I'm either the most clueless dishwasher user in the world, or this is truly a UK-only dishwasher phenomenon! Regardless, after almost four years in this country, I'm still amazed at the things I learn on a daily basis.We had a dinner guest over last nite, and in the course of pulling out a few wine glasses for drinks, Simon made the remark about how dingy the glasses looked. Our genius guest asked us if our dishwasher was just out of 'dishwasher salt', to which we both just sat there with what can only be described as 'huh?' written across our faces.
Our guest proceeded to hop up off the couch, walk into our kitchen & open our dishwasher. Where, in a matter of 2 seconds pointed out a covering in the bottom of the dishwasher marked 'Salt' (of course!) where you pour said salt.
Apparently, this is very common in the UK, but I've never heard about it until now.
Learn something new every day...
Just checked my dishwasher and I have a covering that says salt also. Should I buy dishwasher salt and pour it in to get rid of those water spots on my glasses? How often are you supposed to refill it? I had no idea!!
ReplyDeleteThey don't have that here but I think they have the same ingredient in some of the powders! Very funny though. Reminds me of another American who thought the small cubes of dishwasher powder were individually wrapped candies, and was just about to pop one in her mouth when her husband asked her what she was doing!
ReplyDeleteWe used to do that in Germany as well. I believe the US comparison are the clear rinse additives which you refill from time to time. The purpose is to change water chemistry during rinse to avoid staining during the dry cycle.
ReplyDeleteOurs has a liquid that we add for a 'clean, spot-free, rinse'. When it runs low it has a light that flashes to let us know. I would probably have gone around a UK supermarket looking for something liquid, not a salt!
ReplyDelete@AA/Jan...ours has a place for liquid too-which I've been using for ages(and hasn't made one difference). Will be curious to see how this salt-thing works.
ReplyDelete@Ashley...it can't hurt (I think...)? No clue how much to use-still trying to get over the shock of even adding salt to the dishwasher altogether!
Simon didn't seem to know about the salt either?? I guess you both learned something new, haha!
ReplyDeleteWishing you both a wonderful Christmas holiday! G
So I tried this today and I definitely did something wrong because my glass items and silver items had a million spots on them. Hopefully it will get better over time. oops!
ReplyDeleteAnother funny expat experience for the books! =)
@Ashley. oops. :) Seems like when we first added the salt, we had the same problem-but, after a few more runs of the dishwasher, the problem has auto-corrected. I wonder if we overfilled (maybe you too?..), and as it gets used, it fixes itself? Or something completely different. Who knows! :)
ReplyDelete@Gennifer...same to you (sorry for the delayed response!). Hope 2012 is going to treat you well here in the UK!