you become to make for yourself. :-)

Do you lot take any vivid tips for dealing with the woes of hard water?