You may have heard of hard water in relation to the area that you live in. Having hard water often means that your water will taste good, but unfortunately can cause spots on glass and surfaces, as well as causing a build-up in your dishwasher that can be difficult to remove by hand. So, what is it exactly, and what do we need to do to clean hard water build up and deposits in the dishwasher?
What is hard water?
In some areas, the water that comes out of your tap seeps through deposits of limestone and chalk, which are made up of carbonates. Soft water comes when there are low traces of these compounds, whereas hard water contains relatively high levels of calcium and magnesium, as well as other minerals. There is no health risk associated with this, but as mentioned, it can lead to hard water stains and limescale build up, as well as a reduction in your dishwashing detergent’s efficiency.
How to remove hard water stains
In your dishwasher, hard water can have two results – cloudy glasses, and limescale build up. For this, you can use Finish® Rinse Aid.
Finish® Rinse Aid
You can use Finish® Rinse Aid rinsing agent to tackle the water spots and film that come with hard-water stains for sparkling dishes, glasses and utensils in the following steps:
- Check whether your dishwasher has a built-in liquid rinse aid dispenser, which is usually located near the detergent cup(s).
- Fill your rinse aid dispenser with Finish® Rinse Aid and wipe up any spilled product.
- Finish® Rinse Aid is automatically released in the rinse cycle every time your dishwasher runs.
- We recommend keeping the Rinse Aid chamber always full. Check and top up monthly or, if red light blinks from your dishwasher, this is signalling low level of Rinse Aid. Please fill the Rinse Aid chamber when that happens.
How to prevent hard water build up in the dishwasher
Although the above methods will help you to get rid of hard water build up in the dishwasher, it’s also important to take the necessary measures to prevent hard water from building up in the first place. Making sure that your dishwasher is regularly cleaned is the perfect way to do this – just follow our simple steps below using Finish® Dishwasher Salt and Finish® Dishwasher Cleaner.
Finish® Dishwasher Cleaner
- Ensure that your machine is empty and do not use any other soap or detergent.
- Place the Finish® Dishwasher Cleaner bottle upside down while keeping the lid on the bottle (but, remove the sticker).
- Close the door and set the machine on its hottest cycle.
- Once the cycle is Finish-ed, remove the bottle, recycle it and your dishwasher will be at its optimum efficiency.
- Recommended usage is once per month. However, dishwasher cleaner can be used more frequently depending on dishwasher usage and/or when bad odours or machine malfunction problem arise.
The remove of hard water stains is an important step in dishwasher mainteance. Limescale can accumulate over time, therefore a citric acid dishwasher cleaner, like Finish® Dishwasher Cleaner is recommended to remove the build up.
