I am steaming mad and have been for several weeks now. However, it has escalated to the point of no return. Something has got to change. What am I at war with? I am at war with my dishwasher and the four weeks worth of white film that has been accumulating on my dishes.
Let me preempt this story with--I have a very loyal personality type and I’ve been told I’m very patient (however I don’t think I am). I am very loyal to family, friends, and products until they let me down or change the formula. I don’t like changing products even to try new things. My thoughts are if it works or tastes good; why change? My husband doesn’t always understand my philosophy, but deep down inside he appreciates my almost never ending loyalty.
Something else you need to know up front about my situation--I have never like my dishwasher. We purchased it four years ago when we did a total kitchen remodel. I was days away from delivering baby #3 and didn’t care what kind of dishwasher we purchased. I just wanted the construction to be over and the dirt out of my house. There are two things I dislike about it…okay three now that I think about it:
1. the vent thingy at the bottom doesn’t lay flat. It’s almost like the glue dissolved and it’s curling up
2. chunks of food get stuck in the holes that’s suppose to spray water out in order to wash the dishes
3. it doesn’t have an off button so if you need to open it (because food gets stuck in one of the arms, you have to open it up and use tweezers to remove the food)
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| You can clearly see the vent lifting up on the left and right side. |
I’ve been removing chunks of food from my dishwasher for at least two years probably more like three years. My dishwasher vibrates to let me know when there is food jammed in the holes. Unfortunately, it happens every time I run the dishwasher these days. I honestly think it has to do with the vent thingy not being glued down, but what do I know?
On top of all of this, for the last few weeks I have had issues with locating my favorite dishwasher detergent. I have always used Cascade Complete Gel with a dark green lid. I have tried several other versions of Cascade—Cascade Complete with Bleach, Cascade Complete with Dawn even Cascade Complete Powder. Nothing works as good as my Cascade. I’m not saying this product is perfect, but I feel it works the best with my dishwasher and I have never had noticeable issues with lime/hard water build up until recently.
Four weeks ago, the store where I shop was out of my dish washing detergent. Luckily, I’m a planner so I wasn’t completely out and could wait until the following week before I was completely out. Week two, goes by, the shelf was still empty—still no Cascade Complete with the dark green lid. They had everything else, but not what I needed. Isn't frustrating when a store doesn't have what you need?
So, it was either hand wash dishes for my family of 6 multiple times a day for a week or purchase something else so I told my husband to purchase the powder form and he also let an employee know they were out of our product. The employee was kind enough to check their inventory which showed they should have had 6 left on the shelf. My husband kindly (I hope) let this employee know the store had been out of the product for several weeks and asked them to order more.
Just like I expected, the powder form left a white film on my plastic dishes and some of my pots and pans. So the next time I ran to the store I purchased a rinsing agent to add to the dishwasher. It may have temporarily helped, but three weeks later I still have a white film on the majority of my dishes.
I also picked up a dishwasher cleaner. Maybe my dishwasher needed to be cleaned, right? Still nothing and the hard water stains were getting more noticeable every time I emptied the dishwasher. Nothing seemed to be working.
Week three, still no Cascade Complete with a dark green lid. The powder didn’t work, the rinsing agent wasn’t helping and my dishwasher was officially clean. However, I was still fighting the hard water stains. It was completely ruining my dishes. Not to mention it was taking up a lot of time washing, rewashing, hand washing, cleaning it over and over again.
Now, we are in week four of this war against hard water. For the record, the shelves were still not stocked with my favorite dishwashing detergent. So, we purchased the packet version of the dishwashing detergent. At this point, I’m completely fed up! Are these expensive packets going to be the magic answer that solves our hard water build up on our dishes? Of course not. We spent close to $15 on them (not to mention the money we spent on the all the other products) and they aren’t cutting it either.
A few days ago, I broke down and ventured out to a different store to purchase the detergent. (Why didn’t I think of this before—b/c I’m a loyal person I guess.) Not only did they not have the detergent; they didn’t even carry it!! So I purchased yet another dish washing detergent; this time, a totally different brand. *Sigh* Same white cloudy issue.
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| Some of the products I've tried |
I can not continue serving food to my family on dishes cover in a white film. I’m beyond asking the question “is it unhealthy for them to ingest the powdery substance?” As you can imagine I’m beyond fed up at this point. Nothing is working!! I feel like I have tried everything in my power to get this white film off my dishes so I begin to wonder…is it time to purchase a new dishwasher? I’ve only had this one for four years!! That’s insane right?! A dishwasher shouldn’t need to be replaced that soon.
More frustrated then ever, I load the family up in the van and we drive 30 minutes to look at dishwashers. I am mad I’m spending time and gas to get us there! I am furious I am considering replacing it! I’m irate the store isn’t stocking their shelves! I am angry at the stinking EPA for making the dish washing detergents Phosphate-Free!! (I bet none of the folks that run the EPA have hard water issues—they probably don’t even wash their own dishes for that matter or they wouldn’t have banned phosphates from our detergents!) The entire time we are at the store looking at dishwashers, I couldn’t help but think my parents had their dishwasher for 15+ years and NEVER had this problem. They just don’t make things like they use too do they?
We didn’t purchase a dishwasher that night—I was only there to educate myself. Adding to my frustration was the fact that not a single employee asked if they could help me. Guess they didn’t like the look on my face or the fire coming from my ears or maybe they saw the broom I flew in on!?
As a last ditch effort to save a few bucks, I contacted the local appliance retail store. We live in a small town and I know the owner. I explained to her my issues and all the things I have purchased and tried to try to fix my hard water issue. She told me the following things:
- Try using vinegar which is an acid to flush out the lime build up. She told me to pour the vinegar into the dispenser and some in the bottom of my dishwasher. (So I used a liter of vinegar. Couldn't hurt the darn thing.)
- If the vinegar didn’t work, she had a product (*sigh* yes, more products) that might work.
- If neither one of those things worked it might be time for a new dishwasher.
- She also mentioned gel/liquid dish washing products are not good for the machine. The gel doesn’t dissolve well in hot water so always use powder.
- If you have a front loading clothes washer, you should use a liquid detergent because your machine rinses in cold water and gel dissolves best in cold water.
- Lastly, she told me if I did need to purchase a new dishwasher not to spend $1,000+ on one because with our horrible Kentucky hard water, I would need to replace it in a few years due to lime build up. (I appreciated her honesty.)
With my new dishwasher/hard water knowledge, yesterday’s trial of using vinegar really helped. I did exactly what she told me to do and I could tell it helped as some of my dishes came out clean. I also went ahead and purchased her product (it certainly wasn’t going to hurt to try one more thing). This morning I ran a load of lemon juice in it as well. Can you tell I'm desperate!?
After weeks of trying 10 different product--it looks like I will be getting a new dishwasher. The last load of dishes turned out to be the worst yet.
So once I get a new dishwasher--will my dishes ever come clean? I’m not sure. All I know is I’ve spent a lot of money on detergents and cleaning products not to mention time and effort.
Loyalty and patience…not sure they are good qualities to have during a war against hard water and a dishwasher which was never worth saving but I can’t help it because I AM loyal and somewhat patient.
