Dishwasher salt is meant to combat hard water by removing the trace amounts of calcium and magnesium that cause limescale when they're left behind. Meanwhile, rinse aid stops water from sticking to surfaces so easily, which stops water marks on your dishes.
Salt is needed to help balance the water and if no salt is present, you may find a cloudy film coated on your glassware and cutlery. Check salt levels often, especially if you live in a hard water area. Always add rinse aid to your dishwasher, it helps the drying process after the cycle has finished.
It depends on how hard your water is: Hard water: Your dishwasher needs dishwasher salt to clean as best as possible and prevent damage from limescale buildup. Moderately soft/slightly hard: All-in-one tabs are typically enough. Soft water: It's not necessary to add dishwasher salt.
After a while, limescale starts to appear in a dishwasher due to the water. This causes white stains on your glasses. Dishwasher salt removes the limescale from the water and prevents damage to your dishes.
You only need to add salt if if your water hardness level is above 38°F (French degrees) as the resin-based water softener needs salt to maintain its efficiency. Most metropolitan areas in Australia have soft to medium water.
"Some use electric heating coils, others raise the temperature of the water at the end of the cycle using the residual heat to dry, and others use a fan. But for optimal drying, every dishwasher manufacturer recommends rinse aid no matter how your machine works."
What does dishwasher salt do? It prevents limescale from building up in your dishwasher's filter, so it affects how clean your plates come out. If you find that your dishes are coming out 'streaky' or 'gritty' instead of sparkling clean, you might be running low on salt.
How often you should put salt in your dishwasher depends on the water hardness in your area. In hard water areas, you might need to refill the salt monthly. In soft water areas, you'll rarely need dishwasher salt. Helpfully, most dishwashers will have a salt refill indicator to let you know when it's time for a top-up.
While they are both called salt, and both consist of sodium chloride, dishwasher and table salt are not the same thing. So, you should never use table salt as a replacement for dishwasher salt. The dishwasher variety is a lot more coarse than regular table salt.
Use only dishwasher salt in your softener unit.
These cooking salts contain additives that might actually increase the hardness of your water. They may also be too fine, which could clog the unit.
Rinse aid isn't essential for your dishwasher to work. It certainly isn't as important to use as cleaning tablets or salt, for example. However, if you do use rinse aid, it can help to avoid watermarks and streaks on your glasses and dishes.
To clean your dishwasher with vinegar and baking soda for extra freshening, after running the vinegar cycle, sprinkle a cup of baking soda in the bottom of your empty dishwasher and run a short or quick cycle.
If you don't use rinse aid for dishwashing cycles, your dishes will still dry utilizing the heat from the dishwasher's dry cycle. However, you might experience water spots from water lingering for too long on each dish.
Use a Bowl of Vinegar
If you don't want to fill the dispenser, place a small dishwasher-safe bowl on the top rack of the dishwasher. Add one-half cup of distilled white vinegar and run the cleaning cycles as usual.
That's where rinse aids really are handy to finish off the job and make dishes sparkle. Just fill the rinse aid dispenser with a little white vinegar, or if you don't have a rinse aid dispenser just put a cup filled with vinegar upright in the bottom rack when you run the wash.
How Often Do I Refill the Rinse Aid? We recommend refilling the rinse aid dispenser once a month if you run your dishwasher pretty often. Or you can just top it off as needed—a lot of machines have a window that lets you see how much rinse aid is in the dispenser.
Water in the Salt Reservoir
When refilling the salt, it is common that as you pour the salt in, water floods out. This is absolutely nothing to be concerned about. After the first use, it is completely normal that there is water in the salt reservoir. As you pour new salt in, the water gets displaced and floods out.
Preparation and Use
If you have soft water, add 1/2 cup of citric acid to the container. If you have hard water, add 1 cup of citric acid to your container. Lastly, add 1/2 cup of (any kind of) salt to your container. Mix all ingredients together until well combined (sometimes I stir with a spoon…
Often the float switch is simply stuck in the “on” position, which prevents salt from flowing into the dishwasher. The easiest way to fix this is to simply replace the float switch.
If you have soft water, your glasses are spot-free, and you're satisfied with your dishwasher's drying abilities, you can do without a rinse agent. But, because "wet dishes" are the most frequent complaint among surveyed dishwasher owners, you should consider giving rinse aid a try.
Some people put vinegar in the rinse aid compartment, but the vinegar could compromise the integrity of the compartment's gaskets. To be on the safe side, put the vinegar in a dishwasher-safe bowl on the top rack of your dishwasher. (This also helps the vinegar reach the dishes most affected by hard water marks.)
With multi-benefit tablets such as Finish Quantum Ultimate and Finish All in One, rinse aid and salt functions are included. However, in very hard water areas we also recommend the use of separate Salt and Rinse aid products to protect your machine and achieve the best result.
A full dispenser typically holds about 5 oz (150-175 mL) of rinse aid and should last around a month, depending on dishwasher use.
Clean your dishwasher monthly to prevent a buildup of germs and maintain the efficiency of the machine — you want to make sure your dishes are clean! Pour distilled white vinegar into a dishwasher-safe cup (I usually use a two-cup Pyrex measuring cup), and place the cup upright on an empty dishwasher's top rack.