Dishwasher the includes a water softener archived

We do and you'll have no gross residue on your dishes. We have the Bosch dishwasher. Miele makes one as well.

Miele is the other company I know of that has this option. Both are expensive, but yes it works.

How much more does that cost than a regular machine? My whole house softener cost less than 400 bucks and I put it in. Now my water heater, boiler, washer, etc. All benefit.

I have a water softener in my dishwasher. Its name is "vinegar."

We do the same as bluepool. A quarter cup of store brand white vinegar and our dishes sparkle.

We bought a new GE midrange dishwasher when we moved in to our new house in South Orange last fall. We were dismayed by the residue. The vinegar fixed the problem. We spend $1.50 on a new jug every month or so.

We have been using store brand white vinegar very happily; however, we noticed after a while that the dishwasher started having issues. We also noticed there is a warning in the instruction manual about using too much vinegar so wondered if we'd somehow screwed it up. Of course, the machine is also 10 years old, so there's that...Just wondering what other options we had. Believe me, I would love to just stay with good ole vinegar and may just buy a new machine and keep on with the vinegar.

Hmm, really? We use vinegar regularly in ours, which is 2 years old. I hope we're not doing damage.

Did the manual say what the potential problem was of using vinegar??

Just interested, how does a Dishwasher soften water? How does it remove the dissolved minerals in the water? Water softeners do it via ionic bonding at a molecular level and require salt and flushing to reverse the process and dispose of the minerals. Reverse Osmosis systems work, however are low volume systems and also require a flush-cleaning cycle.
Whole House filters do not soften water.
Anyone have an idea?

Hi PeggyC. I was told the manual mentioned using too much vinegar could be a problem. I also read online some dishwashers have limits on the type of vinegar being used, with some having a higher acid content than others. But I am starting to think this is really just the death of an old dishwasher...

jgberkeley, not sure how the softener works. Closest I came to an explanation: http://www.bosch-home.com/us/store/product/SoftenerSalt/00469559

Thanx, well now I know how it works.

Just like a whole house unit, only scaled smaller. So this has a ionic tank to bond with the dissovled minerals and will do a salt water charge to release and flush down the dishwasher drain system to remove the stuff.

Cool, lots of parts that are not on most dishwasher units.

Later, Da, George

They use salt. Our Miele takes a box of salt in the reservoir 2 or 3 times a year. There is a setting based upon the hardness of your water (get this from the water company) that controls its use.

BTW, a Miele tech told me vinegar can cause damage to the washer. I can't remember what, maybe the seals.

I wonder if one of those softeners installed under the sink before the supply lines for both the sink and the dishwasher would do any good? I have no idea whether that would work, or which approach would be more effective/less expensive.

mrincredible said:

We do the same as bluepool. A quarter cup of store brand white vinegar and our dishes sparkle.

I've been using closer to a cup; maybe I should try cutting that back and see if it impacts on the results...

We have a Fisher & Paykel that can hold softener/salts, as well as a separate rinse aid. Was told not to use vinegar, but if we did to run an empty load at full tilt (with detergent) immediately afterward.