The water where I live in Vacaville is sooo hard! It wreaks havoc on my electric kettle, and I can only imagine what goes on inside my water-using appliances (I prefer not to think what it does to my hair color). Last fall my dishwasher was, basically, a mess. It’s a nice Kitchen Aid dishwasher, maybe five to seven years old, nothing fancy, but it wasn’t cheap, either. However, dishes were coming out of the dishwasher sludgier than they went in. My glasses had a haze on them, and there were little bits of…stuff…on everything. The stainless steel inside was all white and kind of crusty, and little tubes of hard water deposit were sticking out of the holes in the spray arms. It was even starting to get kind of stinky. It was icky. It was time for a new dishwasher.Financially, it was a lousy time to buy a new dishwasher. But I am not a fan of hand washing dishes. My husband doesn’t mind it—it’s sort of therapeutic for him. For me? Not so much. My motto is if it fits in the dishwasher it goes in the dishwasher (my other motto is that if I’m in a sleeping bag it’s not a vacation, but I guess that’s neither here nor there right now) . So a useless dishwasher needed to be remedied.
I started poking around on line, reading about dishwashers and detergent for hard water. And I found out some interesting things. One site talked about how many dishwashers are sold each year, and how so many of them would not be needed if people had ever heard of Dishwasher Magic (and no, it wasn’t the product website). It is my new favorite product, and I use it once a month. It stops hard water buildup, and even cleans off the old buildup. It comes in a plastic bottle that you put upside down in the cutlery rack, and then you run the dishwasher empty. The first time I bought it I got two bottles and used it twice to give the dishwasher a good dosing. I was amazed at the change! Truly, after the first two doses, it was like a new dishwasher. The stainless is shiny and clean again, and all the hard water buildup is gone. I use it once a month now, to keep everything up to snuff. I believe you can purchase it in Wal-Mart, but I buy it on Amazon.com, several bottles at a time.
Once my dishwasher was all pretty again inside, I stopped using liquid-gel dishwasher detergent. Apparently it makes the sludginess worse. Instead, I now use Cascade Complete, which comes with a blue and green swirl of dish soap and rinse aid (I guess), as well as powder detergent, all combined into one little cube-like pac. They are kind of expensive, but if you buy them in Costco it’s much more cost-efficient. Again—excellent product.
The last thing that I found is by Finish (they also make dishwasher detergent that I’ve never tried), and it is called Glass Magic. You pour about a quarter cup in the bottom of the dishwasher every so often, and it really keeps the glasses sparkly. You can buy Glass Magic on Amazon.com, but I’ve been getting it at Pacific Hardware here in Vacaville.
Now, a new dishwasher comparable to the one I have was going to be more than $700. That will buy an awful lot of Dishwasher Magic, Cascade Complete, and Glass Magic. Before I tried these products, I had to scrub the dishes and glasses with an SOS pad before we had company. Every day the dishes had to be checked, front and back, as they came out of the dishwasher, and we had some nasty surprises involving lettuce. In short, it was a total pain! I know it sounds a bit loony to be so excited about products like this, but they saved me a huge amount of annoyance and money. Now, thanks to Dishwasher Magic, Cascade Complete, and Glass Magic, when I take the dishes out of the dishwasher they are really clean. It’s delightful!
And, no, sadly, I am not a paid endorser.
2 comments: